What is a regular slotted carton?

It is the ordinary cardboard box — the trade calls it an RSC, or FEFCO 0201. Four walls joined by one glue tab, and four flaps at each end, every flap half the width of the box deep. The two long flaps meet exactly down the middle and are taped; the two short ones fold in underneath them.

Are the sizes inside or outside?

Inside. Each wall panel is one board thickness wider than the space it encloses, because the board has to go round the corners, and the depth panel is two thicknesses deeper, because the inner flaps fold down inside it at the top and the bottom. Set the material thickness to your board and the space you typed is the space you get.

Will it print on one sheet?

At the size it opens with, 75 × 50 × 60 mm inside, the drawing is 267 × 112 mm and fits A4 or US Letter turned sideways. A real parcel box is far bigger than any printer: use the DXF on a cutting machine, split the PDF across sheets and trace it onto corrugated board, or simply mark the measurements straight onto the board.

Why are there slots between the flaps?

So the flaps can fold past each other. Each slot is a board thick on either side of the crease; without it neighbouring flaps jam against each other at the corners and the box will not close flat.

Shipping Box Template — RSC Slotted Carton

The shipping carton template, flat and folded

Shipping carton template — free printable dieline with cut and fold lines, any size — The printable dieline at its standard size. Type your own size above for yours.

Shipping carton folded up from the template — the finished box — The box it folds into.

What this template is for

The ordinary cardboard box: four walls, one glue tab, and four flaps at each end that close with tape. The long flaps meet down the middle. Parcels, moving, storage and product shipping.

Also called shipping box template · RSC box · cardboard box template · moving box — all the same shape, and this is it.

Parcels and online-shop orders
Moving and storage boxes
Product shipping cartons
Outer cartons for gift boxes

How to use this template

All four downloads are the same shipping carton at the same size — only the format changes.

PDF printing at home: Print at 100 per cent, or hand it to a print shop as "actual size, no scaling".
PNG 300 dpi Canva, Photoshop, Procreate: Upload, lock it in place and design your shipping carton on top. Free plan and phone included. Full Canva walkthrough →
SVG Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity: Vector, with cuts, folds and labels on separate layers. Cricut and Silhouette walkthrough →
DXF Silhouette, laser and vinyl cutters: Two layers, CUT and FOLD — and the one free Silhouette Studio Basic will open.

Getting it printed properly →

Printing it

Type your size above, then download the PDF.
Print at 100% — never “fit to page”, or every measurement comes out wrong.
Too big for the paper? Tick Split across several sheets: it tiles across as many as it needs, with overlaps and matching letters to tape together.

How to put it together

These pictures are the shipping carton itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.

Cut the solid lines
Every solid line is a cut. Do the inside shapes first, while the sheet is still whole and easy to hold.
Score every dashed line
Dashed lines are folds. Score each one first — an empty ballpoint against a ruler — or the card cracks along the outside of the bend.
Fold, glue and hold
Glue the tab to the inside of the far END panel to make a tube. Close the bottom first: fold the two short inner flaps in, then the two long outer flaps over them so they meet in the middle, and tape along the seam. Fill it, then close the top the same way.

Glue: a glue stick for paper, white PVA on card — hold each seam thirty seconds, and let the box dry standing up.

Questions about the shipping carton

What is a regular slotted carton?: It is the ordinary cardboard box — the trade calls it an RSC, or FEFCO 0201. Four walls joined by one glue tab, and four flaps at each end, every flap half the width of the box deep. The two long flaps meet exactly down the middle and are taped; the two short ones fold in underneath them.
Are the sizes inside or outside?: Inside. Each wall panel is one board thickness wider than the space it encloses, because the board has to go round the corners, and the depth panel is two thicknesses deeper, because the inner flaps fold down inside it at the top and the bottom. Set the material thickness to your board and the space you typed is the space you get.
Will it print on one sheet?: At the size it opens with, 75 × 50 × 60 mm inside, the drawing is 267 × 112 mm and fits A4 or US Letter turned sideways. A real parcel box is far bigger than any printer: use the DXF on a cutting machine, split the PDF across sheets and trace it onto corrugated board, or simply mark the measurements straight onto the board.
Why are there slots between the flaps?: So the flaps can fold past each other. Each slot is a board thick on either side of the crease; without it neighbouring flaps jam against each other at the corners and the box will not close flat.

Print your own design on it

Add a logo, photo or pattern in the panel on the left and drag it onto the shipping carton. It is trimmed to the cut outline, embedded properly in the PDF, and never leaves your computer — most free template sites hand you the outline and stop there. How printing your own design works.

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