Artwork for a specific piece
Packaging Artwork
Structure and surface together — the dieline drawn or checked, then the artwork laid so nothing dies at a fold.
What you get
- Dieline drawn or validated
- Artwork laid across every panel
- Finishes separated, fold and glue zones kept clear
- 3D visual of the built piece
- Print-ready PDF plus spec sheet
How it runs
Step 1
Send what you have
Your mark, your copy, and the piece it is going on.
Step 2
Layout
We lay it to the trim, the die and the finish, and flag anything that will not hold.
Step 3
Engineer
Separations, bleed, safety and tolerances set to our press floors.
Step 4
Hand over
Print-ready files and a spec sheet naming every tolerance.
What changes the price
These are the variables that move the number. There is no calculator — we read the file and quote it.
- Whether a dieline exists or has to be engineered
- Board weight and construction
- How many panels carry artwork
- How many finishes and where they land
- Whether the mark crosses a fold or a glue tab
The press standards that apply
Hairlines under 0.5 pt
A foil line finer than 0.5 pt either fills in or flakes off the sheet. We redraw thin strokes up to the floor rather than let them disappear.
Counters under 1.5 mm
The hole in an 'a' or an 'e' closes under pressure. Below 1.5 mm at final size it prints as a solid blob, so we open the counter or change the size.
Colours that touch
Two inks butted edge to edge show white at the join when registration moves. We pull them apart by 0.3 mm or trap them deliberately.
Gradients on foil or metal
Foil is one flat tone — it cannot fade. A gradient is redrawn as flat facets, or the foil is dropped and the fade printed in ink.
Islands in a laser cut
Any cut that fully encircles an area drops the middle out. We bridge it at 0.6 mm so the counter stays attached, or we do not cut it.
Inverted mono versions
A mark reversed out of a solid is not the same drawing — strokes gain weight and counters close. The mono version is drawn, not inverted.
More on the processes themselves: foil and metallics, emboss and letterpress and die-cut shapes.
Questions
Can artwork cross a fold on a box?
Flat ink can cross a fold; foil and emboss cannot. The foil cracks along the crease and the emboss flattens out, so we hold both 5 mm clear of every score.
Do you need a dieline before starting?
No. If you do not have one we draw it, sized to what goes inside, and validate glue tabs and tuck depth before any artwork is laid.
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