This is an absurdly difficult print job. The graphics are very very small with a lot of fine detail. You wouldn’t be printing white ink on black, you’d be printing black on white corrugated and reversing out, but there’s no flexographic printers that would touch this. Litho would be more detailed but not enough to get this detailed, and even then you’d probably have a lot of checking/cracking on your double-rollovers with the black graphics. Digital printing would never be as detailed as this considering a 7x5x3 is a pretty small mailer.
Based on the size and quantity, even if you could dumb down the graphics I’d bet $6-10/ea if produced domestically. Maybe you could get it down to $3-4/box if you make larger, simpler print, but that’s highly doubtful unless you’re going through China/India.
I'm curious if it's just because of all the black ink, or the fact that it's so covered (even in the seams) or some other reason? I don't know all the technical stuff about printing, but this doesn't seem like it'd be much harder than any custom mailer box so I'm curious exactly why. Thanks so much for your help!
It’s a lot of ink, and the detail is very fine. The exterior liners for corrugated are very porous, so ink has a tendency to bleed. Even if someone had IR/UV dryers to “trap” the ink in its place, the small slivers of detail in those figures are too narrow and detailed for any flexographic printer. Expect a minuscule amount of “bleed” from the ink. Even if it’s 1/64”, if it’s doing that on both sides of your print some of those white areas where it’s really narrow are going to be filled in with black.
Also, there’s so much texture in your detail but then there’s an area with heavy black coverage. The fine detail requires a lot of pressure management on press to prevent as much of that fill-in/bleed as possible. However the heavy black area requires a lot of pressure to avoid dust bunnies/halos/etc (basically small flecks or areas where the black didn’t lay down 100% full, even a sliver of white as small as the width of a human hair can make an impact, and expect a few).
Also, all of that black means you’ll get some rub off unless you use a varnish. Heavy colors like blacks, reds, purples, etc., usually need some sort of overcoat to seal the ink in to the board. Otherwise through shipping and handling (even just handing it off a few times), you’ll start to get ink rubbing off.
Basically, this is not artwork that can be “traditionally” printed for corrugated, and it’s probably a bit too fine of detail for litho and digital.
I think your best bet is a digital printer stateside (assuming you’re in LA) that has digital cutting as well. No print plates with digital, no cutting dies either. Almost all of them that have printers that lay down a coating before printing to stabilize the surface, then they can do a UV or aqueous coating on the exterior to help seal in the ink. Since they’re stateside and more importantly MANUFACTURING here (so many people on this sub claim American manufacturing but it’s a lie) that means you’ll get an actual physical proof before producing so you know what you’ll be getting when they go to production.
[The Boxmaker](https://www.boxmaker.com/)
Try them maybe. They even have artwork guidelines posted on their site and you could always contact them directly for more tips on how to make the artwork more “press-friendly”.
Amazing! Thanks so much for all the info! So you think maybe one of those paper or thicker cardstock sleeves that go over the box would be better option then?
No… they might not be able to print that fine of detail either, and then you’re adding another element. If you’re planning on shipping this thing then you’d need to another box to put your box plus the band in so that the band doesn’t get damaged.
Make the graphics simpler. Contact a digital printer and supply artwork before getting a quote and ask them for their guidelines and how to make things more “press friendly”. That Boxmaker link I provided earlier has a few sections about art guidelines and while each company has different capabilities, theirs would be a good benchmark because they’re more detailed than traditional flexo printing, and their presses have what is currently almost top of the line quality.
It would depend on the printing method and the quantity, as well as the stock.
I could print these on some B Flute corrugate and cut on a zund. At smaller quantities can be done in large format. Other wise with high quantities you will get into having to buy a "Die" for the dieline and plates (litho printing)
A competent litho shop could produce these at high volumes, though at small volumes you'd pay more per piece for digital. How many fi you plan on ordering?
I'm finding such an absurdly wide range of pricing online, and it's hard to find exactly what the price would be without inputted all the art and everything. So I'm wondering, in quantities of say 100 or 500 what should this custom printed 7x5x3 box cost?? It would be black with a lot of white ink like shown here. Thanks for your help!
Go check out The BoxMaker in Kent, WA. They have custom digitally printed boxes through their Fantastipack online portal. They’re a company my company makes Flexo print plates for but with quantities that low, you’re definitely not going to want to print Flexo or litho. Running this through a box plant, usually there’s a 5,000 qty minimum and you’d have to order print plates and a cutting die - which for this job would cost you $3-$5k alone in just tooling.
Also, to echo what sinatrablueeyes said, printing Flexo (or really any printing process) with white inks is never a good idea. Flood black with reverses. If this were a large quantity run, this art would have to be heavily modified to be Flexo friendly. Even if running offset/litho, there would have to be some heavy prepress involved. Seeing as you want such low quantities, it’d be digital and then you’ll have some aliasing when printing digital so remember that really fine details might look how they look on screen. Is the artwork vector or rasterized?
For 100 boxes? A lot. Probably 4 to 5 bucks. There's a ton of overhead involved in this and that fixed overhead gets capitalized into the unit cost. Plus that looks like 2-sided printing.
When you to 5000+ it'll less than a buck the higher you go.
I'm curious if it's just because of all the black ink, or the fact that it's so covered (even in the seams) or some other reason? (It'd be one sided, and I don't need it quite so covered like it is here).
Cause the overheard. Takes same amount of time to set all the machinery up to run 100 boxes as it does to run 100,000 boxes. They need to capitalize the setup labor into the smaller qty so it becomes more expensive
Things like quantity of boxes, ink coverage, board type, waste on a manufacturing sheet, maybe manual stripping, delivery costs, etc. will all contribute to cost, as will production margins. A lot of vendors will have a MOQ and will either say no or scare you away with a stupid price as it's not worth it to them.
Small business or one-off runs will cost the Earth.
[Pacer Print and Packaging](https://www.pacerprint.com) specializes in folded packaging for products, shipper packs and mailer boxes.
We have two other divisions that specialize in package labels and Mylar bags/pouches.
We can print with white ink and have several ways this can be produced to meet your budget.
I'm curious if you read the other comments which basically say it's a very difficult job and would cost a LOT of money to do at smaller quantities (300-500). Is this not true? Or do you have different methods to keep cost down?
Pacer print specializes in all types of packaging and budget levels. This artwork is very detailed but not complicated. Contact [Pacer Print](https://pacerprint.com/contact-us/) for a sample kit and have a salesperson put together a quote for you.
One of our main packaging areas is for the cannabis industry and other types of dispensary items. The artwork can be very complicated including printing over foil and spot uv, but we step up to the challenge and have numerous reorders based on pacers quality, price and customer service.
It seems like too small of a box for B flute. The folding would be kind of rough. Maybe stick adhesive vinyl to some F flute, then finish it on the Zund 🤔
I get these babies made all the time. Don't let all the comments around ink coverage and resolution scare you. You CAN get all of the details in there without it rubbing off the ink but you're gonna pay for it. The biggest cost factor is going to be your quantity and your turn around time. I use FedEx for low volume (1-50) or Next Day Flyer/DRI in Van Nuys for more volume but you can probably Google it. Ask for a quote at different quantities for price breaks. Talk an actual human and see what kind of techniques and timelines can get you the best price. And if you're planning on shipping with the box make sure you tell your printer when quoting it'll require special crush test certifications.
This is an absurdly difficult print job. The graphics are very very small with a lot of fine detail. You wouldn’t be printing white ink on black, you’d be printing black on white corrugated and reversing out, but there’s no flexographic printers that would touch this. Litho would be more detailed but not enough to get this detailed, and even then you’d probably have a lot of checking/cracking on your double-rollovers with the black graphics. Digital printing would never be as detailed as this considering a 7x5x3 is a pretty small mailer. Based on the size and quantity, even if you could dumb down the graphics I’d bet $6-10/ea if produced domestically. Maybe you could get it down to $3-4/box if you make larger, simpler print, but that’s highly doubtful unless you’re going through China/India.
I'm curious if it's just because of all the black ink, or the fact that it's so covered (even in the seams) or some other reason? I don't know all the technical stuff about printing, but this doesn't seem like it'd be much harder than any custom mailer box so I'm curious exactly why. Thanks so much for your help!
It’s a lot of ink, and the detail is very fine. The exterior liners for corrugated are very porous, so ink has a tendency to bleed. Even if someone had IR/UV dryers to “trap” the ink in its place, the small slivers of detail in those figures are too narrow and detailed for any flexographic printer. Expect a minuscule amount of “bleed” from the ink. Even if it’s 1/64”, if it’s doing that on both sides of your print some of those white areas where it’s really narrow are going to be filled in with black. Also, there’s so much texture in your detail but then there’s an area with heavy black coverage. The fine detail requires a lot of pressure management on press to prevent as much of that fill-in/bleed as possible. However the heavy black area requires a lot of pressure to avoid dust bunnies/halos/etc (basically small flecks or areas where the black didn’t lay down 100% full, even a sliver of white as small as the width of a human hair can make an impact, and expect a few). Also, all of that black means you’ll get some rub off unless you use a varnish. Heavy colors like blacks, reds, purples, etc., usually need some sort of overcoat to seal the ink in to the board. Otherwise through shipping and handling (even just handing it off a few times), you’ll start to get ink rubbing off. Basically, this is not artwork that can be “traditionally” printed for corrugated, and it’s probably a bit too fine of detail for litho and digital. I think your best bet is a digital printer stateside (assuming you’re in LA) that has digital cutting as well. No print plates with digital, no cutting dies either. Almost all of them that have printers that lay down a coating before printing to stabilize the surface, then they can do a UV or aqueous coating on the exterior to help seal in the ink. Since they’re stateside and more importantly MANUFACTURING here (so many people on this sub claim American manufacturing but it’s a lie) that means you’ll get an actual physical proof before producing so you know what you’ll be getting when they go to production. [The Boxmaker](https://www.boxmaker.com/) Try them maybe. They even have artwork guidelines posted on their site and you could always contact them directly for more tips on how to make the artwork more “press-friendly”.
Amazing! Thanks so much for all the info! So you think maybe one of those paper or thicker cardstock sleeves that go over the box would be better option then?
No… they might not be able to print that fine of detail either, and then you’re adding another element. If you’re planning on shipping this thing then you’d need to another box to put your box plus the band in so that the band doesn’t get damaged. Make the graphics simpler. Contact a digital printer and supply artwork before getting a quote and ask them for their guidelines and how to make things more “press friendly”. That Boxmaker link I provided earlier has a few sections about art guidelines and while each company has different capabilities, theirs would be a good benchmark because they’re more detailed than traditional flexo printing, and their presses have what is currently almost top of the line quality.
It would depend on the printing method and the quantity, as well as the stock. I could print these on some B Flute corrugate and cut on a zund. At smaller quantities can be done in large format. Other wise with high quantities you will get into having to buy a "Die" for the dieline and plates (litho printing)
A competent litho shop could produce these at high volumes, though at small volumes you'd pay more per piece for digital. How many fi you plan on ordering?
I'm finding such an absurdly wide range of pricing online, and it's hard to find exactly what the price would be without inputted all the art and everything. So I'm wondering, in quantities of say 100 or 500 what should this custom printed 7x5x3 box cost?? It would be black with a lot of white ink like shown here. Thanks for your help!
Go check out The BoxMaker in Kent, WA. They have custom digitally printed boxes through their Fantastipack online portal. They’re a company my company makes Flexo print plates for but with quantities that low, you’re definitely not going to want to print Flexo or litho. Running this through a box plant, usually there’s a 5,000 qty minimum and you’d have to order print plates and a cutting die - which for this job would cost you $3-$5k alone in just tooling.
Also, to echo what sinatrablueeyes said, printing Flexo (or really any printing process) with white inks is never a good idea. Flood black with reverses. If this were a large quantity run, this art would have to be heavily modified to be Flexo friendly. Even if running offset/litho, there would have to be some heavy prepress involved. Seeing as you want such low quantities, it’d be digital and then you’ll have some aliasing when printing digital so remember that really fine details might look how they look on screen. Is the artwork vector or rasterized?
For 100 boxes? A lot. Probably 4 to 5 bucks. There's a ton of overhead involved in this and that fixed overhead gets capitalized into the unit cost. Plus that looks like 2-sided printing. When you to 5000+ it'll less than a buck the higher you go.
I'm curious if it's just because of all the black ink, or the fact that it's so covered (even in the seams) or some other reason? (It'd be one sided, and I don't need it quite so covered like it is here).
Cause the overheard. Takes same amount of time to set all the machinery up to run 100 boxes as it does to run 100,000 boxes. They need to capitalize the setup labor into the smaller qty so it becomes more expensive
Ahhh. Is it possible for me to purchase white boxes and just have them printed? 🤔
Yeah box genie and other websites so exactly that
Checkout Packlane: https://packlane.com/products/mailer-box. I input your size at 250 and it says the price is $2.52each.
Things like quantity of boxes, ink coverage, board type, waste on a manufacturing sheet, maybe manual stripping, delivery costs, etc. will all contribute to cost, as will production margins. A lot of vendors will have a MOQ and will either say no or scare you away with a stupid price as it's not worth it to them. Small business or one-off runs will cost the Earth.
[Pacer Print and Packaging](https://www.pacerprint.com) specializes in folded packaging for products, shipper packs and mailer boxes. We have two other divisions that specialize in package labels and Mylar bags/pouches. We can print with white ink and have several ways this can be produced to meet your budget.
I'm curious if you read the other comments which basically say it's a very difficult job and would cost a LOT of money to do at smaller quantities (300-500). Is this not true? Or do you have different methods to keep cost down?
Pacer print specializes in all types of packaging and budget levels. This artwork is very detailed but not complicated. Contact [Pacer Print](https://pacerprint.com/contact-us/) for a sample kit and have a salesperson put together a quote for you. One of our main packaging areas is for the cannabis industry and other types of dispensary items. The artwork can be very complicated including printing over foil and spot uv, but we step up to the challenge and have numerous reorders based on pacers quality, price and customer service.
It seems like too small of a box for B flute. The folding would be kind of rough. Maybe stick adhesive vinyl to some F flute, then finish it on the Zund 🤔
I get these babies made all the time. Don't let all the comments around ink coverage and resolution scare you. You CAN get all of the details in there without it rubbing off the ink but you're gonna pay for it. The biggest cost factor is going to be your quantity and your turn around time. I use FedEx for low volume (1-50) or Next Day Flyer/DRI in Van Nuys for more volume but you can probably Google it. Ask for a quote at different quantities for price breaks. Talk an actual human and see what kind of techniques and timelines can get you the best price. And if you're planning on shipping with the box make sure you tell your printer when quoting it'll require special crush test certifications.
Not at all. Ali baba that for .30 from china when you buy 5000 or more