Folding Carton Dieline Generator

Introduction

A dieline is the 1:1 flat sheet a die-maker cuts from. Red lines are cut edges, green dashed lines are creases, orange dash-dot lines carry the print bleed, and blue dashed frames keep type and barcodes away from the trim. This page flattens a folding carton from a length, width and height, and redraws the whole sheet the moment a field on the left changes, so a two-millimetre revision does not send anyone back to measuring panels in Illustrator. Ten styles are available. Straight tuck, reverse tuck and tuck-top lock-bottom cover everyday cartons; a sleeve, a window carton and a tear-strip carton each build their own flap arrangement. A drawer box adds a second blank for the inner tray, a lid-and-base carton splits the lid into its own blank, a mailer adds side lock wings, and a gable top adds a roof crease plus a handle slot.

The structure is a set of separate fields rather than one derived bundle. A glue tab can be bevelled or square; tab width, tuck length, corner chamfer, dust flap depth, closure depth and clearance each take their own number. Nick width and nick count decide whether the blank stays in one piece after die-cutting; a handle slot and vent holes sit on their own layers; the corner radius drives both the window and the cut holes; crease inset compensates for thick board. Cut corners can be round, mitered or bevelled. Every layer has its own colour and stroke width, and dash length and gap are separate inputs. Input units switch between millimetres, centimetres and inches while label units are chosen independently; the vector file stays in millimetres at true size.

Press values are quantifiable too. Registration arm length and offset from the trim, crop mark length, plate number, grain direction, finishing and ink coverage are all fields, and each one is written into the drawing legend, the spec sheet and the exports. The imposition estimate no longer uses a single bounding rectangle: columns, rows, gripper, trim allowance, waste rate and sheet orientation all feed it, and board cost is reported both bare and with the overs allowance. When a value looks wrong the panel says which one, whether a nick wider than 1.5 mm will be hard to break, cross grain on a tall body, or artwork short of the target DPI.

Artwork is managed per face. Select several images at once and they are assigned in order to the front, back, left, right, top and bottom, or pick one face and upload a single file. PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, BMP, SVG, SVGZ, AVIF, APNG, ICO and TIFF are accepted; SVG is stripped of scripts before it is stored, and TIFF or ICO files the browser cannot decode are handled by the page itself. Drop into the dashed area or press Ctrl+V. Fit modes cover stretch, contain, cover and tile, with flip, tile gap, blend mode, scale, offset, rotation and opacity on top. The right-hand panel switches between the flat drawing and a 3D box whose lighting, background, fold speed and default zoom are editable. Parameter changes can be undone and the whole setup can be written into a shareable link.

Fifteen exports are available: layered SVG, PDF with layers a printer can toggle, EPS, Illustrator-compatible EPS, DXF and gzipped SVGZ; four raster formats in PNG, JPG, WebP and TIFF; a 3D image, a JSON config, a CSV board sheet, a plain-text spec sheet and a ZIP bundle. The spec sheet lays out body, flat size, board, structure, print, imposition, cost, segment counts and printer notes in a text file that can be checked line by line. The data panel under the drawing lists flat size, cut and crease segment counts, nicks, holes, press marks, the minimum artwork width at the target DPI and cost with waste, so the numbers can be checked before anything is sent out.

Key features

• Ten carton styles: Straight tuck, reverse tuck, lock bottom, sleeve, window and tear-strip cartons, plus a drawer with an inner tray blank, a lid-and-base pair, a mailer with lock wings and a gable top with a handle.
• Die-cut values by field: Nick width and count, handle slot, vent holes, corner radius, lock clearance, crease inset and cut corner join are separate inputs, each drawn on its own layer.
• Measurable press marks: Registration arm and offset, crop length, plate number, grain, finishing and ink coverage appear in the drawing, the spec sheet and the exports instead of being fixed crosses.
• Eleven artwork formats: PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, BMP, SVG, SVGZ, AVIF, APNG, ICO and TIFF, with batch assignment per face, drop and paste, SVG sanitising and a DPI check.
• Imposition with gripper: Columns, rows, gripper, trim, waste rate and sheet orientation feed the estimate; bare cost and cost with waste are both shown, and an oversized grid is flagged.
• Fifteen exports and a studio: Layered vectors, print rasters, a spec sheet, config and a full bundle; the 3D studio has adjustable light and background, with undo, redo and a share link.

How to use it

1. Enter sizes or pick a template: Length is the front width, width is the depth, height is the body. Choose mm, cm or inches, or press Apply template for one of six trade sizes covering pharma, cosmetics, food, electronics, mailers and gifts.
2. Choose style and structure: Pick one of ten styles. Blank flap values fall back to derived ones; fill in what needs changing. Nicks, handle, vent holes, corner radius and crease inset live under flaps and structure.
3. Set linework and print: Three millimetres of bleed and five of safe margin are common starting points. Switch to custom colours when the four palettes are not enough, then fill registration, crop, plate number, grain and finishing.
4. Build and read the numbers: Press Build dieline. The flat sheet appears on the right; the panel below lists flat size, cut and crease counts, nicks, holes, imposition, usage and cost with waste, naming anything out of range.
5. Check artwork and 3D: Pick a face and upload one image, or select several for automatic assignment. Switch to 3D, drag the fold slider and rotate the box to see artwork placement and flap clashes; adjust light and background in the studio.
6. Export and hand over: Cut dies from SVG, PDF, EPS, AI or DXF; send previews as PNG, JPG, WebP, TIFF or a 3D image; reconcile with CSV or the text spec; take everything in a ZIP. A share link carries the whole setup.

Things to keep in mind

• Dimensions are internal: Enter the finished internal size. Board thickness makes the outside larger, so confirm the allowance with the die-maker; crease inset only shifts the fold line and does not replace an opening-out calculation.
• Bleed sits outside the cut: Bleed extends beyond the trim, never along a crease. Extend solid backgrounds past the orange line yourself and keep text off the crease inside the safe frame.
• Rasters are not dies: PNG, JPG, WebP, TIFF and the 3D image are screen previews with no vector paths and no millimetre scale. Cut dies from SVG, PDF, EPS, AI or DXF.
• Let the printer confirm the lay: Usage uses the bleed-inclusive bounding rectangle plus trim, with the gripper deducted; the imposition gap changes how many blanks fit on a sheet. Ask the printer to confirm gripper edge, grain and the actual overs before ordering board.
• Artwork is off by default: Press dielines omit artwork; tick the artwork layer when it should be included. SVG is sanitised, and HEIC, PSD, AI and PDF files should be converted to PNG before upload.
• Check process values on press: Nick width, tuck thickness after laminating, ink coverage and grain are parameters for the printer. Match them to the actual board and press before the run.

Every trade value above lands in the exported spec sheet as a labelled number, so the die-maker and the purchasing desk read the same figures. The drawing itself never scales: one SVG user unit is one millimetre.

Raster exports are capped to keep the browser responsive. A TIFF written here is an uncompressed RGB baseline file with 300 DPI tags; it is a preview for layout review, not a separated press plate.