How Your Business Can Print Packaging

Having some kind of personalized packaging is crucial if you're shipping goods to clients, regardless of your business type—print shop, brand, etc. When the package arrives at their door, it serves as their initial point of contact and introduction to your company. Which would you prefer: sending your items in bespoke boxes or plain cardboard boxes? We'll then walk you through the simple process of printing your personalized box packaging.

You don't need to perform a full-screen printing operation to accomplish this. With just three simple tools—ink, a squeegee, and an exposed screen—you could accomplish this. At the very least, you ought to be operating a low-cost, entry-level single-station screen printing press. Furthermore, the results it produces will be far cleaner, more consistent, and more polished. Click here for Perfume Bottle Packaging Box.

1. Recognize the size of the gift box you must ship your items in

Determining the size of the gift box you need to ship your items in should be your first step. Ten 8 x 6 boxes, which can hold a hoodie and a few shirts or a bunch of shirts and a few hats, can likely fit 80% or more of the orders. We must measure all of this box's printable surface areas, which include the top and bottom flaps, to determine how big to make it. The front and side panels are shaped like a box. You'll need a ruler to measure the box's outer edges to accomplish that. Then comes the much more challenging task of measuring each tiny individual panel. Taking a quick pre-fold to create some creases in your box before laying it out and using those as a guide to measure is a simple and quick way to accomplish that.

2. Size measurements

Using those measurements, make a template in Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Affinity, or any other program of your choice. As long as the graphic software is vector-based, this vector-based approach will function. Launch Adobe Illustrator and create an artboard that fits the box's exterior measurements. Next, select the Rectangle Tool and create rectangles on the box that match the dimensions of the panels we measured. Organize them appropriately. After selecting every rectangle with a click and drag, use the right-click menu to select "Make Guides." Add a background layer to make it resemble a box since you have a lovely little template set up here. We can now simply copy and paste the artwork and arrange it as you see fit to ensure that it prints properly on these panels.

3. The creation of artwork

The hardest aspect of the entire process will be creating the artwork, particularly if you're a novice. Because you are printing on a somewhat harder surface that doesn't absorb a lot of ink, you should choose a mesh size for your screen that is between 280 and 305. The goal is to achieve a thin, crispy layer of ink, so avoid packing too much down there. You are using less ink, the higher the mesh count. Additionally, we will be printing these using water-based ink, which is generally quite thin. We are using water-based ink because it will penetrate and adhere to the cardboard, which is why we don't want this print to come off or be damaged in transit; instead, we want it to look great when it is delivered to the customer. Another reason is that this ink will eventually air dry for those who use the bare minimum of setup. Having a dryer, flash, heat gun, or even blow dryer in your home is not a concern. After letting this material sit for a while, it will finally dry out and become touchable and shippable.

4. When you first start, what should you focus on?

Always apply a thin coat of brand-new, water-based adhesive to the pallet before beginning. When it comes to aligning and maintaining order as you print, it is helpful. Selecting a location on the pallet where you can easily lay down your box again is something else to consider before you begin. You can draw lines with tape or a marker, or, to keep things even simpler, just line up the box using the pallet's front and side edges. If you have done the design part of it correctly, aligning your artwork within the box should be fairly simple. To make lining them up even easier, if you had been particularly clever during that step, you would have added registration marks to the center of each of these objects.

Give yourself a little bit of contact from the box when printing these. A sixteenth of an inch to an eighth of an inch is about as much as you need, and that is the maximum amount you require. You can use a push or pull stroke on the print, depending on which is more comfortable for you. Make use of a push stroke if your motion is more natural.

There will be a seam somewhere in them. When you perform the entire push stroke, keep in mind that you are pressing, setting up your artwork, and continuing to press for your squeegee to glide effortlessly over the top of this seam as you push it. You would be pushing and catching into that seam if you had it backward. Additionally, if you've never used water-based ink before, don't leave your screen open for longer than, say, twenty to thirty seconds. If you have to step away from your press for a while, simply take it, fill it up, and move on. because it dries out very quickly.

There are some ways to fix this now that you have your printout. The simplest and most effective way to accomplish this if you're a screen printer with a whole setup is to simply run this through your dryer. No matter how you set this thing up, they will inevitably come out of there a little curly. Since you're essentially rapidly removing all of the moisture from the cardboard, they flatten out entirely again and flash, hot and dangerous, but only after they've sat for 30 or 60 minutes. Furthermore, if you're not paying attention, this is a pretty quick way to burn down the cardboard. Using a heat gun is the third method, which is quite self-explanatory. Switch on the heat and go for it. The easiest way to let these things air dry is to take your box, open it, put it on the floor, and then just come back now and then to check it and give it a quick finger dab. This is the fourth and most labor-intensive method. You can print the other side once it is no longer sticky.

When you're finished, simply scoop the leftover ink back into the container, scrub your screen, rinse it under water, allow it to dry, place it back on the shelf, and store it for later.