PremiumBespokeArtisanLuxuryCustom Tuck Boxes

Straight tuck has both flaps folding toward the back panel. Reverse tuck has them folding in opposite directions, top to the back and bottom to the front.

Straight tuck gives a clean front face with no visible slot, which is why cosmetics and pharmaceutical cartons favour it. Reverse tuck erects more readily on automated lines, which is why it is the most-produced carton structure in the world. The trade-off is a tuck slot visible on the front panel.

Reverse tuck, almost always, because machine erectors are commonly configured for it.

Alternating tuck directions mean the carton squares up more predictably from flat, which matters at hundreds of cartons a minute. Specifying straight tuck on a line built for reverse can mean jams and downtime. The filling operation rather than the designer should have the final say, and the cheapest structure is usually the one the existing line already runs.

A carton with pre-glued base flaps that fold and lock automatically as the box is erected, spreading load across the whole base panel.

It exists because tuck bottoms fail under weight, usually in a warehouse stack rather than on a shelf, and usually onto the floor. Anything above roughly a pound, and anything in glass, should use an auto-bottom or a lock-bottom. The auto version also erects in one motion, which is meaningfully faster on a hand-packing bench.

A hand-erected base where three flaps interlock in sequence. Fold one, fold two, fold three, and the base locks.

The trade also calls it a snap-lock or lock-bottom. It gives most of an auto-bottom's load performance without the gluing step, so the carton costs less but takes a few seconds longer to assemble. Volume decides which is cheaper overall: low volumes favour the cheaper carton, high volumes favour the faster one.

14pt to 24pt SBS covers most retail work, with caliper chosen by contents weight and panel span.

Eighteen point is the general retail standard. Tall narrow cartons for mascara, pencils and slim bottles need 20pt or more because the board is doing structural work a wider box would not ask of it. Anything over about a foot in span wants heavier board or a flute upgrade against bowing.

Yes, and if the product is used over weeks it is worth specifying tuck locks.

Slit locks or friction locks on the tuck flap hold the carton closed through repeated opening, where a plain tuck gradually loosens. It is a small die detail with a real effect on how a product feels through its life. A bandage box or a tea carton that gapes open after a week reads as cheap regardless of how it looked on the shelf.

SBS is bleached white board with a bright coated print surface. Kraft is unbleached brown board, stronger per caliper but limited in colour reproduction.

SBS reproduces brand colours accurately and supports photography. Kraft shifts every colour, cannot produce whites without an underprint, and works best with one or two colours and bold marks. Kraft's longer virgin fibres also make it stiffer than bleached board at the same caliper, which is a genuine structural advantage.

500 units, with 7–10 business days production.

Tuck cartons are the most economical custom packaging format available, because the structures are standard and the dies are simple. Below 500, digital printing can produce short runs at a higher unit price, which suits products testing demand before committing to a full offset run.