Candle Boxes with Window.

Over the wax and the pour surface, with the vessel's own label framed inside the opening rather than cut off at an edge. The window is there to show the colour of the candle and the finish of the pour, so we place the aperture from a measurement of your filled jar at its seated height in the carton.

Keep the scent name on the panel beside the window. Shoppers read the colour through the film and then look for the fragrance, and the two need to sit together.

Only when the aperture runs too close to a corner, a score line or the closure flap. We keep a band of uncut board around every edge of the panel so the corners still carry stacking load, and the patched film adds some stiffness back across the opening. An oversized window is the usual cause of a carton that bows on the shelf.

On 18 to 24pt board, a front-panel window of moderate size makes no practical difference to how the box handles.

We use clear PET film, patched to the inside of the panel before the carton is folded and glued. PET keeps its clarity after a box has been picked up and turned over a few dozen times on a retail table. It's bonded around the aperture with a narrow glue margin so it sits flat and doesn't ripple.

For boutique counters where scent sells as much as colour, an open aperture with no film lets the fragrance through. We'd keep film on anything that ships.

A foil frame around the edge of the aperture does more for a windowed box than any other finish. It pulls the eye to the wax, and the rest of the panel can stay quiet in matte or soft-touch lamination. Spot UV, embossing and CMYK or PMS print are all available on the board around it.

The aperture itself can be an arch, an oval, a circle or a brand silhouette, since it is cut by the same die as the carton. Very thin bridges of board are the only real limit.

Most run from 3.5 by 3.5 by 4 inches up to 4.5 by 4.5 by 5 inches, and every size is quoted from the inside dimensions. Give us the jar's widest diameter and its height with the lid fitted. Height matters more here than on a plain carton, because the aperture has to sit over the wax line of the filled jar.

If the vessel is short for the box, a collar insert underneath can lift it up into the window.

It can travel inside a mailer, but we would not send a windowed carton through the post on its own. The PET film keeps dust and fingers off the wax, yet a courier's conveyor will dent the panel around the opening. A snug collar insert stops the jar pressing against the film when the parcel is dropped.

For direct-to-consumer orders we usually pair the retail box with a plain corrugated shipper sized a little larger than the carton.

Our smallest run for a windowed candle box is 500 pieces per design. The window die and the film patching are set up once for the run, so a single design at 500 spreads that setup sensibly across the boxes. The same tooling carries orders right up to 100,000.

Several scents can share one printed carton, with the fragrance named on a sticker or a printed band, which keeps a small range inside one minimum.

Plan on 7 to 10 business days of production after you sign off the proof. If you're up against a launch date, a rush run can finish in 5 to 7 business days. We'd suggest a physical sample first on a windowed job, since it confirms the aperture lands over the wax, and samples take 5 to 7 business days.

What you pay for the sample comes off the bulk invoice, and delivery covers anywhere in the USA.