Rigid Setup Boxes.

It means the box is assembled at our factory and reaches you already erected. The name is the trade's older word for rigid packaging. Greyboard is cut, the corners are stayed to form a shell, and printed paper is wrapped over the outside and turned in over the edges to line the inside walls.

Two-piece, shoulder, drawer and hinged boxes all count as setup boxes in this sense, as long as they're fixed rather than collapsible.

Far more than a folding carton can take: bookcloth, handmade and laid papers, leatherette and stocks dyed all the way through. Because the wrap is glued over board instead of being creased itself, heavy and textured materials that would crack on a carton line work fine. Standard printed wraps are 128 to 157gsm litho paper.

Dyed-through stock is worth considering on dark boxes, since the colour runs right to the cut edge.

They're where the craft shows, and where a poor maker gets caught out. On a mitred corner the wrap is cut at an angle so it meets itself exactly, with no overlap or gap and no ridge of board showing through. The turn-in, where the wrap folds over the rim and down the inside wall, should be the same width all the way round.

We check both on the sample before a run starts.

Foil pressed into an uncoated wrap paper sinks in slightly and looks crisper than foil sitting on a laminate. The mass of board behind the wrap also supports a deeper emboss or deboss than a carton could hold, and edge painting can add a coloured rim to the lid.

For a sealed, wipeable surface we can still do soft-touch or gloss lamination with foil on top, printed in CMYK or PMS. The choice comes down to a textured paper feel or a coated one.

Every setup box is made to order from your product's measurements, so there's no stock list to pick from. We measure the inside cavity, length by width by depth, and choose the board from the span and the weight it has to carry, anywhere from 1.5 to 3mm greyboard. Larger lids get thicker board so they don't flex.

Our designers draw the dieline and send a flat proof for you to check, and that help is free.

You can start with just 30 setup boxes. Assembly is largely hand work, so the price per box doesn't fall as steeply with volume as it does on folding cartons, and the savings level off sooner. Small runs therefore make more sense in this format than in most.

We'll quote whatever quantities you're weighing so you can see that curve for yourself.

After proof approval, the run itself takes 7 to 10 business days. The rush option is 5 to 7 business days for launch dates that can't move. A pre-production sample is ready in 5 to 7 business days, and whatever you pay for it is deducted from the bulk order.

With cloth or handmade paper wraps, see the sample in person, since texture and colour vary more than they do on printed stock.

They travel fully assembled, so a carton of them is mostly air. A fixed setup box ships at its built volume, which means fewer boxes per carton and per pallet than a flat-packed alternative. On a large or long-distance order, freight often decides between fixed and collapsible before looks do.

What you get in return is a box with no crease lines and nothing to put together. We ship USA-wide either way and can quote both builds.