Free Printable Box Template Library

In the print dialog choose 100%, Actual size or No scaling, never Fit to page. Then measure the 1 in square and the 25 mm square on the first page. If they are off, the printer scaled the page and the box will not fit its lid or sleeve.

Choose Letter in the US and Canada and A4 almost everywhere else. A box that is bigger than one sheet is split over several pages with a small overlap. Line up the corner marks, tape the pages on the back, and cut through both layers at once.

Plain printer paper is too soft for a box. Use cover weight card stock: 65 to 80 lb cover (about 176 to 216 gsm) works for small boxes with many folds, and 100 to 110 lb cover (about 270 to 300 gsm) for gift boxes, cookie boxes and anything that carries weight. Check that your printer takes the weight before you buy a pack.

Each template is sized for 18 pt paperboard, the board a packaging printer would use. Card stock is thinner, so a home made box comes out a fraction of a millimeter to about 1 mm larger, which suits most gifts. For a tight fit, open the box in the dieline generator and enter your stock under Board.

A box with a lid is two trays: a base and a slightly bigger lid. Each tray has a floor, four walls and corner flaps on the long walls that glue inside the end walls, the classic ECMA B40.20.00.00 tray.

The lid is drawn from the outside of the base plus a clearance of 2 mm (about 1/16 in), the same default as templatemaker.nl, so it slides on without rattling. Its walls are half as tall as the base by default; make them as tall as the base for a full telescope box. Both are settings in the dieline generator.

A drawer box is a tray that slides inside a sleeve. The tray is the same glued tray as the base of a box with a lid. The sleeve is a tube of four panels and a glue flap, drawn from the outside of the tray plus 2 mm so the drawer moves freely.

The side panel across from the glue flap is one board thickness narrower, so the tube closes square, the same rule a tuck end box uses. Glue the sleeve first and let it dry flat, then fold the tray, glue its corner flaps and slide it in. The matchbox box template is the smallest one.

Download the Cricut file and upload it to Design Space. Each piece arrives as a group with a closed cut path and a score layer. Select the score layer, change its operation from Basic Cut to Score, select it with its cut layer and press Attach, so the machine scores and cuts in the same place.

A 12 × 12 in mat cuts up to 11.5 × 11.5 in, so most templates fit one piece per mat. The tea box and the 3 in cube net need a 12 × 24 in mat, and the 12 oz and family size cereal boxes are bigger than any mat, so print them on pages and cut them by hand. Silhouette Studio and other cutting programs open the same SVG at true size.

Tuck end boxes close with a tuck flap at each end and need only one glue seam. A reverse tuck end box puts its two tucks on opposite sides and suits card decks, lipstick and perfume; a straight tuck end box opens the same way at both ends, like a cereal box.

The card box templates add a thumb notch so the tuck is easy to open. Deck thickness depends on the card stock, so stack your cards, measure them, and adjust the size in the dieline generator if the preset is not right.