Priniting help: shoe box

Hi, I need to print a shoe box style box at 9x9x5.5in. I have the design ready, however I'm not certain how I should send the design to the printer. I have a continuous line running around the faces of the box such that it gets cut off at glue points, and is continued. Right now I drew the box spread open on a illustrator file, but i'm not certain if this is how the industry does it. Should i split up the box sides into different .ai files and send it to the printer? Also, I want the box to be kind of glossy. I'm going to include a note with the colors, dimensions, material and paint. Is there a more standard professional way to say 'standard paint with a gloss finish'? It would be extremely helpful if someone could provide a site with reference to this print stuff. Thanks a lot!

Chances are it'll be printed as one unfolded piece that will then be folded into a box so you'll want to send one piece of flat artwork. as we've said other times, call your printer If they print this sort of thing regularly they should have a template or dimensions for you to use, and if they don't this could be a nightmare to get printed correctly anyway so you REALLY need to talk to them. The gloss finish is primarily the paper/material choice, just tell them you want a glossy finish on the box.

Hi, yea I remember you telling me to contact the printer haha. Thing is, i'm doing this for my friend, who is in japan. So it is somewhat difficult to get the required info, but I will try. Thanks for you help again

Hi guys, when you are sending anything to a printer, its easy provided you treat them as children and give them a full lunchbox.

1. Give them ONLY ONE Proof, dont confuse them with updates, late changes or other.
2. If your work is in Spot color, Give them clear instruction to print in Spot colour, not in CMYK grouped with a second client, Some print house will delay until they can fill the press width or sheet size or canvas with multiple clients so they will often 'inhouse' create a CMYK file from your Spot colors. You will never achieve correct spot color this way, and worse, your client will reject.
3. If your working in CMYK, check the values of all tones and clearly mark the C:100, M:70, Y:45 K:20 etc. use the Pantone CMYK/Spot colour patches.

Hope this is a start,
More on this at our site as it can be extensive
http://www.australiasigns.com.au/signage_magazine_online.html


Also... make sure that your fonts are broken, converted to curves or created in outlines... this will eliminate the printer not loading your fonts and choosing something similar that suits them.

** send your files for the shoe box as an original Illustrator file including your registration points for the outside only.. Do not send the fold marks as final, Craftboard requires knowledge of the press equipment and how that press has been blueprinted to suit the die cutter, or if it has online speed registration systems. Better to pay the guy a couple of hundred to get it right to suit the machine.

** Varnish, if you can, choose a UV gloss varnish if the printer can print in UV, ask that the pressing/diecutting be completed in one pass. This will ensure that the varnish does crackle on some stocks.
*** Varnish, if not possible to use UV inks, go conventional LOW ODOUR, dont want a box that smells.

**** Setting you Die line.... create the dieline in a 'magenta M:100', the printer can colour separate any necessary film or die line path this way.


BillyTea

nice reply
thanks a lot

All excellent points, thanks BillyTea!

One point to try and drive home that Fig made and Billy is eluding to... something like a shoe box has to be die-cut. If the printer already has a die for this (if they don't it would be waaaayyyy too costly to produce, unless you're talking a huge run) they will have a template, or blank .ai file with the die lines, bleed edges, etc in it. USE THIS FILE to design to. Otherwise you will not likely be happy with the results, or they'll charge you for design time to fix your work.

Post the results when you're finished, we'd love to see the results!