What is a dieline?
A dieline is the flat outline of a package before it is cut and folded. It shows the printer where to cut, where to fold, and where your artwork is safe. Every box, bag and pouch starts as one.
Why you need one
A designer places the artwork on top of the dieline, so the logo lands on the front and not on a seal or a fold. The printer and the die-maker use the same file to make the cutting tool and to set up the machine. One drawing, shared by everyone, means the finished pack looks the way it did on screen.
What the lines mean
- Cut — the outline that is cut. Solid red on our dielines.
- Crease — a fold line pressed into board. Dashed green. Boxes have them; film bags and pouches usually don't.
- Safe area — keep text and logos inside it. Outside it are seals, zippers, folds and the small shift every machine has. Dashed blue.
- Guides — gray technical marks such as gusset folds, tear lines or adhesive strips. They help you plan the design and are not printed.
Each kind of line sits on its own layer in the PDF, so you can hide or lock them while you design.
Sizes are the finished pack
You enter the size of the finished bag or box — width, height, gusset — and the dieline works out the flat layout around it: the back panel, the gusset, the seals, the lip. For boxes it also allows for the board thickness at every fold, so the lid still closes.
How to hand it to a printer
- Download the PDF. It is vector and at true size, so it opens in Illustrator, Acrobat and most prepress tools without scaling.
- Put your artwork on a layer of its own, above or below the dieline layers.
- Let background colours and images run a little past the cut line — most printers ask for about 3 mm (⅛ in) of bleed.
- Send the file with the dieline layers still in it. The printer will switch them to non-printing or replace them with their own.
Every printer has its own house rules. When they send you their template or a checklist, theirs wins.
Make one
Pick a shape on the home page, type your sizes and download the PDF. It is free, and you don't need an account.