The Custom Packaging Glossary: 30 Terms to Know Before Ordering

Why the vocabulary matters

Packaging quotes are written in a trade vocabulary — flute, ECT, dieline, bleed, litho-lam. You do not need to speak it fluently, but knowing the thirty terms below means you can read your own quote, catch a wrong specification, and talk to a supplier without being talked past.

Structure and materials

• Dieline — the flat template of every cut, fold and glue tab
• Flute — the wavy corrugated core; E, B, C profiles by use
• ECT — edge crush test; stacking strength rating
• Burst strength — the pressure a board takes before failing
• SBS — solid bleached sulfate; premium white paperboard
• Kraft — unbleached natural board
• Chipboard — dense grey board used in rigid setup boxes
• Caliper — board thickness
• Single/double-wall — one or two fluted layers in corrugated
• Moulded pulp — pressed recycled fibre inserts

Print and finishing

• CMYK — four-colour process printing
• Pantone / PMS — spot colour system for exact brand matching
• Digital printing — no plates; short runs and fast changes
• Offset litho — plates; volume runs, lowest unit cost
• Flexography — relief printing used on corrugated
• Litho-lamination — carton-quality print glued to a corrugated body
• Bleed — artwork extending past the cut line
• Safe zone — content kept clear of cuts and folds
• Registration — alignment between colour passes
• Lamination — matte or gloss protective film
• Soft-touch — velvet-feel coating
• Foil stamping — metallic foil pressed onto the board
• Emboss / deboss — raised or pressed-in relief
• Spot UV — glossy coating applied to selected areas

Commercial terms

• MOQ — minimum order quantity
• Tooling — dies and plates; charged once, stored for reorders
• Ganging — multiple SKUs sharing one run’s setup
• Make-ready — setup waste at the start of a run
• Landed cost — unit price plus tooling, freight and everything to your dock
• Call-off delivery — a run delivered in scheduled batches