What are all the little tabs for?

They fold inwards along the bottom of the wall. The disc sits on them and each tab is glued to it, which holds the base square and flat.

Why is the wall longer than the diameter times pi?

Because the board has thickness. The strip is measured round the middle of the board rather than the inside, so the finished tube is the diameter you asked for.

Can I make just a tube with no lid?

Set the lid height to zero and you get the wall and base only.

Round Box Template — Free Cylinder & Hat Box, Any Size

The round box template, flat and folded

Round box template — free printable dieline with cut and fold lines, any size — The printable dieline at its standard size. Type your own size above for yours.

Round box folded up from the template — the finished box — The finished round box, made from it.

What this template is for

A cylinder with a lid — cake boxes, hat boxes, gift tins. Comes as a wall strip with fixing tabs plus the discs.

Also called cylinder box · hat box · round gift box · tube box with lid — all the same shape, and this is it.

Hat boxes and cake boxes
Round gift and keepsake boxes
Tea and biscuit style tins in card
Display cylinders

Making a round box that stays round

How it is built

A round box is a wall strip rolled into a tube, with small tabs along its bottom edge that fold in and hold the base disc, and a lid made the same way with a shorter wall. The diameter you type is the inside of the finished tube, so measure what goes in and add a few millimetres.

Which card

Thin card, 200–300 gsm, rolls into a smooth tube. Heavier card works if you curl the strip round a tin, a bottle or a rolling pin before gluing. Type the thickness into Material thickness so the strip length allows for it.

Sizes people make it in

Gift and favour boxes: 60 to 80 mm across, 40 to 60 mm high.
Cookie or truffle box: about 100 mm across, a stack of biscuits high plus 10 mm.
Hat box or round cake box: 200 to 250 mm across. A wall strip longer than the paper is printed in numbered sections that glue end to end.
Pencil pot: lid height 0, about 75 mm across and 100 mm high.

Getting a neat base

Fold every tab inwards before gluing, then sit the disc on them and glue them to it one by one, pressing each against a flat surface. A second disc of the same size, traced from the first and glued inside on top, hides the tabs and stiffens the floor.

Mistakes to avoid

A lid that will not go on: raise the lid clearance to 1 mm for thick or textured card.
A seam that springs open: hold it with clips or a rubber band while the glue dries.
Gluing the disc under the tabs. It sits on top of them, inside the tube.

How to use this template

All four downloads are the same round box at the same size — only the format changes.

PDF printing at home: Print at 100 per cent, or hand it to a print shop as "actual size, no scaling".
PNG 300 dpi Canva, Photoshop, Procreate: Upload, lock it in place and design your round box on top. Free plan and phone included. Full Canva walkthrough →
SVG Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity: Vector, with cuts, folds and labels on separate layers. Cricut and Silhouette walkthrough →
DXF Silhouette, laser and vinyl cutters: Two layers, CUT and FOLD — and the one free Silhouette Studio Basic will open.

Getting it printed properly →

Printing it

Type your size above, then download the PDF.
Print at 100% — never “fit to page”, or every measurement comes out wrong.
Too big for the paper? Pick your paper size and leave Fit the pieces to the page ticked: each piece gets its own place on a sheet and the PDF comes out with every page in it, nothing cut in half and nothing to tape.

How to put it together

These pictures are the round box itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.

Cut the solid lines
Every solid line is a cut. Do the inside shapes first, while the sheet is still whole and easy to hold.
Score every dashed line
Dashed lines are folds. Score each one first — an empty ballpoint against a ruler — or the card cracks along the outside of the bend.
Fold, glue and hold
Roll the wall into a tube and glue the end. Fold the little tabs inwards, sit the disc on them and glue each tab to it.

Glue: a glue stick for paper, white PVA on card — hold each seam thirty seconds, and let it dry before you use it.

Questions about the round box

What are all the little tabs for?: They fold inwards along the bottom of the wall. The disc sits on them and each tab is glued to it, which holds the base square and flat.
Why is the wall longer than the diameter times pi?: Because the board has thickness. The strip is measured round the middle of the board rather than the inside, so the finished tube is the diameter you asked for.
Can I make just a tube with no lid?: Set the lid height to zero and you get the wall and base only.

Print your own design on it

Add a logo, photo or pattern in the panel on the left and drag it onto the round box. It is trimmed to the cut outline, embedded properly in the PDF, and never leaves your computer — most free template sites hand you the outline and stop there. How printing your own design works.

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