The shallow box template, flat and folded
What this template is for
Tuck-top box with dust flaps and a thumb hole. Best when the height is small next to the length and width — pizza, tart, gift and card boxes.
Also called tuck-top box · one-piece folding box · pizza-style box · flat gift box · hinged lid box · flip lid gift box — all the same shape, and this is it.
- Pizza, tart and cake boxes
- Flat gift boxes and card boxes
- Retail packaging for thin products
- Presentation boxes for prints and photos
Making a good shallow box
What shallow means here
This template suits boxes much lower than they are long or wide: a box for a pizza slice, a tart, a pair of earrings on a card, a set of postcards or a bar of soap. For a tall box with the same tuck lid, the gift box (straight tuck) is laid out better.
Sizes people make it in
- Greeting card box: about 160 × 115 mm and 20–30 mm high, for an A6 card with room to spare.
- Postcard or print set: about 155 × 110 mm and 25 mm high for 10 × 15 cm prints.
- Soap bar: measure the bar and add 2–3 mm each way; most bars need 15–30 mm height.
- Single cake or tart slice: about 120 × 120 mm and 60 mm high; above that, a taller box is better.
Which card
For small gift boxes, 250–300 gsm card folds cleanly and holds the tuck. For anything heavier, such as food or a stack of prints, use 350 gsm or thin board, and type its thickness into Material thickness so the tuck flap and slits are made to fit it.
The thumb hole and the window
The thumb hole is the half circle in the front wall that lets you get a fingertip under the lid. Set it to zero for a cleaner front. A window border cuts an opening in the lid; tape acetate behind it on the inside before you fold, so the thin frame does not tear.
Mistakes to avoid
- Skipping the scoring. Shallow walls are short, and an unscored fold on short walls pulls the corners out of square.
- Gluing the dust flaps. They only fold in under the lid; glue goes on the four glue flaps, inside the side walls.
- Making the tuck flap too small for heavy card. Raise it a few millimetres and the lid stays shut.
How to use this template
All four downloads are the same shallow 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 shallow 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.
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 shallow box itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.
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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.
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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.
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Fold, glue and hold
Score every dashed line. Fold the four glue flaps in, glue them to the inside of the side walls, fold the dust flaps in, then close the lid and push the tuck flap inside the front wall. If you set a window border, cut the opening out before you fold anything, and tape a piece of acetate or cellophane over it on the inside — the frame is thin, and it tears far more easily once the box has been creased.
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 shallow box
- What is a shallow box?
- A box whose height is small compared with its length and width. This template is laid out to waste as little board as possible at those proportions, which is why pizza and tart boxes use it.
- What is the thumb hole for?
- It is the half-circle cut in the top edge of the front wall. It lets you get a finger under the lid to open the box once the tuck flap is pushed in. Set the diameter to zero if you do not want one.
- What thickness should I use?
- Measure your board with a ruler or callipers. Ordinary printer paper is about 0.1 mm, thin card 0.3 mm, cereal-box card around 0.5 mm and corrugated board 3 mm or more. The tuck flap and slits are adjusted from this figure.
Print your own design on it
Add a logo, photo or pattern in the panel on the left and drag it onto the shallow 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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