Standard print template

For this guide, download the official standard print template (please don't use a document you've created yourself). It's built for Adobe Illustrator and works with several layers.

A quick overview: we offer two print templates. The standard template on this page is the right choice if you work in Adobe Illustrator or want to design transparent or metallised areas (Toni & Martha). If you'd rather use Canva, Affinity or Photoshop and don't need special effects, you'll find the right guide on the simplified print template page.

To make sure your packaging looks exactly the way you imagine, it's important to choose the right print template for your packaging.

Please only use our templates, as they're tailored to our specific printing requirements. You can download the print templates here.

The print file for our flat bottom pouches is divided into five areas: the left side, the front, the right side, the back and the bottom.

The print file for stand-up pouches consists of three areas: the front, the back and the bottom.

The print file for flat pouches consists of just two areas: the front and the back.

The print templates are made up of several layers. The layer structure depends on the packaging material you've chosen.

Much like a folder system, layers help you manage individual elements (e.g. images, text, logos) within a file. The order of the layers determines the stacking order of the individual elements.

Depending on the material, your file contains three or four layers:

Robin and Ben contain the following layers:

• ‘Information’ (stand-up pouch & flat pouch) or ‘Guideline’ (flat bottom pouch)

• ‘Keylines’

• ‘Artwork’

Toni and Martha contain the following layers:

• ‘Information’ (stand-up pouch & flat pouch) or ‘Guideline’ (flat bottom pouch)

• ‘bila-white’ (stand-up pouch & flat pouch) or ‘White’ (flat bottom pouch)

• ‘Keylines’

• ‘Artwork’

Your print template contains various print lines. They serve as cutting edges and define the print area of the file. Objects (e.g. text) outside the bleed won't be printed and won't be visible on your finished printed pouch.

Our print templates for stand-up pouches and flat pouches each have a preset bleed area 2 mm wide (red striped area).

The print templates for flat bottom pouches have a preset bleed area (red striped area) of 2.5 mm on the left and right and 5 mm at the top and bottom.

The ‘Sealing Zones’ (seal areas) mark where your packaging is sealed during production.

Under Fonts, lines & spacing you'll find out how much distance from the print lines we recommend so that everything runs smoothly during printing.

Your print template contains various print lines that define which area is printed on the packaging.

When creating your packaging design, pay particular attention to bleed areas and other cut-outs such as the euro hole or the rounded corners, which are cut out during printing.

We've marked all important cutting and folding lines, dimensions and closure options for production on the ‘Keylines’ layer. Don't worry, this information won't be visible on your finished printed pouch.

To avoid unsightly white edges, always extend the background of your design to the outer red line. During production, the cut is made within the bleed area (red striped area).

The orientation of the print file must not be changed for the final print-ready file. While designing, you can of course rotate the artboard as you like via ‘Object’ and ‘Transform’. What matters is that the print data is saved and sent to us in its original orientation.

No. It's essential to keep the order, names and number of layers unchanged so that nothing goes wrong during printing. Also make sure that all layers are visible. The only layer you may remove when preparing your print data is the ‘Information’ layer. Create your design exclusively on the ‘Artwork’ layer.

For the printing process, our print templates for the materials Toni and Martha include a dedicated layer and colour. They let you create special effects.

In the print template for stand-up pouches and flat pouches, you'll find a layer called ‘bila-white’ as well as the colour ‘bila-white’.

For flat bottom pouches, you'll find the ‘White’ layer and a colour called ‘White’.

The principle is the same for ‘White’ and ‘bila-white’.

The colour ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’ is displayed in magenta. It serves as a white base coat and is printed onto the packaging as an underlay.

If the colour ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’ is filled completely in magenta, your packaging receives a base coat and is fully printed with your design. The ‘White’/‘bila-white’ layer must also be filled 100% with this magenta.

The ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’ layer must never be deleted.

The colour ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’ must not be renamed, changed or deleted either.

You create special areas by recolouring or removing the relevant areas on the ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’ layer.

If you've chosen our packaging material Toni, you can add transparent windows to your packaging design.

The advantage of transparent areas is that selected see-through windows can showcase your product even better. Your customers get a good impression of your product before they buy it.

To add a transparent window to your packaging, you need to edit not only your design but also the white base coat on the ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’ layer. You have two design options here:

1. You design your packaging so that the background is mainly transparent and there are only coloured design elements (logo, text, graphics etc.).

2. You design your packaging so that it's fully printed and has individual transparent elements or windows.

For design option 1, proceed as follows in your print template:
Delete the colour area from the White/bila-white layer, copy all elements of your design, paste them in the same position on the White layer and colour all elements with the colour White/bila-white.

For design option 2, proceed as follows:
Cut out the elements you want to appear transparent on the White or bila-white layer and on the Artwork layer, as you wish.

Please note: the transparent elements on Toni are not fully see-through.

You can create metallic areas with our packaging material Martha. They give your packaging a silvery shine and visibly enhance it.

You create metallic areas by removing the area you want to appear metallic from the ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’ layer.

All areas on the layer that aren't coloured in magenta (that's the colour ‘White’ or ‘bila-white’) will appear metallic on your packaging.

Leaving out the White or bila-white colour reveals the aluminium-coloured material, which creates the metallic effect.

Here, too, you have two design options:

1. Make coloured elements appear metallic

2. Use the silver effect

You get the metallic look by cutting out the areas you want to appear metallic on the White or bila-white layer. This means your design is printed directly onto the base material in that area and takes on a metallic effect.

❗Please note: the metallic effect is less visible on a black background. On the white area, your packaging would look more silvery.

Would you like the silver effect for your Martha packaging? Then proceed in a similar way to Toni:

• Delete the colour area from the White or bila-white layer, copy all elements of your design, paste them in the same position on that layer and colour all elements with the colour White or bila-white. Everything you haven't coloured will be metallic.

Or:

• Cut out the elements you want to appear metallic on the White or bila-white layer and on the Artwork layer.

If you use images in your design, there are two criteria to keep in mind: resolution and image format.

Please follow our specifications so that the images on your printed packaging come out sharp enough.

Ideally, use images in PSD or TIFF format. Alternatively, PNG or JPEG images also work.

For a convincing print result, all images must have a resolution of 300 dpi (relative to their size). Lower dpi values make the print result less sharp. You'll also receive an error message from our design check when uploading your file.

You can check the image size in Photoshop or Illustrator. When you select an image in Illustrator, you can see its resolution at the top left of the menu bar.

Keep in mind that resolution always depends on the size of the image. Your image must have 300 dpi at its actual size in your layout.

The images and graphics you want to use must be in CMYK colour mode and added to the ‘Artwork’ layer.

If you move an image to a different folder on your computer, you'll receive an error message. A red symbol tells you that your image is no longer linked. Before you upload your finished print design in your account area, make sure that all images in the document are embedded.

Working EAN codes are essential for quick identification in retail. If you'd like to offer your customers further information or direct them to your website, a QR code is a good option. Ideally, add both codes as vector files on the ‘Artwork’ layer so they can be scaled freely.

If you only have the QR or EAN code as a PNG file, make sure it's large enough. If you use PNGs, the codes must be embedded after placing them.

CMYK stands for the colours cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and key (black). Since your packaging is going to be printed, CMYK is the right colour mode.

Make sure the document and all colours in it are set up in CMYK colour mode. You can check this in Illustrator and InDesign under File > Document Color Mode > CMYK Color.

If you use Pantone, i.e. spot colours, in your design, they must be converted to CMYK colour mode.

A spot colour is a printing ink used in addition to the process colours. The term covers both spot colours for extra colour depth and effect colours.

If you've found that one of your colours isn't set up in CMYK mode and is therefore a spot colour, change its Color Type to Process Color and its Color Mode to CMYK.

Ink coverage determines the amount of ink applied to specific areas of a printed product.

Too much ink coverage can impair your print quality or cause motifs to smudge.

So please keep to the maximum ink coverage.

The ink coverage limit is 380%, including the bila-white layer, which accounts for 100%.

If the ink coverage in your print file is below 280%, 100% bila-white is added. This keeps the total coverage below 380%.

You can check ink coverage with tools such as Adobe Acrobat under All tools > Use print production > Output preview.

In Photoshop and Illustrator, you can reduce ink coverage using the sliders for each colour.

Want to use black in your packaging design? For packaging print, we recommend setting up black as 100% (K) black, as a ‘deep black’.

To keep the text on your packaging easy to read, the font size should be at least 6 pt. That's equivalent to 2.1 mm.

Keep in mind that font size depends on the typeface you choose. This means different typefaces can look different in size even at the same point size.

Also make sure you stick to the minimum line weight:

• For dark lines on a light background, set the weight to at least 0.25 pt.

• Light lines on a dark background should be at least 0.5 pt thick.

In your print template, we've marked the ‘bleed area’ with red hatching. This area is cut off during the production of your packaging.

Please set up your file so that your design and the White or bila-white layer (Toni & Martha only) extend fully across this area. Otherwise, white edges may appear at the cutting edges.

However, make sure you never place text or important graphics (such as EAN codes or seals) in this area, as they could be cut off. We therefore recommend placing your design elements 2 mm (stand-up pouch & flat pouch) or 2.5 mm (flat bottom pouch) away from the trim edge.

Unlike the images in your design, your fonts should never be embedded. Please avoid embedding fonts. Unfortunately, we can't process files with embedded fonts.

As soon as you've finished your design, make sure that all fonts have been converted to outlines. This rules out missing fonts or font links causing problems during printing.

To convert text frames in Adobe Illustrator or InDesign, proceed as follows:

• Select all text, go to ‘Type’ in the main menu, then click ‘Create Outlines’

Important: This should be the last step before you upload the file in your account area and approve it for print. To be on the safe side, save a backup of your file beforehand. Because: once the text has been converted to outlines, it can no longer be edited.

Export your finished design in Adobe Illustrator as follows:

Go to File → Save As in the main menu.

You can save the file locally on your computer or in Adobe's cloud. Then select Adobe PDF as the file type and give the file a meaningful name. The name should also include the packaging type you've chosen (flat bottom pouch, stand-up pouch or flat pouch) and the material (Martha, Toni, Robin or Ben). Then click Save.

In the window that opens, select ‘Illustrator Default’ under Adobe PDF Preset. That way you can be sure all other settings are correct and you don't need to select anything else.

Quick tip: If your file is larger than 50 MB, you can reduce its size. A compressed file also uploads faster in your account area. Use the following settings when compressing (see image):

Go to File → Adobe PDF Presets → PDF/X-4:2008 in the menu.

In InDesign, you also need to make the following settings, as otherwise the layers we've set up will be lost and errors will occur during printing:

• Options → select Create Acrobat Layers

• Export Layers: All Layers

Please note: If you use our print templates in InDesign, the layers and colours must be named exactly as in our templates.

Also, under ‘Marks and Bleeds’, select Use Document Bleed Settings for the bleed.

The same applies when saving your print file in InDesign: give your file a meaningful name. It should also include the packaging type you've chosen (flat bottom pouch, stand-up pouch or flat pouch) and the material (Martha, Toni, Robin or Ben).

You can upload your design or finished print file during the ordering process: in your basket or at checkout.

If you've already placed your order, upload the design in your account area. To do this, log in to Packiro and on your order overview page you'll see under ‘Open to-dos’ that you still need to upload designs for your current order. Simply click ‘Upload now’. Alternatively, you can also upload the file under ‘Orders’ next to the relevant order number.