Size guide
The measuring step that prevents the most expensive mistake in custom packaging, and how the way you serve changes the size you need.
Most sizing goes wrong because it starts from packaging the buyer has seen somewhere rather than from the product going inside it. A format that looks right on a shelf may be a centimetre too shallow for what you sell, and at that point the design is already printed.
So the first step is not choosing anything. It is measuring the product, or a portion of it, and writing the numbers down. Even rough measurements taken with a ruler at the counter are enough to start a conversation, and they are far more useful than an approximate guess at what size you think you need.
If you only do one thing on this page
Put your product on a flat surface and measure its longest, widest and tallest points. Include anything that sticks out, such as a lid, a handle or a wrap. Those three figures are the most useful thing you can send us.
Almost every format decision comes down to length, width and height, or to a portion volume for containers that hold something poured. Take them in that order.
The footprint the product occupies. This decides whether a format can hold it flat, and it is usually the number that rules a format out rather than in.
In practice
Measure the widest point, not the average. A sandwich is wider at the middle than at the crust.
How much room the product needs above its footprint. This is where a container that looked generous turns out to crush what is inside it.
In practice
Add the garnish, the icing or the lid to the height, not just the product.
For drinks, soups and scooped food, a volume is more useful than a linear measurement, because the container holds a quantity rather than a shape.
In practice
Measure what you actually serve. A filled cup at the counter is the number that matters.
The same product can need a different format depending on how it reaches the customer. This is the second thing to decide, and it is often the one buyers have not consciously considered.
With the product measured and the serving method decided, the format usually narrows itself. These are the families by what they are built to hold.
Built to hold a shape rather than a volume: sandwiches, burgers, pastries, boxed items. Sized from the product's footprint.
Foodservice packagingFor loose, granular or irregular items. Chosen by what the item is and how much of it goes in, rather than by a linear measurement.
Bags and bakeryMeasured by volume served. The format follows what is poured and how it is drunk, including whether it needs a lid clearing a topping.
Cups and drinkwareFor plated or portioned food that has to hold its shape in transit, including compartmented formats and catering-scale trays.
Containers and traysEach product page lists the sizes offered for that product. The same applies to pouch formats and to glass bottles and jars, where capacity is chosen in the same way. Where you need a size beyond the ones listed, ask: it can often be quoted, and it is confirmed with your quote rather than assumed.
A specialist can size a format in one exchange if the request carries these. None of them requires a finished specification.
Send what you have and say so. You will receive a free digital mockup showing the format before anything is produced, which is the point at which a sizing mistake is cheap to correct.
Mockups and design helpThe sizing questions that come up most often before a first order.
Tell us what you are packing and how it is served. We will confirm the format against your product and show you a free digital mockup before production.
