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Whether you’re shipping or storing something, we want to make sure you get your packaging right. The terminology between the two words often gets mixed up. And lord knows there’s just way too many special jargon out there in the printing world.

So to make things easier to understand for the rest of us, I will provide a simple rule of thumb below:

What’s the difference?

While both boxes and cartons are made out of paper materials, cartons are usually thinner of the two. You’ll see it used in cereal boxes, milk cartons, pharmaceuticals, and more.

A box, on the other hand, uses thicker paper stock that is mostly meant for shipping. As it’s built for durability, you will most likely notice multiple layers of paper that include an inside and an outer layer with a ruffled shaped paper sandwiched in between. Probably very easy to imagine since most of us have opened up a UPS or Amazon package at some point.

What’s the best for your business?

Depending on the industry, your packaging material may vary. What’s used in the food industry will differ from the footwear industry of course. So if you’re looking for packaging that is:

Lightweight

Affordable

Safe

Customizable

Eco-friendly

Durable

Or Affordable

Common types of cardboard boxes

Many of us assume all cardboard boxes are the same and pretty basic, but it is their formation that makes them suitable for different uses.

The 3 most common types of cardboard used in packaging are, corrugated box, folding cartons and the rigid box. Each box starts off the same with cardboard sheets as the base but then enhanced further to suit its usage.

You’d be surprised how an extra layer of paper can make a huge difference to the strength and durability of the cardboard box.

There are many types of cardboard boxes out there for different purposes, but we’ll be going through the 3 main boxes that we see the most often.

1: Corrugated boxes

The most common type of box formation is the trusted corrugated box. This type of box is made up of 3 layers which consist of a corrugated fibreboard, paperboard and card stock.

A wavy sheet is glued between two outer flat layers, which is what we can usually see from all sides of the sheet.

This type of box is widely used across the world for industrial packaging and can be designed in a variety of colours, styles and sizes.

Properties of a corrugated box