Custom wrapping paper is branded gift wrap printed with your logo or a repeat pattern, used to dress retail gifts, subscription boxes, and seasonal orders. It reads as a small touch and does a lot of brand work, because the customer handles it before they ever reach the product.
Most of what ranks for custom wrapping paper is a photo-printing service built for a consumer wrapping one birthday present. This page is for the other buyer: a business that needs its own wrap, in volume, in a pattern that reads as branding rather than a novelty print. The decisions are different, so the specification below is written for that job.
What size do you actually need
This is where most orders go wrong, and it is worth getting right before you look at anything else.
A retail gift wrap roll is commonly around 30 inches wide, and the length is whatever the core holds. A sheet, if you are wrapping at a counter, needs to cover the item plus enough overlap to fold and tape cleanly. The rule of thumb that actually works: measure the widest face of the product, double it, then add the depth twice over, then add roughly two inches of overlap. If you wrap several sizes, work from the largest one and accept some waste on the small items rather than running two stock sizes.
If you are not sure, tell us what you wrap and roughly how many a week. We will work the sheet or roll size back from the product, which is quicker than you guessing and avoids a reprint.
Sheets or rolls
Sheets suit a counter operation. Staff take one, wrap one, and there is no cutting, no waste from a bad cut, and no roll dispenser taking up bench space. They cost more per square foot and they take more storage.
Rolls suit a packing bench working through volume. Less material per square foot, less packaging waste if your sizes vary, but somebody has to cut accurately and consistently, which is a training problem as much as a materials one.
The honest split: under a few hundred a month, sheets. Above that, rolls almost always win on both cost and speed.
Logo, repeat pattern, or both
A single logo placed on a sheet only works if whoever wraps it lands the logo on the front face every time. In practice they will not, and you end up with a fold across your own name.
A repeating pattern removes that problem entirely. It reads as branded from any angle, it survives a bad wrap, and it works on a roll where you cannot control where the cut falls. It is why almost every brand that does this properly runs a repeat rather than a placed logo.
The strongest version is a repeat built from more than the logo alone: your mark at a readable size, mixed with a secondary element and enough negative space that it does not look like a step-and-repeat backdrop. We set the tile so the seam does not show at the join, which is the part that separates a designed repeat from a tiled one.
Will the ink come off on the product
Worth asking before you print, particularly if you wrap apparel, soap, ceramics or anything pale. Heavy ink coverage on a coated stock takes longer to cure, and wrap that goes straight from press to product can transfer.
Tell us what it wraps and we will confirm the ink and the cure before the run. If food touches the paper directly, say so, because that needs a food-contact grade stock rather than standard gift wrap and it is not a substitution we would make silently.
Ordering for a season
Christmas wrap is the single most common seasonal run in this category and the most commonly ordered late. Work back from the date you need it on the shelf or on the bench, not from today.
Standard production runs 7 to 14 business days, but press time in the fall is contested by every other seasonal job in the country. If you want branded wrap for December, the comfortable window is to have artwork approved by early October. Ordering in November is possible and it removes your margin for a reprint if the proof is wrong.
Custom wrapping paper specification
The choices that change the quote, in the order they matter.
| Format | Flat sheets or continuous rolls, in custom widths. Sheets for counter wrapping, rolls for a packing bench at volume. |
|---|---|
| Sizing | Cut to what you wrap rather than to a stock size. Send the dimensions of the largest item, or just tell us what the product is. |
| Stock | Coated gift wrap for bright, saturated color, or kraft for a natural, unbleached look. Kraft warms every ink laid over it, so a design that depends on clean whites wants the coated stock. Tell us the weight you are used to and we will match it. |
| Printing | A single-color logo, a repeating pattern, or full color edge to edge. The repeat is almost always the better buy. |
| Color matching | Send a Pantone reference for any brand color that has to match an existing line. Reds and deep blacks drift most, and they drift differently on kraft than on coated. |
| Food contact | Available where the paper touches food directly. It is a different stock, so flag it at quote stage rather than assuming. |
| Minimum order | None. Order the quantity you can actually move. If you are holding a written quote from someone else, send it over and we will work to beat it. |
| Production time | Standard runs are 7 to 14 business days. Seasonal runs want ordering well ahead of the date you need them. |
| Proof and samples | Free design and a free digital proof before anything prints. Samples on request. |
| Shipping | Free, with tracking. |
What to send us for a quote
Three things get you a real number rather than a range:
- Sheets or rolls, and what you are wrapping. If you are unsure on size, describe the product and we will work it out.
- How many, and how often. There is no minimum, so ask for the quantity you actually want.
- Artwork, or just a logo and a color. Our design team builds the repeat and sets the tile at no cost.
Wrapping paper, tissue paper, or both
They do different jobs. Wrapping paper conceals and shapes the gift, so it carries the pattern and does the visual work. Tissue cushions and fills, so it softens the open and stops the product moving inside a box. Retail gifting usually wants the wrap. Subscription and ecommerce boxes usually want the tissue. A premium unboxing often uses both, with the tissue in a matching colorway.
See custom tissue paper if the job is lining a box, or gable boxes if the gift needs a carrier rather than a wrap.
More Custom Retail Packaging
See the full Custom Retail Packaging range, or explore related options with no minimum order and our best-price guarantee:
