# Dieline

URL: https://tnb-tech.com/en/glossary/dieline/

## What is a dieline?

A dieline is the flat drawing of a package or a label: the lines along which the material is cut, creased and glued. It arrives as vectors on their own layer, and the artwork is built on top of it. The lines never print. They tell the cutting die and the folding machine where to work, and they set the bleed and the safe area for text.

**Example**

A printer sends the dieline for a 120 × 80 × 40 mm carton: four walls, a lid with a tuck flap, a base with four wings and a glue strip down one side. The artwork goes onto that drawing, but not right up to it. The die cuts with a tolerance of roughly half a millimetre, so text stands at least 3 mm clear of every cutting line, the background runs 3 mm past the outline as bleed, and the logo is kept off the creases, where the board breaks. The barcode sits on one flat panel, never across an edge, and the glue strip stays free of varnish or the glue will not hold.

**Why it matters for a business**

The dieline is the one place where a design and a cutting machine agree on the same shape. Work from measurements in an email instead and the flat almost never folds up: the lid misses, the wings overlap, and the correction is paid for together with a new die.

- The printer supplies vectors — AI, PDF or DXF — with cut, crease and perforation on separate layers or spot colours.
- The artwork comes back on that same drawing, with those lines still on their own layer and switched off for printing.
- The folded mockup for a buyer presentation or a shop photograph is built from the same file.
- A new die costs money and time, so the dies a printer already holds often decide the shape of the pack before the design starts.

**What to ask**

- Does the printer already hold a die that suits this run and this board, or is a new one needed?
- What is the cutting and creasing tolerance for the chosen material?
- Where does the glue strip run, and which areas must stay unvarnished?
- In what format does the drawing arrive, and who checks the folded mockup before the run?Building artwork on your printer’s drawing is part of our packaging and labels work.

- Services: [Packaging and labels](https://tnb-tech.com/en/services/packaging-and-labels/)
- Glossary: https://tnb-tech.com/en/glossary/