4P EKO Digipak (Kraftliner)

4P EKO digipak (Kraftliner) - kraft with a plastic tray

The 4P EKO digipak is made of Kraftliner, a strong, unbleached board in natural brown. The 4P designation refers to four panels, that is four printed board surfaces. Folded, they form two parts of the pack: front and back.

Inside there is a glued-in plastic tray that holds the disc steadily. The disc sits much as in a classic music release and stays clearly visible once the pack is opened.

This is the only model in our range that combines kraft board with a plastic tray. The effect is quite different from digipaks made on white board. On one side the raw, slightly rough brown of Kraftliner, on the other a clear or black tray and the disc on display. The whole thing keeps its natural character but still looks like a full disc release.

Why kraft stays unlaminated

Kraftliner is an unbleached material with visible fibre and a tangible texture. That is largely what its character rests on. Picking up the pack, you touch board rather than a smooth layer of film.

That is why we produce this variant without lamination. Covering the surface with film would even out its structure and take away much of the reason people choose kraft.

If you want gloss, matt or Soft Touch film, the better choice is the digipack 4P made on white board. Film is available there, along with more construction variants.

Where it works

A 4P EKO digipak can be a good choice for, among others:

• independent labels and small publishers who want packaging with a distinct character,
• acoustic, folk and singer-songwriter music and field recordings, where natural packaging suits the material,
• craft brands such as small manufacturers, coffee roasters, workshops, studios and recording rooms,
• limited series, anniversary editions and discs bundled with other products,
• companies for which using natural-looking materials is part of their communication,
• presentations and portfolios where the disc should be clearly visible as soon as the pack is opened.

Type - Standard

This model comes in one construction, marked in the calculator as "Standard".

It is a four-panel Kraftliner pack with one glued-in tray for one disc. The construction itself does not change. When ordering you mainly choose the tray type, assembly, shrink-wrapping of finished sets and the run.

It is a simple construction with no extra interior variants, which also makes configuration and pricing easier.

Tray type

With the tray the choice is mainly about looks and the type of media. Both disc variants hold the disc the same way.

• For a disc - clear tray - the brown Kraftliner under the disc shows through the tray. Board, tray and disc form a more coherent whole. This is the most natural variant, particularly with restrained designs that use the colour and structure of kraft.
• For a disc - black tray - black contrasts strongly with the warm brown of the board and clearly outlines the disc. The pack takes on a more graphic character, closer to classic music releases.
• For a USB card - clear tray - instead of a disc it can hold a credit-card-format USB drive. Useful for video material, larger archives, presentations or training packages, when you want to keep the form of a disc release but use different media.

Assembly

You can order the packs alone, or have us put the finished sets together as well.

• No assembly - you receive folded, finished packs and put the media into the trays yourself. A good solution if you assemble sets in-house or plan to add your own materials inside.
• Disc assembly - we put the media into the trays and close the packs on our side. You receive finished sets ready for shipping, sale or display. On larger runs this avoids assembling the whole batch by hand.

Shrink-wrapping of finished sets

Here wrapping does not mean laminating the Kraftliner surface. It means clear film protecting the whole closed pack.

• No wrapping - the kraft surface can be touched straight away and keeps its natural character. This suits editions handed over in person or packed later into your own packaging.
• With wrapping - the whole finished set is protected by film that limits dirt and scuffing during transport and display. Kraft is absorbent and picks up hand marks more easily, so for shop sales, concerts or courier shipping this protection can be practical.

The calculator only shows combinations of options that can be put together correctly.

Printing on kraft

Brown Kraftliner behaves differently under print than white board. Ink goes straight onto a darker, warm substrate, so colours become more subdued and slightly warmer. Reds can shift towards brick tones, and blues become greyer.

We do not use a white underprint, so light elements will not look as vivid as on white board. That simply has to be allowed for at the design stage.

Kraft works well with darker, saturated colours, strong typography, simple blocks of colour and line graphics. Photographs can also come out interesting, especially high-contrast ones. Pastel, very light photographs will react far more strongly to the colour of the substrate.

Artwork viewed on a monitor always shows colours on a bright screen. Printed on brown board, everything will be warmer and darker. That effect is part of the natural, craft aesthetic of Kraftliner.

Preparing the file

• Prepare the artwork as a spread, that is the whole unfolded form of the pack, not separate panels.
• Set the colour space to CMYK, not RGB. Automatic conversion can affect colour tone.
• Prepare photographs at 300 dpi, and fine elements preferably at 600 dpi.
• Add 3 mm bleed. Keep important texts, logos and other key elements at least 3 mm from the trim and fold lines.
• Do not place texts or logos on fold lines. Once the pack is folded, such elements will crease together with the board.
• Send the finished artwork as a PDF with fonts converted to outlines, or a flattened TIF in CMYK.

Detailed information and the relevant templates are in the file preparation section.

What to add and how to order

An insert or a saddle-stitched booklet with lyrics, a description of the project, photographs or credits can be added to the pack. The relevant variants are in the category of booklets for digipaks and ecopaks.

Discs are ordered separately, matched to the type of material and the run needed. On larger series this can be, for example, CD replication.

If you want the same kraft material but no plastic tray at all, choose the ecopak 4P EKO. There the disc is held in a slot cut directly in the board.

In the calculator you choose the tray type, assembly, shrink-wrapping of finished sets and the run. Available quantities start at 50 pieces, with further steps of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 pieces.

The price of the chosen configuration and the lead time are shown during pricing. If you do not have finished artwork, write to us. We will advise how to prepare graphics with the character of the kraft substrate in mind.