Ecopack 4P ECO (Kraftliner)

4P EKO ecopak - Kraftliner packaging, no plastic and no film

The 4P EKO ecopak is made entirely of Kraftliner, an unbleached paper in a natural, warm brown shade. There is no plastic tray inside, and the board surface stays unlaminated. The construction is simple: board, print and a slot the disc slides into.

In terms of material this is the most raw disc packaging in our range. Because it is made of a single material, there is no plastic tray to separate from the board before recycling.

The "4P" designation refers to four board surfaces which, once folded, form two parts that open like a cover.

Kraftliner - what the pack is made of

Kraftliner is a strong, unbleached paper. Its natural brown is not perfectly even, and small fibres can be seen on the surface. The board is matt and slightly rough, so it feels clearly different from smooth, coated materials.

• Batches can differ slightly from one another. The shade of brown is not always identical. This is a natural feature of the material, not a printing fault.
• The whole pack is made of one material. There is no plastic tray to separate from the board before putting the pack out with paper.
• The natural look of the material is part of the design. Kraftliner is chosen by craft and local brands, independent labels, folk and acoustic musicians, organic producers, environmental organisations and companies for which environmental matters are part of their communication.

Why we do not laminate Kraftliner

In this variant the board surface is not laminated. Film would cover the Kraftliner with a smooth, transparent layer, and its characteristic roughness, matt look and tangible fibre structure would disappear.

The brown colour would remain, but the material itself would lose much of what it is chosen for.

So the 4P EKO ecopak is unlaminated by design. This is not a missing option in the calculator but a deliberate way of making this model.

If you need a smooth, laminated surface, the better choice is the classic Ecopack 4P on white board.

How print looks on brown board

This is one of the most important things to allow for when preparing artwork.

Printing inks do not form a fully opaque layer, so the substrate also affects how colour looks. On white board it is neutral. With Kraftliner there is warm brown under every printed colour.

In practice that means:

• colours will be more subdued, darker and warmer than on white board,
• blues can shift towards grey, yellows towards mustard shades and greens towards olive,
• very light colours and pastels are strongly muted by the brown substrate,
• we do not print white, so areas planned as white simply stay unprinted Kraftliner.

Artwork viewed on a monitor will look lighter than the finished print on brown board. This is not a production fault. It is simply the character of this material: calmer, more natural and more craft-like.

How to design graphics for kraft

Kraftliner calls for a slightly different approach than white board.

• Go for darker colours. Black, navy, deep green or burgundy give far better contrast on a brown substrate than light pastels.
• Make good use of typography and line graphics. Letters, outlines, simple illustrations and clear lines work well with the natural surface of the board.
• You do not have to print everything. Unprinted Kraftliner brown can be a full element of the composition.
• Watch out with photographs and large areas of colour. High-contrast images, or ones kept to a limited palette, cope better than light, pastel shots. Bear in mind too that a rough paper surface takes ink differently from smooth coated board.

Type: Standard

Under "Type" this model offers the Standard construction, that is a classic 4P ecopak in disc format.

Four board surfaces fold into two parts of the pack. The whole thing is designed on one spread, with the space for the disc inside.

It is a simple, proven construction that fits typical shipping packaging and displays well on a stand.

If you need more surface for graphics and content, look at the Ecopack 6P.

Room for a disc or a card

An ecopak has no plastic tray. The disc is held by a slot cut directly in the board. You choose the type in the calculator.

• Disc slot - a cut matched to a CD or DVD. The disc slides in edgewise and the board holds it by the rim. This is the standard variant for disc releases, training material and documentation.
• Card slot - a construction prepared for a USB drive in the form of a flat card the size of a payment card, with a sliding USB connector. Choose this variant when material is handed over on USB memory instead of a disc.

One copy uses one solution: either a disc slot or a card slot.

Disc assembly

Assembly means we place the discs in the finished packs on our side.

• No assembly - you receive the packs alone and insert the discs yourself. This makes sense when the discs come from elsewhere, you record them yourself, or individual copies are to have different contents.
• Disc assembly - we place the discs in the packs and you receive finished sets ready for handing out, shipping or further distribution.

The discs and other media are ordered separately in the relevant part of our range.

Shrink-wrapping of finished sets

Wrapping finished sets does not mean laminating the Kraftliner surface.

Here the whole finished, closed pack is protected with clear film, as with releases on a shop shelf.

• No wrapping - the pack has no extra layer of plastic. Kraftliner can be touched straight away and its natural texture felt. Worth choosing if a plastic-free release matters, or if the material circulates within your own organisation.
• With wrapping - the finished copy gets clear film protecting it from dust, damp, hand marks and scuffing in transit. It also shows that the pack has not been opened before. This protection is particularly useful for retail sale and longer storage.

The choice therefore depends on what matters more for a given release: avoiding extra film altogether, or better protection for the finished copy in transport and sale.

Runs, files and ordering

The 4P EKO ecopak can be ordered in runs of 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 pieces.

On larger runs the cost of setting up production is spread over more copies, so the price per piece is lower.

Prepare the artwork in CMYK. Conversion from RGB can change colour tone, and on brown Kraftliner the difference will be even more visible.

Prepare photographs at 300 dpi, and fine elements preferably at 600 dpi. We accept PDF files with fonts converted to outlines, or flattened TIF files in CMYK.

Add 3 mm bleed. Keep texts, logos and other important elements at least 3 mm from the trim and fold lines. Prepare the artwork as a complete spread, and do not place important elements directly on the fold lines.

More information is in our file preparation guide. Booklets and inserts can be ordered separately.

If you want similar kraft board but with the disc held in a plastic tray, the right variant is the Digipack 4P EKO.

You configure the order in the calculator, choosing the type, the space for the disc, assembly, wrapping and the run. The price and lead time are shown for the configuration you select. The calculator offers only combinations of options that can be put together correctly.