Free Paper Bag Dieline Generator

How it works

How the paper bag dieline is calculated

A gusseted paper bag is a single flat sheet folded into five vertical panels — front, gusset, back, gusset and a glue flap — with a turned-over hem on top and a fold zone at the base. The generator lays those panels out edge to edge and then compensates for the paper you chose. (“Dieline” and “die-line” are the same thing — the flat cutting and creasing drawing a die-maker works from.)

• Flat sheet width = 2 × width + 2 × gusset + glue flap + fold allowance.
• Flat sheet height = height + top hem + base fold zone (½ gusset + overlap) + fold allowance.
• Fold allowance = 7 vertical folds × 1.5 × material caliper. The outer skin of the paper travels further than the inner skin at every crease, so thick or laminated stock needs more sheet.
• Structural bleed = base bleed (3 mm by default) + 4 × caliper. Printed artwork and full-wrap stickers must run out this far past every edge and fold.
• Sheet area is reported in square inches and square centimetres so you can price stock and estimate yield from a 25 × 36 in or 700 × 1000 mm parent sheet.

Luxury fold vs. rustic fold

The fold style changes the three areas that are not visible on the finished bag but decide how it feels in the hand: the top hem, the base overlap and the handle attachment.

Why material thickness changes your dieline

Most online template makers treat paper as a zero-thickness line. Real stock is not. A 90 gsm kraft sheet is around 0.13 mm thick; coated art paper around 0.17 mm; card stock 0.3 mm. A kraft outer laminated with a food-safe bajra or jau grain lining — common for millet, flour and grain retail bags — is closer to 0.55 mm. Four times the caliper means four times the material consumed at every crease, and a print that stops exactly at a fold line will show a white sliver once the bag is formed.

Pick the material and the generator widens each panel by the fold allowance, deepens the hem and base zone, and grows the structural bleed so your sticker or print artwork wraps cleanly around every fold.

Seamless sticker blend layout, explained

Short-run bags are often decorated with a single full-wrap sticker rather than a printed sheet. The amber band on the preview marks that sticker: it runs across front, gusset, back and gusset, extends past the top hem fold and the base fold by the structural bleed, and overlaps onto the glue flap by a seam allowance so the join lands on the corner where the flap tucks under the front panel.

The lightly shaded strips centred on every vertical fold are blend zones. Keep small type, logos and hard edges out of them and let colour or texture continue through — this is what makes the sticker read as seamless once the bag is opened out.

Preparing the SVG for print

1. Import at 1:1. The file is authored in millimetres; do not scale it to fit an artboard.
2. Use the layers. Cut, fold, crease, bleed, sticker and label groups have their own IDs, so you can assign spot colours such as CutContour and Crease in one click.
3. Delete the label layer before tooling. Labels and dimension lines are for proofing, not for the die.
4. Proof a mock-up. Print the PNG at 100 %, cut, fold and glue it. Check the handle positions and that the base squares off.
5. Confirm with your die-maker. Creasing rules and glue systems vary by converter; the generator’s allowances are a robust default, not a substitute for their spec sheet.

Common paper bag sizes (W × H × G)

Estimates only. VendorDesk is not responsible for manufacturing misprints — always validate a physical sample before committing to tooling or a print run. See our terms of service.