Custom 4-Panel CD Wallets

Card Stocks That Feel Right in the Hand

Most wallets are printed on 350 gsm silk or uncoated board. Silk gives sharp, vivid artwork with a gentle sheen and resists fingerprints reasonably well. Uncoated board has a softer, more tactile feel that suits folk, acoustic and experimental releases, and it is easy to sign at gigs with a marker pen.

Kraft and natural-look boards give a raw, DIY character that many independent artists love. Ink sits darker on kraft, so artwork with strong contrast and fewer pale tones works best. For a premium limited edition, a heavier board with a soft-touch laminate feels luxurious and keeps artwork crisp after repeated handling.

If your band name will be signed on the cover, choose a matt or uncoated finish. Markers smudge easily on gloss laminate.

Ask for a blank sample of two stocks if you cannot decide. Holding the actual board, folding it and running a fingernail over the surface tells you more than any description ever could, and it is the quickest way to settle a debate within the band. The same silk and uncoated stocks are used for card sleeves for indie game discs, so a label that also presses soundtracks can keep one paper across both.

Artwork That Spans the Panels

The unfolded spread is one of the big pleasures of a card wallet. Artwork that runs across all four inside panels, such as a landscape, a band photograph or an illustrated scene, rewards the listener for opening it out. Keep important details, like faces and text, away from the folds, where a millimetre of creep can shift them.

The spine is narrow, usually only a few millimetres, so keep spine text short and large enough to read on a shelf. Tracklists on the back cover need to be legible at a glance; a simple numbered list in a clear font is better than decorative lettering.

We supply a dieline template showing the panel positions, folds, slot areas and bleed. Set your artwork on that template and we check it against the layout on your proof. A quick way to test a spread is to print it at home, fold it and look at where the creases fall; our free design proof on the dieline then confirms the panel positions.

Finishes and Special Touches

Small finishes can make a modest release feel collectable. Spot gloss on the band logo, foil on the album title, or embossing on the front cover all reward fans who pick the wallet up. A belly band, a printed paper strip around the closed wallet, can carry a sticker-style message such as a signed copy or a limited edition note.

Inserts add value too. A folded lyric sheet, a postcard or a download card with a code tucked into the booklet slot makes the wallet feel complete. For releases sold mainly at gigs, a numbered edition printed on the back panel turns each copy into a small collector's item. Foil and spot gloss are explained side by side in the print and finish options guide, including how each behaves on uncoated board.

Disc Protection and Shipping

Card slots hold a disc firmly, but discs can scuff when slid in and out. A thin paper or anti-static inner sleeve inside the slot protects the playing surface and costs very little. For mail orders, a stiffened envelope or a small corrugated mailer keeps the wallet flat and the corners sharp.

Wallets weigh far less than jewel cases, which can keep postage to a large letter rate when sent in a slim mailer.

If you sell at gigs, think about how the wallets travel to the venue too. A box of wallets rattling in the back of a van can scuff corners before a single copy is sold. Pack them upright and snug in their delivery carton, and keep a few out on the merch table at a time rather than the whole stack, so the display copies take the handling and the rest stay crisp. For mail-order releases, a stiff printed mailer envelope sized to the closed wallet keeps postage at the large letter rate.

Check the Spine Before You Send Artwork

The panel most bands get wrong is the spine. Measure the thickness of your disc plus any booklet, then decide whether the spine text runs top to bottom or bottom to top, because the two conventions look odd side by side on a shelf. Set the spine type no smaller than 7 pt and keep it inside the 6 mm strip on the dieline, where a slight fold creep will not clip it.

Once the spine is settled, send us the disc count, slot positions, stock, finish and quantity. A quote comes back by email within a working day, we lay your artwork on the dieline and you see a proof before anything is printed. Wallets go into production once you approve it and arrive folded, usually about a fortnight after sign-off with delivery included for UK mainland addresses. If you are pairing the wallet with a slimmer promo format, printed card CD sleeves for radio promos can run alongside on the same stock so the colours match.