A promotional tissue packet in Singapore is a standard pocket pack of eight three-ply tissues sealed in a printed film wrapper about 90 × 60 mm flat, with both faces printable in four colours. The wrapper is the product: it carries the brand, it needs a white underbase behind any colour that must stay strong, and its artwork has to work around the opening flap.
Why do companies hand out printed tissue packets?
A tissue packet is kept and used rather than read once and thrown away. It is handed over, carried in a bag for a week and looked at every time a tissue is pulled out, eight times before the pack is empty. That makes it a giveaway for retail counters, F&B tables and event handouts.
The product is a pocket pack of tissues in a printed wrapper, handed out as a pocket-sized giveaway. Nobody chooses it for the tissue; the tissue is a commodity and identical from one job to the next. What changes between one company’s pack and another’s is the printed film around it, which is why every decision worth making on this job is a decision about the artwork on 90 × 60 mm of film.
Typical uses:
- Retail giveaways: handed over at a counter with a purchase or a leaflet.
- F&B table gifts: placed on tables, where the pack is used during the meal.
- Event handouts: distributed at roadshows, fairs and sampling stands.
The pack fits a pocket, a handbag and a table setting, which is what lets it travel with the person who received it.
What is the standard tissue packet specification?
The standard pocket pack holds eight three-ply tissues in a printed film wrapper about 90 × 60 mm flat. The film is printed in four colours, with a white underbase behind anything that must stay opaque, and both the front and the reverse are printable. The opening flap is a fixed feature of the pack.
| Specification | Standard | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pack size | About 90 × 60 mm flat | The standard pocket pack |
| Contents | Eight three-ply tissues | Other counts change the wrapper size |
| Wrapper | Printed translucent film, sealed around the tissues | Also sold as poly wrapper or OPP wrapper |
| Colour | 4C on the film, white underbase behind opaque colour | Without the underbase, colours go pale |
| Sides | Front and reverse both printable | The reverse usually carries the details |
| Bleed and safe area | 3 mm bleed, 6 mm safe margin, clear of the opening flap | The flap is torn open in use |
| Finishing | None beyond printing and sealing | No lamination, foil or die-cut shape |
| Minimum run | Stated at enquiry | Packs run in production quantities rather than short runs |
| Lead time | Standard 7–14 working days | Printed, converted and packed as one sequence |
Fewer decisions are needed here than for almost any other printed item, which is why the artwork carries so much of the result. The format is fixed; the design is the variable. Full details are on the tissue packet printing page.
Why does the wrapper need a white underbase?
The wrapper film is translucent, and the white tissues behind it are not a printing surface. Ink printed straight onto clear film lets the tissues show through, so every colour reads pale and washed out. A white underbase printed behind any colour that must stay strong keeps it opaque and saturated.
The film is printed on its inside face and then sealed around the tissue block, so the print is protected by the material it is printed on. That construction is why the white has to be planned rather than assumed: it is a separate printed layer, and only the areas you mark will get it.
How to supply it:
- A WHITE layer: a solid K100 vector on a layer named WHITE, placed under every colour that must stay opaque.
- Deliberate transparency: anything meant to let the tissue show through is simply left off the WHITE layer.
- Flat brand colours: a single flat colour on a white underbase reads better than a gradient at this size and on this material.
- Blacks: avoid heavy four-colour blacks, which show through to the reverse on thin film.
Name any brand colour that must be consistent from one run to the next as a Pantone reference, and build the rest in CMYK.
What artwork rules apply around the opening flap?
The opening flap is a fixed feature of the pack, and artwork works around it rather than across it. A logo placed across the flap is torn in half the first time the pack is used. Keep 6 mm of safe margin from every edge, keep type at 6 pt or larger, and allow for a little movement between packs.
The wrapper is small, translucent and soft in the hand, and each of those three properties sets a rule:
- Small print area. One idea, large, on the front: a single strong logo on a flat colour reads in a hand at half a metre, which is the only viewing distance this product has.
- Soft, creased material. Type below about 6 pt disappears into the creases of the wrapper. A phone number or a short line on the reverse works; a paragraph does not.
- Sealed, not trimmed. A wrapper is sealed rather than guillotined, so the artwork can move by a millimetre or two between packs. Do not design anything that depends on a precise edge.
- QR codes. 20 mm minimum with the quiet zone intact, because a smaller code will not scan off a soft, slightly creased film.
- Contrast. Keep type and background at least three steps apart in value, because the wrapper is shiny and catches light.
The file is a PDF/X-4 at 90 × 60 mm plus 3 mm bleed, with the front and the reverse as two single pages and placed images at 300 dpi at final size. Say which page is the front: on a pack this small the two faces do different jobs, and swapping them is not obvious until the packs arrive.
How is a tissue packet produced?
A tissue packet is a production sequence rather than a single press job. The wrapper is printed with its white underbase, then converted and sealed around the tissue block, then packed into cartons in a stated count for distribution. Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days for the whole sequence, and express is quoted per job.
Because the job runs as one sequence, there is no point in the schedule where a wrapper design can be changed easily. Settle the artwork before the order is placed rather than during it, and check three things before approval: the WHITE layer is under every opaque colour, nothing crosses the opening flap, and the front and reverse are labelled.
A non-standard pack size or tissue count changes the wrapper and therefore the whole sequence, so ask for it at enquiry rather than after the artwork is drawn. A repeat order of an approved design is simpler: once a wrapper has been printed, converted and seen in the hand, a repeat is a new colourway on a sequence that already works.
Worked example: how would a company specify tissue packets for a roadshow?
A company handing out tissue packets at a roadshow wants the brand to read at arm’s length and a way for people to find it later. A standard pack with a single logo on a flat colour on the front and a QR code and phone number on the reverse meets that brief with the fewest decisions.
Hypothetical planning example. Actual production timing, paper availability, and logistics are confirmed individually upon artwork and specification review.
A company sets out its specification:
- Quantity: 5,000 tissue packets, standard pocket pack, eight three-ply tissues each.
- Wrapper: 4C printed film, front and reverse, with a white underbase behind the logo and the brand colour.
- Front: one logo on a flat brand colour, named as a Pantone reference, with nothing crossing the opening flap.
- Reverse: a QR code at 20 mm with its quiet zone, a phone number and one short line of copy, all at 6 pt or larger.
- File: PDF/X-4 at 90 × 60 mm plus 3 mm bleed, two single pages labelled front and reverse, with a WHITE layer.
- Packing: packed into cartons in a stated count, so the packs can be split between roadshow days.
Timing. The company counts back from the first roadshow day using the upper end of the standard 7–14 working day window, and approves the artwork before that point because the design cannot easily be changed once the sequence starts.
Frequently asked questions
How many tissues are in a promotional tissue packet?
A standard pocket pack holds eight three-ply tissues. Other counts are possible, but they change the thickness of the block and therefore the wrapper size, so most orders use the standard pack.
What size is the printed area on a tissue packet?
About 90 × 60 mm flat on each face of a standard pocket pack, plus 3 mm of bleed. Keep 6 mm of safe margin from every edge and keep the artwork clear of the opening flap.
Why do colours look pale on a printed tissue packet?
The wrapper film is translucent, so the white tissues behind it show through the ink. Any colour that has to stay strong needs a white underbase printed behind it, supplied as its own vector layer named WHITE.
Can the tissues themselves be printed?
No. The tissue is never printed, because ink on a tissue is neither safe nor durable. The branding lives entirely on the printed film wrapper, front and reverse.
How long does tissue packet printing take?
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. The wrapper is printed, then converted and sealed around the tissue block, then packed into cartons, all as one production sequence. Express is quoted per job.
How do you get a quote for tissue packets from EZ Print?
EZ Print produces custom printed tissue packets in Singapore, and has traded since 2017. Send the pack size, tissue count, quantity, artwork for the front and reverse, and the date the packs must be in hand. Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days; express is quoted per job, with island-wide courier delivery.
For other items to hand out alongside the packs, see corporate gift printing, and for printed carriers see paper bag printing. When the artwork is ready, request a quote.
Same-day and urgent printing available. Subject to artwork approval, payment, print type and production availability. Timing confirmed per job.