White SBS cardstock
A bright, smooth sheet. Photography, gradients and fine type all hold their detail, and colors sit where the proof says they will.
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- Food Sleeves
The whole sleeve range · Printed to your artwork
Custom Food Sleeves
The full range of printed paper sleeves — burger, sandwich, hot dog, donut, dessert and cup — each with the size, board and coating chosen for what it actually has to hold. Start here if you are not sure which one you need.
- 500 per design
- Mix types on one order
- Free digital proof
- 6–7 day turnaround
From $0.50 per sleeveVolume pricing from 500 units · final price on your quote
500
Minimum per design
Volume pricing from 1,000
6–7 days
Standard production
After you approve the proof
Free
Dieline and proof
Built around your item
Worldwide
Tracked shipping
Quoted with the job
In short
A food sleeve is a printed paper band or wrap that goes around a handheld item — a burger, sandwich, hot dog, donut or cup — so it can be held without grease, heat or crumbs reaching the hand. The Cone Sleeves cuts and prints each type to fit what you serve, from 500 pieces per design, with a free digital proof and 6–7 business day production.
Why shops order food sleeves from us
One look across the counter
Burger, cup and donut sleeves printed from the same artwork so a tray of mixed items reads as one brand instead of three suppliers.
Cut per item
Each sleeve type gets its own dieline. A hot dog sleeve and a donut sleeve share nothing but your logo, because the food is a different shape.
Barrier where it is needed
Fried and saucy items get a laminated face; dry bakery items do not need one and are cheaper and more recyclable without it.
Minimum is per design
Five hundred applies to each sleeve you print, not to the whole order, so a small kitchen can start with two or three types.
Change one, keep the rest
Reprint a seasonal burger sleeve without touching the cups. Stored artwork means a repeat run skips the setup stage.
Printed work
Food Sleeves we have printed
Every run below started as somebody's artwork on plain board. Yours is quoted the same way, whatever the shape.
Specifications
Everything this order includes
These are the options we quote against. If you need something outside them, ask — most custom sizes and finishes are possible, and the quote will say so plainly.
| Sleeve types | Burger, sandwich, hot dog, donut, dessert, coffee and beverage sleeves |
|---|---|
| Fits | Cut to the item you serve — send a sample, a photo with a ruler, or the dimensions |
| Board | White SBS cardstock, natural kraft or recycled board |
| Coating | Grease-resistant lamination on the food face, or left uncoated for recyclability |
| Printing | Full-color CMYK, single-color logo or Pantone spot colors |
| Minimum order | 500 pieces per design — several sleeve types can run on one order |
| Turnaround | 6–7 business days after proof approval; 3–4 day rush on request |
| Artwork | PDF, AI or EPS at 300 dpi with 3 mm bleed — one file works across the range |
Which sleeve do you need for what you serve?
Pick the sleeve by shape first and by mess second. Ask two questions about the item: is it round and stacked, long and thin, or soft and rolled — and does anything run out of it while someone eats? Those two answers decide the dieline and the coating, and everything else is artwork.
Round stacked items — burgers, sliders, chicken sandwiches, brioche buns — need a band deep enough to stop the stack sliding apart, with a laminated face because sauce reaches the board within seconds. That is the job of custom printed burger sleeves.
Flat and folded items behave differently. A panini, wrap, burrito or club sandwich needs a wrap that holds the fold closed and leaves one end open so the filling is visible. Cut and depth for those sit on the sandwich and wrap sleeve page.
Long, thin items are their own case: a hot dog, brat, corn dog or taquito needs a narrow channel with a closed base so nothing drops out the bottom. Those are built as hot dog sleeves with a closed base.
Sweet counters and drinks
Bakery items are usually dry, which changes the spec. A glazed donut mainly needs the glaze kept off fingers and the print kept off the glaze, so an uncoated band on kraft or white board is often enough — see printed donut sleeves for bakery counters.
Mixed dessert menus are messier. Brownies, cake slices, churros, waffle sticks and rolled crepes all leave chocolate, butter or cream on the board, and the shapes vary week to week. A dessert counter running several of these is better served by dessert sleeves built for mixed menus than by a burger band cut down.
Hot cups have the opposite problem: nothing leaks, but the cup is too hot to hold. The sleeve is there for insulation and grip, so it is sized to your cup diameter rather than to a food item. That sizing sits on the coffee cup sleeve page.
Cold cups sweat instead. Condensation soaks a plain band and makes it slip, which is why iced coffee, boba and smoothie cups take a coated beverage sleeve for cold drinks.
Sleeve, tray or wrap: which one to reach for
A sleeve is for one item in one hand. It holds shape, keeps the food visible, and puts your artwork at the height a customer and everyone around them looks at. It uses the least board of the three, which is why it is the cheapest per serving and the easiest to store flat.
A tray takes over when there is more than one thing, or when the food will not stand up on its own — loaded fries, a burger with sides, several cones at once. It carries a lot more print area but takes far more space in a stockroom. Our open food trays for counters and events cover that side.
A paper wrap or foil costs least and seals best for heat, but it hides the food completely, creases the moment it is handled, and shows grease across whatever you printed on it. It is a good inner layer under a sleeve and a poor substitute for one.
Board, coating and printing across the range
Every sleeve type runs on the same three stocks, so a mixed order stays visually consistent.
- White SBS cardstock — brightest ground, truest colors, best for photography and pastel palettes. The usual choice when the sleeve sits next to printed cups.
- Natural kraft — warm brown, reads as artisan. Ink shifts warmer on it, so one- and two-color logos hold up better than photographic art.
- Recycled board — flecked and visibly reclaimed, for operators leading on waste. Print sharpness is close to white board.
Coating is decided per item, not per order. Fried, sauced and buttered foods get a laminated inner face; dry bakery items and cup sleeves are usually better uncoated, which keeps them in the paper recycling stream. Full-color CMYK covers most artwork, and Pantone spot printing is worth it when one exact brand color has to match across cups, sleeves and trays. The trade-offs are set out in our note on sleeve materials and coating choices.
Where these are used
- Quick-service restaurant groups
- Independent cafés and delis
- Food trucks and street carts
- Stadium and arena concessions
- Delivery-only ghost kitchens
- Event and festival catering
- Hotel grab-and-go counters
- Convenience store hot cases
Not sure on size?
Send a sample or a photo with a ruler beside it and we cut the dieline to fit. There is no charge for the dieline or the digital proof.
Ask a questionHow the order runs
- You send sizes, quantity and artwork, or just a photo of the item.
- We build the dieline and come back with a written price.
- You approve a digital proof with your artwork laid on it.
- We print, cut and ship, with tracking on the carton.
Materials and printing
Board and print, side by side
Three boards and three ways to print on them. Every combination below is quoted the same way, so the choice is about how you want the packaging to feel in the hand.
Choose the board
Natural kraft
Unbleached brown board. Ink sits into the surface rather than on top of it, which mutes bright colors and reads as craft and small-batch.
Recycled board
Post-consumer fiber with a slight fleck through it. It takes a one or two color mark well and tells the customer what it is without a claim printed on it.
Choose how it prints
Full-color CMYK
Four process inks. The right choice when the artwork is a photograph, an illustration or anything with a gradient in it.
Single-color logo
One ink on plain board. It is the least expensive way to print a run and, on kraft, it is often the better looking one.
Pantone spot colors
A mixed ink matched to a Pantone reference. Use it when a brand color has to be exact across every reprint.
Food Sleeves designer
Design your food sleeves
Build the specification for food sleeves step by step — size, board, print and finish — and send it for a quote. Five short steps, no account.
Questions
Food Sleeves: common questions
What is a food sleeve?
It is a printed paper band or open wrap that goes around a handheld food item so it can be held cleanly and carried without a plate. Unlike a box, it leaves the food visible and uses far less board, and unlike foil it holds its shape and takes full-color print.
Is the 500 minimum per sleeve type or per order?
Per design. If you order burger, hot dog and coffee sleeves, that is 500 of each, not 500 in total. It is set that way so a single site can stock three types without committing to a pallet of any one of them. Volume pricing starts at 1,000 per design.
Which food sleeve works for wraps and burritos?
The sandwich sleeve dieline, cut longer and tapered. A wrap is held from the bottom and eaten from the top, so the sleeve needs to grip the lower two thirds and stay closed as the wrap shortens. A burger band is too shallow and slides straight off.
Do all food sleeves need a grease barrier?
No, and adding one everywhere wastes money. Fried, sauced and buttered items need a laminated face. Donuts, muffins, cookies and hot cup sleeves generally do not, and skipping the laminate keeps those sleeves fully recyclable. We spec it item by item on your quote.
Do food sleeves keep food warm?
They slow heat loss and, more usefully, keep the heat off the hand — board is a poor conductor. But a sleeve is open at the top, so it is not a heat-retention product. If holding temperature is the priority you want a closed carton, with the sleeve used as the branded outer.
Can I print the same artwork across every sleeve type?
Yes, and it is the cheapest way to look consistent. Send one logo and color palette and we adapt the layout to each dieline, since a narrow hot dog sleeve and a wide burger band cannot use the same crop. You approve a proof for each type before anything prints.
What is the difference between a food sleeve and a food wrap?
A sleeve is a pre-cut, pre-glued paper form that holds its own shape and slides on in one motion. A wrap is a flat sheet folded around the food by hand. Sleeves are faster during a rush and print better; wraps seal more completely and cost less per piece.
Do you make sleeves for ice cream and cones as well?
We do — cone packaging is where the company started. Anything served in a baked cone runs on a different, tapered dieline, and those sit under printed ice cream cone sleeves. Restaurants that serve both order cone and food sleeves together and print them to match.
Related products
Often ordered alongside
Free quote · No obligation
Tell us your cone, we will price the sleeve
Send your size, quantity and artwork. You get a written quote and a free digital proof before anything goes to press.