What is a digipak?

Digipaks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipaks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipak that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background. Digipaks were first created by MeadWestvaco. One of the most recent albums having an digipak only release on US is Teenage Dream by Katy Perry.

 

Digipak templates usually have six panels but can have four. The six panel template consists of; a CD tray, 2 inner panels, a back panel, a front panel and a fold in panel. An example of a typical digipak template is on the left. Some digipaks have 2 CD trays so that they can have a CD and DVD in it. At the moment I think that when I come to make my digipak that I will have 2 trays, these trays will hold the album CD and the video I have produced.