What determines the price of a screen printing job? Lots of factors are involved and below is a comprehensive list for your consideration:
1. COLORS
There are two main aspects under the color factor; we shall look into the individually as follows:
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2. THE TYPE AND QUALITY OF THE GARMENT
Garments are not created equal, and it’s the screen printer’s job to comprehend what you’d like to achieve with your garment and offer you the best services. In that regard, the heavier the garment, the higher the cost.
You might be looking to use your apparels as promotional tools and decide to work with light-weight shirts (5 or 6 oz maybe). By going for a light-weight shirt, your job will not cost much and you’ll still have a great product to help you promote your business. After all, you won’t be using them for a long time; promotion is a seasonal affair.
Your shirt’s style is also an aspect to take into consideration when estimating your costs. Typical t-shirts are normally the most economical choice. On the other hand, styles like scoop neck, V-neck and tank tops will usually require you to dig deeper into your pockets.
3. QUANTITY OF YOUR ORDER
The bigger the order, the higher the cost, right? Not exactly. As a matter of fact, most screen printers have a policy that makes the price per shirt lower as the number of shirts you’re looking to print increases. Most companies have their own “minimum number” when giving bulk discounts to their clients.
However, there are a few screen printers out there who don’t require any minimum number, and they automatically reduce the price per shirt as the quantity of your order increases.
4. APPAREL SIZES
Contrary to what most people might think, the cost of screen-printing youth garments is usually higher than that of adult apparels. You might argue that youth garments have less fabric than adult ones, but the truth is, the size factor matters too.
Youth sports teams normally wear large shirts, making it more expensive to print on them.
Sizes like 2x-large and above are usually known as extended sizes. Depending on the type of garment you’re considering, extended sizes will usually cost you more than ordinary sizes.
5. THE FABRIC
When considering the cost of printing your garment based on its fabric, your cheapest option would be cotton. Whether we’re talking about pure cotton or cotton blended with other materials, cotton is always the cheapest material to print on.
Other types of fabric, especially nylon and moisture wicking, will cost you more.
6. DESIGN PLACEMENT
Typically, the print zones for shirts include the center part of the back, the center part of the front and the pocket zone on the left side of the chest area of the shirt.
Some firms will print on the sleeve of the shirt as a special placement; check with the company you’re looking to work with if you’d like such a print. Other screen printers consider such a print as a standard placement with no additional costs, and thus it’d be good to check with your printer to find out about their policies if you’re looking to save some cash.
You may also want to have your shirts printed on other areas, for instance, just under the neckline, at the rib area, and more. Most printers will charge you a little more per piece to print on such locations, as it takes a bit more time and effort to print.
Again, there are some companies that don’t charge extra for special placements; check with the firm you’re working with to confirm their policy on this matter. Keep in mind that they might not charge you extra for special placements but might recover the price in other ways.
7. TYPE OF INKS USED
Specialty inks like shimmers will usually increase the cost of your order. Likewise, items like rhinestones or sparkling elements will elevate the cost of your order.
8. ARTWORK
This is one of the factors that most people forget to take into consideration. Often, people will have an excellent idea of what they’d want their printing to be like and they even have a design they got from the web or one they had done by an artist.
Nevertheless, there are lots of myths surrounding artwork, and in a moment, we’re going to debunk the most common ones right here.
Myth 1 – I will just use the design I found on the internet and put it on my shirts
Okay, it’s great to improvise especially when you don’t have the time or skills to create a great design. However, there’s a slogan that printers follow, known as Garbage In Garbage Out (or simply GIGO).
If you’ve managed to freely pull something cool from the web and intend to use it as it is, you’re most likely going to end up with a low-resolution design.
A low-resolution design is going to be too difficult for your printer to print on your shirt effectively. If they try enlarging the image to make it big enough to put on that shirt, the resulting design will most certainly be grainy; not such a good sight, is it?
How can you use that free image you found online?
Some people might decide to enhance it using software but it that won’t make it as clear and crisp as you’d want. The graphic might appear vague and there is a good chance you will not be pleased with the results.
So, is there a way out?
Sure. What you can do is find someone with screen printing design skills to replicate a high definition copy of the image. Alternatively, you can talk to your printer and ask them if there is something they can do to ensure that the low-quality design comes out as a great graphic on the shirt. A good printer will know what to do, at the same price or at an extra charge.
Myth Two – My Graphic Designer Is an Expert at Designing Screen-Printing Artwork
While graphic designers are great at a whole lot of things, they may not be the best people to produce the design for your shirt unless they know how screen printing works.
Note, printing on apparels is not the same printing on brochures, flyers and business cards, and thus the designs to be placed on these two lines of printing will be varied.
We thought we should point that out because customers are often surprised that they need to have extra artwork performed on their files, thereby increasing the total cost.
Of course, the more you can give your printer, the less time they have to spend getting your files print-ready, and the less the associated charges.
On the other hand, if your files aren’t print-ready for apparel printing, then you’ve got to realize that your printer will more time preparing them, and that will add to the total cost.
9. SCREEN PRINTING SET UP FEES
The fundamental principle of screen printing is to push ink through screens onto the shirt. When your printer talks about the “screen printing set up fees”, they’re normally referring to the procedures involved in getting the screens ready to print your apparels.
We don’t want to get into too much detail regarding this issue but basically, here’s what the printer needs to do:
Prepare the screens so your designs can be exposed onto them
Expose your designs onto the screens
Clean the screen after the printing process is complete
Information found at https://www.hamblyscreenprints.com/cost-breakdown-screen-printing-shirt/
Garments are not created equal, and it’s the screen printer’s job to comprehend what you’d like to achieve with your garment and offer you the best services. In that regard, the heavier the garment, the higher the cost.
You might be looking to use your apparels as promotional tools and decide to work with light-weight shirts (5 or 6 oz maybe). By going for a light-weight shirt, your job will not cost much and you’ll still have a great product to help you promote your business. After all, you won’t be using them for a long time; promotion is a seasonal affair.
Your shirt’s style is also an aspect to take into consideration when estimating your costs. Typical t-shirts are normally the most economical choice. On the other hand, styles like scoop neck, V-neck and tank tops will usually require you to dig deeper into your pockets.
3. QUANTITY OF YOUR ORDER
The bigger the order, the higher the cost, right? Not exactly. As a matter of fact, most screen printers have a policy that makes the price per shirt lower as the number of shirts you’re looking to print increases. Most companies have their own “minimum number” when giving bulk discounts to their clients.
However, there are a few screen printers out there who don’t require any minimum number, and they automatically reduce the price per shirt as the quantity of your order increases.
4. APPAREL SIZES
Contrary to what most people might think, the cost of screen-printing youth garments is usually higher than that of adult apparels. You might argue that youth garments have less fabric than adult ones, but the truth is, the size factor matters too.
Youth sports teams normally wear large shirts, making it more expensive to print on them.
Sizes like 2x-large and above are usually known as extended sizes. Depending on the type of garment you’re considering, extended sizes will usually cost you more than ordinary sizes.
5. THE FABRIC
When considering the cost of printing your garment based on its fabric, your cheapest option would be cotton. Whether we’re talking about pure cotton or cotton blended with other materials, cotton is always the cheapest material to print on.
Other types of fabric, especially nylon and moisture wicking, will cost you more.
6. DESIGN PLACEMENT
Typically, the print zones for shirts include the center part of the back, the center part of the front and the pocket zone on the left side of the chest area of the shirt.
Some firms will print on the sleeve of the shirt as a special placement; check with the company you’re looking to work with if you’d like such a print. Other screen printers consider such a print as a standard placement with no additional costs, and thus it’d be good to check with your printer to find out about their policies if you’re looking to save some cash.
You may also want to have your shirts printed on other areas, for instance, just under the neckline, at the rib area, and more. Most printers will charge you a little more per piece to print on such locations, as it takes a bit more time and effort to print.
Again, there are some companies that don’t charge extra for special placements; check with the firm you’re working with to confirm their policy on this matter. Keep in mind that they might not charge you extra for special placements but might recover the price in other ways.
7. TYPE OF INKS USED
Specialty inks like shimmers will usually increase the cost of your order. Likewise, items like rhinestones or sparkling elements will elevate the cost of your order.
8. ARTWORK
This is one of the factors that most people forget to take into consideration. Often, people will have an excellent idea of what they’d want their printing to be like and they even have a design they got from the web or one they had done by an artist.
Nevertheless, there are lots of myths surrounding artwork, and in a moment, we’re going to debunk the most common ones right here.
Myth 1 – I will just use the design I found on the internet and put it on my shirts
Okay, it’s great to improvise especially when you don’t have the time or skills to create a great design. However, there’s a slogan that printers follow, known as Garbage In Garbage Out (or simply GIGO).
If you’ve managed to freely pull something cool from the web and intend to use it as it is, you’re most likely going to end up with a low-resolution design.
A low-resolution design is going to be too difficult for your printer to print on your shirt effectively. If they try enlarging the image to make it big enough to put on that shirt, the resulting design will most certainly be grainy; not such a good sight, is it?
How can you use that free image you found online?
Some people might decide to enhance it using software but it that won’t make it as clear and crisp as you’d want. The graphic might appear vague and there is a good chance you will not be pleased with the results.
So, is there a way out?
Sure. What you can do is find someone with screen printing design skills to replicate a high definition copy of the image. Alternatively, you can talk to your printer and ask them if there is something they can do to ensure that the low-quality design comes out as a great graphic on the shirt. A good printer will know what to do, at the same price or at an extra charge.
Myth Two – My Graphic Designer Is an Expert at Designing Screen-Printing Artwork
While graphic designers are great at a whole lot of things, they may not be the best people to produce the design for your shirt unless they know how screen printing works.
Note, printing on apparels is not the same printing on brochures, flyers and business cards, and thus the designs to be placed on these two lines of printing will be varied.
We thought we should point that out because customers are often surprised that they need to have extra artwork performed on their files, thereby increasing the total cost.
Of course, the more you can give your printer, the less time they have to spend getting your files print-ready, and the less the associated charges.
On the other hand, if your files aren’t print-ready for apparel printing, then you’ve got to realize that your printer will more time preparing them, and that will add to the total cost.
9. SCREEN PRINTING SET UP FEES
The fundamental principle of screen printing is to push ink through screens onto the shirt. When your printer talks about the “screen printing set up fees”, they’re normally referring to the procedures involved in getting the screens ready to print your apparels.
We don’t want to get into too much detail regarding this issue but basically, here’s what the printer needs to do:
Prepare the screens so your designs can be exposed onto them
Expose your designs onto the screens
Clean the screen after the printing process is complete
Information found at https://www.hamblyscreenprints.com/cost-breakdown-screen-printing-shirt/