The short answer
- Screen prices on colours and setup; digital on area; embroidery on stitches; vinyl on labour
- That is why a design can be cheap in one and expensive in another at the same quantity
- Quote the method that suits the job, and show one alternative — not five
- Customers coming from screen pricing find digital counter-intuitive; explain once
- Know your own crossover quantities rather than deciding per quote
A customer asks what it costs to put a design on fifty shirts, and the honest answer depends on a method they have not chosen and probably do not know exists. Explaining that badly makes you sound evasive; explaining it well makes you sound like the expert in the room.
The underlying point is simple: each method has a different cost driver, so the same design behaves differently in each.
Why they price differently
| Method | Priced by | Barely affected by |
|---|---|---|
| Screen | Colour count and setup | Print size |
| DTG | Coverage and garment colour | Colour count |
| DTF | Area of the transfer | Colour count |
| Embroidery | Stitch count and handling | Colour count, up to a point |
| Vinyl | Weeding labour | Quantity, unhelpfully |
Read the last column. In screen printing, doubling the print size changes very little; in DTF it roughly doubles the film cost. In screen, a fourth colour is a whole extra screen; in digital it is free. Those are opposite intuitions, and a customer carrying one into a conversation about the other will be confused by your quote.
A fourth colour is free in digital and costs a screen in screen printing. Customers do not know that, and your quote looks arbitrary until they do.
What drives each
Screen is dominated by setup — screens per colour, makeready and reclaim, none of which shrink with quantity. So it is expensive at low quantity and very cheap at high, and each colour adds a fixed cost.
DTG is dominated by ink, particularly white on dark garments where the underbase is most of the consumption. Colour count is irrelevant; garment colour matters enormously.
DTF is dominated by film area, priced per square inch. A full back genuinely costs meaningfully more than a chest print, which surprises people used to screen.
Embroidery is dominated by stitch count and by handling — hooping, colour changes, difficult placements — plus a one-off digitising charge.
Vinyl is dominated by weeding, which happens per garment. It is the only method where cost per piece barely falls with quantity.
Where they cross over
Every shop has quantities where one method overtakes another, and they depend on your own costs. Work them out once rather than re-deriving them per quote.
| Job | Usually |
|---|---|
| 1–12, multi-colour | DTF or DTG |
| 12–50, one or two colours | Depends — calculate yours |
| 50+, one to four colours | Screen |
| Photographic, any quantity | Digital, or simulated process at volume |
| Names and numbers | Vinyl |
| Polos, caps, corporate | Embroidery |
The second row is the one worth calculating properly for your shop, because it is where most enquiries land and where guessing costs the most. Build the cost of one job both ways at 12, 24, 36 and 48 and find where the lines cross.
Presenting the options
Lead with a recommendation. A customer given five methods with prices will not choose well, and offering everything transfers a decision they are not equipped to make.
The shape that works
- One recommended method with a price and a one-line reason
- One alternative, with what it changes — cheaper, softer, faster
- Both with the same delivery date, or say why they differ
- No more than two options
For example: "Screen printing at $X each — best value at this quantity and the most durable. Alternatively DTF at $Y, which we could turn around three days sooner if the date is tight." That is a decision a customer can make.
Where a method genuinely will not work, say so rather than pricing it. Quoting DTG on polyester because the customer asked is setting up a failure you will pay for.
Common confusions
| They ask | Explain |
|---|---|
| "Why is a bigger print more here?" | Digital prices by area; screen does not |
| "Why is one colour the same as four?" | Digital has no per-colour cost |
| "Why is 12 nearly the price of 48?" | Screen setup does not shrink |
| "Why does the dark shirt cost more?" | White underbase, in ink and time |
| "Why is embroidery dearer on this logo?" | Stitch count and colour changes |
Each of those has a one-sentence answer, and having the sentence ready is the difference between sounding expert and sounding defensive. Customers rarely object once they understand the mechanism — they object to a number that appears to have no reason behind it.
Mixed-method orders
Some jobs need two methods on one order — screen-printed fronts with embroidered caps, or a printed design with vinyl names. Those are two production jobs sharing a delivery date, and they should be priced as two.
The mistake is quoting a blended per-garment figure. It hides the second setup, it makes the quote impossible to adjust when the customer changes one part, and it usually undercharges because the smaller half carries a full setup of its own.
Itemise by method, and state clearly that both are included in the one delivery date. A customer who can see that the caps are a separate job understands why removing them changes the price — and can make that decision sensibly.
Choosing for the customer
Four questions settle nearly every job, and asking them makes the recommendation obvious.
Ask before quoting
- How many? The main driver of method
- What garment? Fabric rules some methods out entirely
- Light or dark? Changes digital cost substantially
- Will they handle it before buying? Hand feel decides retail work
Then quote what you would choose if it were your money, and say why in one line. That is what customers are actually buying from a local decorator rather than a website — the judgement, applied to their job.
Keep your crossover numbers current. Blank prices, ink prices and your own labour all move, and a crossover calculated two years ago may be in the wrong place — which is worth checking whenever you review prices. The rest of the pricing archive assumes you know where your methods cross.
