# Screen Printing vs DTG T-Shirt Pricing



## VectorKing (Mar 1, 2007)

I have been screen printing for a while now and have a pricing structure that I use which is determined by colors in the logo, print locations, lights vs darks(garment price & flashing), and quantity breaks. I have been contemplating purchasing a DTG printer for orders with low quantities or many colors in the logo but I am unsure of how to go about pricing these orders. I have read that most DTG printers cost $3-$4 for the ink doing a full front logo, but can anyone advise me on if there is a point where you start doing quantity breaks for larger quantities? Right now our minimum order for screen printing is 6 pieces, but if I get an order for a job that small with a lot of colors in the logo it does not make sense to screen print it due to the extensive set up costs. I want to be able to accomodate all of my customers but need to get a better understanding on exactly how the DTG pricing works. Any info would be greatly appreciated!


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## fdsales (Jul 1, 2007)

Understand that with a DTG printer, you are only printing one shirt (one side) at a time. It will take the same amount of time to print a shirt whether you print 1 or 1,000, as the printer can only move at a constant speed. print times will vary depending whether you print with a white base, and then have to print color on top if it, or just printing lite shirts with one pass.
It's not only the cost of the ink, but cost of labor, depreciation cost on your equipment, insurance, etc. Also understand that this industry is changing rapidly, so you may want to trade out your machine in 2-4 years, unlike screen print equipment that most users keep for many years.
Also, understand that you can NOT use a DTG in the same area that you screen print. These machines need to be in a climate controlled room, away from spray tack, garment "fuzz" and all the other airborne stuff generated w/ screen printing, so you may need to factor that cost into your pricing. Really do your homework here. I've been in to screen-printing for 23 years, and this process is totally different, and the learning curve is steep & very time consuming, so if you do your own screen printing now, you will either have to hire someone to print for you while you learn the DTG system, or split your time between screen printing & learning the system.


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Check these links out as well:

- Inkjet Garment Printing / Digital Garment Printing Forums and Information on DTG Printing 
- Inkjet Garment Printing / Digital Garment Printing Forums and Information on DTG Printing 
- http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t9165.html 
- http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t40521.html 

They all come from Page 39 of the dtg 101: Guide to Direct-to-Garment Printing. It talks about the business side of dtg printing. Might want to check it out as well.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

We are relocating, so I am not taking any local DTG printing jobs. But, you can take a look at the pricing scale we used, last year:

T-Shirt Pricing

It's on the high side, due to our local market, so you will need to compare to your screen printing schedule and adjust to your own local community.


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## treadhead (Jul 26, 2006)

Gunslinger said:


> We are relocating, so I am not taking any local DTG printing jobs. But, you can take a look at the pricing scale we used, last year:
> 
> T-Shirt Pricing
> 
> It's on the high side, due to our local market, so you will need to compare to your screen printing schedule and adjust to your own local community.


Hey Michael.....have you figured out wher you are relocating to yet??

To be honest...I've already checked out your pricing and used it as a model for our DTG pricing... Hope you didn't mind??

But...if you cared to share...I wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about what went into the numbers.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

Hiya John! (did you get my last reply? ... gonna have to start calling your office, if you keep losing my e-mails!!! )

Not sure exactly, but Debz is focused on Texas, mostly likely Dallas/Fort Worth area. The artsy community feel of Austin is attractive, and Debz has some family around Houston. With the floods that happened to Missouri, it's no longer an option (argh ... woulda been nice to be a real Rams fan, again).

Naw, go ahead and use our pricing verbatum, if you can get away with it! After negotiating with one client (twice, no less), I kinda felt we were 2-3 bucks higher than we need to be ... after the second exchange with the same client, I think he was using us to get a better deal, elsewhere, lol.

It's hard to recall the exact formula, without talking to Debz (she crunches the numbers). The price sheet went through 3 major changes, before we settled with the one posted on the website. I think what Mark stated, and his I-paper gets you better in the ballpark.

But, we compared several online screen printers pricing (the few that actually post), with our costs to do shirts, and kept the very small orders to at or above the average retail for a t-shirt. LOL, I know that doesn't help much, but Debz asks me the info she needs, and puts the numbers together.


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## utrink (Apr 20, 2011)

Might there be an update? The link to T-shirt pricing had a trojan virus attatched.


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