# average price for silk screen set up?



## DaDonkWear

i found a person that is going to do silk screen printing of my design into t-shirts.

However, he said that he is going to have to charge a one time fee of $200 for the screen set-up. He said because there is a lot of colors in my design, it costs more for the seperation of colors.

He also said that it will cost 8 dollars a shirt for 100 shirts. So that will be a total of $1000, but if I decide to go with him again it will be $800 for 100 shirts.

I was wondering if the prices that he is giving me the average going rate for other T-Shirt Printing Co. and/or if his prices are fair and/or reasonable?

I understand that the screen set up price will depend on the design that is being printed. My design is a cartoonish picture of a donkey. The main colors used in the design are black, white, gray, and red. However, there are different shades of gray is used for the donkey. The best example will be a picture of the donkey from Shrek.

I'm very tight on money right now, but I do want to get my design printed silk-screen but at the best price available. 

Thanks in advance.


----------



## God Father

For each color in the shirt they'll need to make a different screen. When making a screen you have to have A. The screens, B. The emulsion, C. Expose Image, D. Wash Out, E. Register, F. Print (assuming these will be screen printed)

$200 initial set up fee doesn't sound too crazy, though I don't know what other places charge. And if the shirt has like 7 or 8 colors in it $8/shirt doesn't sound crazy either as the more colors the shirt has the more time it takes.


----------



## Tonio

i'm not 100% sure on this but that to me seems abit high i'm now having artwork done and printing from a company and i'm not at $8 a shirts but i'm still green at this and that maybe aveage i think it has a lot to do with the company diff companies charge diff prices  know this was not saying too much but hope it helps

here the website TDC Screen Printing v1.0
if you would like to compare prices


----------



## markthenewguy

youve got 4 colors in your image and an average screen fee might be around $25. so that should be about $100 for screen fees. thats if you are printing on one side. if you have 4 colors on the front and 4 on the back then it would be $200. 

its usually about $25 per color per side for screen fees.


----------



## INKSCREENS

We don't charge screen set ups unless you are under our contract price clients. 

Prices vary from $0 to $35 each color.


----------



## DaDonkWear

markthenewguy said:


> youve got 4 colors in your image and an average screen fee might be around $25. so that should be about $100 for screen fees. thats if you are printing on one side. if you have 4 colors on the front and 4 on the back then it would be $200.
> 
> its usually about $25 per color per side for screen fees.


 
What you mean by 4 colors on the front and 4 colors in the back? 

I'm assuming front of the shirt and back of the shirt.

What I don't get is, why it would be $200 dollars if your using the same screen to print the front and the back? Shouldn't it be $100 since your using the same screen?

Another question I forgot to ask is, do i have to pay another screen set up fee for the same design, but if i wanted it to be printed smaller or bigger on the t-shirt?


----------



## God Father

If you had a different design on the back than you did on the front and each design used four colors you would need to set up 8 screens. 

Also, if yo uwanted to do the same design different sizes you'd have to make all new screens for each of the different sizes.


----------



## markthenewguy

i meant front of shirt and back of shirt. 

are you getting the exact same design on the back as on the front? if you got the exact same design on both sides of the shirt then they would could use the same screens and charge less. 

and yes its more screen fees to change the size of the design because they have to burn new screens to make the design bigger or smaller.


----------



## brent

I don't charge screen set up for pretty big/high profit jobs, or friends, other than that I normally charge $10 per screen...


----------



## ffokazak

I charge 25$ every time. For a 23X31" Screen I charge 35$. Reason being is the image is bigger, you use more ink, and my 17"X22" Ink-jet transparencies ain't cheep!


----------



## macmiller

the prices seem good to me. it's not as cheap to start as many think

post a pic of the design, if perhaps they are going on black, you could eliminate the black screen, and use halftones in white for the greys. you'll reduce it by 2 colors. making the seps easier and using less screens.


----------



## vipgraphx

I have started out screen printing recently. I started out with vinyl and heat transfers and recently bought a 6 color 4 station press with the works..flash dryer conveyor dryer, wash out booths chemicals and screens and printer/supplies..

This equipent is not cheap. I charge 25 set up fee per color which includes screen fee and if artwork is ready to be screened. IF the art work needs to be redrawn I charge $25 an hour. IF you are printing on dark shirts multiple colors an extra $25 for a flash plate.

So lets say you have 4 colors and you wanted to print on black..If the design did not have white in it It would be a total of five screens one for the flash plate..

NOw if the design and shading and many colors more than 4 ..I would highly reccomend 4 color proccess printing. This method prints CMYK and you need RIP software to do this. 

YOu print in half tones in a CMYK ink and basically can make photo quality prints on a shirt..only 4 screens on light colors and 5 on dark.

My price for 25 shirts for 1 color is $8-$9 colors and $6-$7 whites..each color after that would be $25 screen fee and would include the color the first time around..

If you wanted more and screens were made I would charge $8-$9 dark and 6-$7 whites and $2 per color plus sizes would add 1-2$ each X..

Also I charge reset up fees of $5 if inbetween printing time was longer than a few weeks..

Chemicals are expensive...There is alot that goes on into screen printing. It is really best for 1 color 25 or more shirts...OR large quantity orders..

Otherwise I would push vinyl BUT you are limited to what you can do with vinyl vs silkscreen...

Hope this helps..


----------



## n.signia

we charge $15 per screen preparation. Screen prep takes time and material, neither of which are free, so I feel we need to charge them.


----------



## Grande Designs

$25.00 per color here 4 color front and 4 color back 8x25 =$200


----------



## providerex

Good day folks. I am new as you can tell. hope all is doing great.
I am getting into the shirt business (like the other 50 million folks)
but All of my designs are gray scale per say. and I was wondering if you draw something all in pencil and scan it and want it in silk screen. how many colors are we talking about?

I am being told that there are a potential of having 100's of colors when coloring with only black pencil (shading) as each shade of gray will be a new color.

is this true?
is there a way around this?


----------



## out da box

???????? 

Greyscale is....... Black, white, and shades therein. You may be able to assign a particular color to a particular shade of grey, but I'm having trouble figuring out what you're talking about, ALI.


----------



## providerex

ok. I am sure I am not explaining it right. I am way new to all this.








maybe the drawing sample will help best.
this entire drawing is done in pencil
I was told that is no good as it is many colors.
due to different gray colors.

how hard would it be to create a silk screen for this?


----------



## out da box

Nice drawing. Printing it depends (I know we say this a lot, but...) How close to the original hand drawn art do you need it to be? You could do it with just one color- black or 6 or more colors, or cmyk which is 4 color process. Really depends on how critical it is for the finished product to be like the original.
Even though it's pencil, it looks on the screen like there's very subtle colors and hues in it, which BTW is VERY hard to reproduce in the silkscreen process IMHO.


----------



## providerex

tanks for the complement.
but I really want the finish product to look identical to what I see and draw. 
so because of that I was told to stick with iron-on's till I get adequate orders for sales. than it would be worth spending few hundred bucks on the silk screens.


is there a way to reduce my colors? say go from as many shades to a different setting? assuming on a program like illustrator or photo shop?


----------



## out da box

With photoshop you can make it look anyway you want to. Here is a one color halftone at 65 lpi and a closeup of the dots.


----------



## HeadstrongSC

providerex said:


> good day folks. I am new as you can tell. Hope all is doing great.
> I am getting into the shirt business (like the other 50 million folks)
> but all of my designs are gray scale per say. And i was wondering if you draw something all in pencil and scan it and want it in silk screen. How many colors are we talking about?
> 
> I am being told that there are a potential of having 100's of colors when coloring with only black pencil (shading) as each shade of gray will be a new color.
> 
> Is this true?
> Is there a way around this?


halftones !!!


----------



## providerex

Please speak to me as if i am slow. lol halftone? what the heck is that? can i do it with simple instructions?
why did the picture get dotty? what are those dotts?
teach me I will draw for you. lol


----------



## out da box

Halftones are magic! Screen printing is a digital process. Why? Because either ink prints to the shirt or it dont. There is no in between- it's like 0's and 1's. Black and white. Halftones allow you to fool the eye into thinking that there is a shade of grey when actually there is only a pattern of black and white dots. You have to have a rip, or postscript printer or laser printer to print halftones though. There are some threads on a program called Ghost Script, which makes the halftones that you can then print to any desktop printer.


----------



## providerex

out da box said:


> Halftones are magic! Screen printing is a digital process. Why? Because either ink prints to the shirt or it dont. There is no in between- it's like 0's and 1's. Black and white. Halftones allow you to fool the eye into thinking that there is a shade of grey when actually there is only a pattern of black and white dots. You have to have a rip, or postscript printer or laser printer to print halftones though. There are some threads on a program called Ghost Script, which makes the halftones that you can then print to any desktop printer.



Ahhh. I get it. I get it.
that makes sense. I will start reading about them. 
would htey be printed on a HP J3680 ink jet?


----------



## out da box

Any desktop printer will print the file I posted. But, I had already ripped the file.


----------



## providerex

what do you mean Rip The File?
and how long does it take to transform from my design to halftone? or is it simply automated?


----------



## out da box

It's automated. Do a search for "RIP" and read up.


----------



## providerex

will do my good sir.
Thanks for the help so far.
I am sure I will be picking your brain more.


----------



## thiswayinc.

ive done business with a few and it seems that i have gone from $25 a screen to about $15 a screen depending on size. The size and complexity make a small diff. if you can do your own art that helps. also if you can get your own blanks that helps. but over all the more you can do for them the more they can do for you. The set up fees suck but if yopu can get in with a company and stay there they are usally more than willing to help out where they can. everyone else is right though this stuff aint cheap and it is defanitly not free although i have noticed that if you work with your printer enough and you sell sell sell and always come back to them they have bought things just for you and are a lil more willing to send the savings on to you. only a year into this and im still not in the positive margin but i have money to burn on new product. cant wait to get my own press


----------



## sister1

I charge $20.00/screen for initial set-up on a design, but if the customer wants a back image and a left chest logo, I put them both on one screen and charge accordingly. Also, since 6 dozen is a good order for me, I waive one screen charge at that level and up to three if they order 12 dozen or more. The one thing I'm not good about is resizing. Most customers do not want to pay the extra screen fees to shrink an image down to fit on toddler T's; they think they will be fine with having a huge image on the little shirts. I just can't do it; it usually looks terrible, so if they order is large enough (like 100 or more shirts), and only one or two colors, I go ahead and resize without telling them I'm going to do it, and throw it in for free, because I really want the shirts to look good (helps with future business and referrals).


----------



## providerex

where are you out of Trudi?
could get the screen shipped to me so I can use them with my printers?


----------



## krokker

A pencil drawing may have many shades, but when printed using a RIP program this can be done easily with one screen/color. I am still new at this, but I find these to be simple to set up and quick to print, even with my minimal setup.


----------



## Free Man

I realize this is an old post, but old posts are always brought up from searching. The info. is still good later. Any how, one thing that I see here being missed is the fact that the printer is not charging set up fee again later. This makes your value even greater, because for your set up cost this means you own the screen, and the printer is storing it for you, so it can be used again later with no future set up fee. I some times offer to sell screens to a customer and store them for them if they will be a repeater. Screen sale price is twice the cost of the screen plus twice the set up fee. If some one is repeating the order it is a good deal for both.


----------



## Stitches

I beg to differ. The owner of the screen is the printer. When you pay for a setup for the screen, you are paying for the supplies (emulsion, film, degreaser, degradient, reclaiming chemicals, de-hazer) and labor to create the screen.


----------



## hektor007

Stitches said:


> I beg to differ. The owner of the screen is the printer. When you pay for a setup for the screen, you are paying for the supplies (emulsion, film, degreaser, degradient, reclaiming chemicals, de-hazer) and labor to create the screen.


kind of an old post sorry for bumping so pretty much if they told me they charge 30 per color and i have 6 colors it will be 180 total 
and they told me minimum order is 36shirts so each shirts comes out to 5$ dollars. if i do more shirts the price for each shirt drops?
am i on the right track?


----------



## krokker

Yes, the more you buy the cheaper per piece (to a point). Shorter runs require the same setup and cleanup time as a longer run.


----------



## dreamzinc1313

to whom it may concern

my name is Charlie Martinez. my contact number is: 208-556-5306. i have a design i'd like to get a quote on, i have several designs. However; id like to get a quote on getting my design printed using one color. id like to know the various prices on sizes,colors and brand of shirts.

sincerly

charlie martinez


----------

