Custom screen printing quotes can feel like a mystery — same design, different shops, different numbers. But pricing isn’t random. Once you understand what drives the cost, quotes start to make a lot more sense.
Here’s a plain-English breakdown of the five main factors.
1. Quantity — and why more shirts means less per shirt.
This is the biggest lever in screen printing pricing. Every job has setup costs — separating colors, preparing screens — and those costs are the same whether you’re printing 24 shirts or 500. When you spread that fixed cost across a larger quantity, the price per piece drops significantly. That’s why the jump from 48 to 72 shirts can save you more per shirt than it might seem.
The sweet spot for most orders is somewhere between 50–100+ pieces, where you start to see meaningful per-unit savings without committing to a warehouse full of shirts.
2. The blank itself — garment choice matters.
The shirt is part of the cost. A premium tri-blend or a next-level retail fit costs more than a basic 100% cotton tee, and that difference shows up in your total. If budget is tight, choosing a solid mid-weight basic is an easy way to keep costs in check without sacrificing print quality. If the shirt needs to feel premium because it represents your brand, that cost is usually worth it.
3. Number of ink colors — each color is its own screen.
Screen printing works by laying down one color at a time. Each color in your design requires a separate screen to be made and a separate pass through the press. A one-color logo is fast and inexpensive to set up. A six-color full-front design takes more setup, more press time, and costs more to produce.
If budget is a concern, simplifying your design to two or three colors is one of the most effective ways to bring the price down — and the print often looks cleaner for it.
4. Print locations — front only vs. front and back.
Adding a back print, a sleeve hit, or a pocket logo means additional setups and additional press time. Each location is treated almost like a separate print job layered onto the same shirt. One front print is the most efficient. Every location after that adds cost — but can also add a lot of value when done intentionally.
5. Artwork setup fees.
Before we can print, your design has to be production-ready — colors separated, screens burned. If your file arrives print-ready as a clean vector, setup is minimal. If artwork needs to be rebuilt, recolored, or vectorized from scratch, there’s additional time involved. Coming in with a clean file in the right format is one of the easiest ways to keep costs down and avoid delays.
Understanding these five factors won’t give you a number, but it will help you have a smarter conversation about what you actually need — and where you might have room to adjust.
Ready for an actual quote? Reach out to Sunshine State Threads and we’ll walk through your project, help you make smart decisions, and get you pricing that makes sense for your order.
