Printing
Screen printing vs DTG: which one your order actually needs
Most articles on this compare the two processes in the abstract. We run both machines every day, so here are our real numbers, the exact rule we use to decide, and a calculator that will price your job before you finish reading.
The short answer
If you are ordering 12 shirts or more and your design has four colours or fewer, you want screen printing, and it is not close. Below 12 shirts, or above four colours, or if your design is a photograph, you want direct-to-garment.
That is the whole decision. Everything below is why, with the actual prices.
What the two processes actually are
Screen printing
A stencil — the screen — is made for each colour in your design. Ink is pushed through the screen onto the shirt, one colour at a time, then cured with heat. The work is all up front: once the screens exist, running the two hundredth shirt costs barely more than running the twelfth.
That front-loading is the entire economic story. It is why screen printing is punishing on six shirts and unbeatable on two hundred.
Direct-to-garment
DTG is closer to an inkjet printer built for fabric. The garment is pre-treated, then the art is sprayed straight onto the fibres. No screens, no stencils, nothing to set up. Every shirt costs the same as the one before it, and the machine does not care whether your design has two colours or two thousand.
So DTG has no floor to climb down from — and no ceiling to gain from either.
The rule we use, every time
We do not ask customers to choose. We decide from two numbers you already know: how many shirts, and how many colours are in the design.
- Under 12 shirts → DTG. Making a screen for every colour before a single shirt runs costs more than the shirts do.
- 12 or more, four colours or fewer → screen printing. This is where it gets cheap, and it keeps getting cheaper.
- Five or more colours, or a photograph → DTG, whatever the quantity. Past four colours you are paying for a screen per colour and the arithmetic stops working.
What it actually costs
These are our real printing prices, one location on the front. This is the printing only — the blank shirt is on top of it.
| Shirts | Screen, 1 colour | Screen, 2 colour | DTG | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | $20.00 | $20.00 | $17.14 | DTG |
| 12 | $12.00 | $14.75 | $15.64 | Screen |
| 24 | $7.85 | $9.85 | $14.64 | Screen |
| 36 | $6.50 | $8.00 | $13.64 | Screen |
| 100 | $4.42 | $5.70 | $10.64 | Screen |
Printing cost per shirt, front only. Highlighted cell is the cheaper process at that quantity. Prices are from our live price list, not estimates.
Read the columns, not the rows
Two things are happening in that table and they are worth separating.
DTG barely moves. From six shirts to a hundred it drops from $17.14 to $10.64 — useful, but it is one shirt through a printer every time, so there is a floor it never gets under. It also does not care how many colours are in your art. The DTG column would be identical for a four-colour logo or a photograph.
Screen printing falls off a cliff. $20.00 at six shirts, $4.42 at a hundred. Once the screens exist, each extra shirt is ink and a pull of the squeegee. At 100 pieces screen printing costs less than half what DTG costs for the same shirt.
The practical version: if you are ordering a dozen or more and your design is a logo rather than a photograph, screen printing is your answer. And the fastest way to bring your price down is to order more shirts — not to simplify your art.
Going from 24 shirts to 36 takes a one-colour print from $7.85 to $6.50 each. You get 12 more shirts and the whole order gets cheaper per piece.
Price your own job
This is the same calculator that runs on our quote page, using the same price list. Would you like to find out your price without the hassle of a phone call or email? Tell it what you are printing and it applies the rule above and gives you the real number.
When DTG wins even on a big order
Quantity is not the only thing that decides it. DTG is the right call regardless of how many you are ordering when:
- The design is a photograph, or has gradients, soft shadows or a glow. Those cannot be cleanly separated onto screens — which is also why so many AI-generated designs end up on DTG.
- There are five or more colours. Each one needs its own screen, and the cost climbs faster than the quantity discount brings it down.
- Every shirt is different — names, numbers, individual designs. Screens are made per design, so a hundred different shirts means a hundred setups.
- You need a very small run of something detailed, like a handful of samples before committing.
Which one lasts longer?
The honest answer is that both hold up when they are done properly, and they fail differently.
Screen printing puts down a thicker layer of ink that sits on top of the fabric. On a cotton work shirt washed every week for two years, that is what you want. DTG soaks into the fibres, so it has a softer hand and far finer detail, and on a dark garment it depends more on the pre-treatment being right.
If the shirt is going to be abused — uniforms, kitchens, job sites — screen print it. If the design has photographic detail that screens cannot hold, DTG, and accept the trade.
What this means for your artwork
The process changes what file we need from you.
- Vector — .ai, .eps, .pdf or .svg
- Each colour has to separate onto its own screen
- Flat colour. No gradients, no soft shadows
- Fonts outlined, or tell us the font
- PNG with a genuinely transparent background
- Large enough to print at full size, not a thumbnail
- Unlimited colours, gradients are fine
- A white square behind your logo prints as a white square
Only have a JPG and you want screen printing? That is not a dead end. We redraw artwork as vector all the time, and we tell you before we do it and before anything runs. Would you like us to look at your file and tell you what it needs before you commit to anything? Send it over using the link at the bottom of this page.
How fast can you get it
Standard runs are 7–14 days. Rush is 48–72 hours when we can move it up the schedule. Same day is sometimes possible with a 24 piece minimum — call and we will tell you straight whether we can do it today.
The clock starts when your artwork is approved, not when you place the order. A print-ready vector file gets you moving the same day. A logo we have to redraw and get signed off adds time before we touch a shirt.
Have a date you cannot move? Tell us when you order rather than after, and we will tell you straight whether we can hit it — the number is at the bottom of this page.
Common questions
Is screen printing or DTG cheaper?
Under 12 shirts, DTG. From 12 up, screen printing, and the gap widens fast — at 100 shirts a one-colour screen print costs $4.42 a shirt to print against $10.64 for DTG.
How many colours can you screen print?
Every colour needs its own screen, so the cost rises with each one. Up to four, screen printing is normally right. At five or more, or for a photograph, DTG is cheaper and cleaner because it has no colour limit and no setup.
Is there a setup fee?
No setup fee, ever. The screen cost is already inside the per-piece price, which is exactly why the per-shirt figure drops so sharply as quantity rises.
An artwork fee applies only if you don’t have the source files. Bring the print-ready vector and there is no fee at all. AI images nearly always need converting, because they are pixels rather than a source file. Either way we tell you before anything runs.
Can you print on hoodies, polos and long sleeve too?
Yes, and the same rule applies. The calculator above carries our real blank prices for tees, long sleeve, crewnecks, hoodies, zip hoodies and polos, so you can price any of them.
What if I only have a photo of a shirt with my logo on it?
Send the logo, not the shirt. If we have to cut a logo back out of a photograph we end up with a lower-quality copy of the artwork you already had somewhere. The original file is always better.
Want the next one?
We publish one of these a week — real numbers off our own price list, no fluff. Would you like to know when the next one goes up? Leave your email and we’ll tell you.
Just new posts. No sales blasts, and you can tell us to stop any time.
Got your number? Send us the design
You have the price from the calculator above. Send us your artwork and we will confirm it — tell you straight whether it will print, what it needs if it will not, and lock the final number before anything runs. Black-owned and veteran-owned, in Capitol Heights since 2016.
Would you like us to confirm your price and check your artwork before you commit to anything? Click below.
Send your artwork for a quote (202) 643-7805