What are screen printing setup fees?

What the screens actually are

Screen printing reproduces artwork mechanically, one color at a time, and every color needs its own physical stencil. Getting there takes three steps before a single shirt is printed. The artwork is separated into its individual colors and a film positive is output for each one. A mesh screen is coated with light-sensitive emulsion, exposed through that film and washed out, leaving an open stencil of exactly that color. Then the screens are mounted on the press and registered so the colors land precisely on top of each other.

That work takes the same time and the same materials whether the run is 36 shirts or 1,200. Rather than bill it as a fee underneath your quote, we divide it across the run and quote it inside the per-piece print price. Nothing is free and nothing is hidden: the price per shirt simply already contains it, which is how our printed price sheets have always read.

Why the per-shirt price moves the way it does

Because the screens live inside the rate, two things move it. Color count moves it up: each color is another screen, another film and another pass through the press. Quantity moves it down: the same prep divided over more shirts is less per shirt, which is why the number falls steeply in the first few tiers and then flattens out. Runs of 24 pieces or fewer carry film and a press setup per location as well, included the same way, which is the other reason a slightly larger run costs much less per shirt than the piece count suggests.

The cheapest way to buy is the whole run at once. We keep your artwork and stitch files on file, so reorders are quick and match the first run exactly.

One color against two

The table below is the engine's own per-piece price for a front print at five common quantities, in 1 color and in 2 colors, screens included in both. The gap between the two columns is what one more screen costs per shirt at that quantity. It is decoration only; the blank garment is priced separately from the live supplier catalogs.

Colors drive the price, shirts spread it

If you are trying to bring a quote down, the two levers are the color count and the number of print locations, not the piece count. Removing an ink color removes a screen, a film and a pass through the press, so it comes off the per-shirt rate twice over. Dropping a back print removes an entire press setup and roughly halves the decoration cost of the job.

A well-drawn 1-color design almost always looks better than a 4-color design drawn to justify the colors. If the artwork genuinely needs the colors, that is what halftones and simulated process are for, and we will tell you honestly which side of that line your file sits on.