Custom Printing Costs Explained
By The Velocity Wear Team
Ask three printers for a quote and you will often get three very different numbers — which can make custom printing feel confusing and opaque. In reality, the price comes down to a handful of clear factors: the method, the quantity, the number of colours, the garment and the decoration size. Once you understand what each one does to the cost, you can read any quote, compare fairly and find genuine savings. Here is how the maths works.
Method sets the baseline
The printing method is the biggest single driver of cost. Screen printing has high setup costs because each colour needs its own screen, so it is expensive in small quantities but very cheap per unit at volume. Digital methods like DTG and DTF have almost no setup, making them affordable for small runs but flat in cost as quantity grows. Embroidery is priced by stitch count rather than colour.
Quantity changes everything
Custom printing is a volume game. With screen printing, the fixed setup cost is spread across every unit, so the price per shirt drops sharply as the order grows — a hundred shirts can cost far less each than ten. Digital printing stays much flatter, which is why it wins for small batches. Understanding this curve is the key to ordering at a quantity that makes sense for your budget.
- Screen printing: high setup, low per-unit cost at volume.
- DTG and DTF: little setup, flatter cost across quantities.
- Embroidery: priced by stitch count, not by number of colours.
- Bigger runs almost always lower the price per piece.
Colours, size and placement
For screen printing, every additional ink colour adds a screen and therefore cost, so a one-colour logo is far cheaper than a six-colour design. Digital methods do not charge per colour, but a larger print uses more ink. Multiple print locations — front, back and sleeve — each add to the price too. Simplifying artwork and consolidating placements is one of the easiest ways to trim a quote.
The garment and the extras
The blank itself is a major part of the total. A premium heavyweight hoodie costs several times more than a basic tee before any printing happens, so garment choice often matters more than decoration. Beyond that, watch for extras that quietly stack up: setup or origination fees, folding and bagging, custom labels, samples and shipping. A good quote lists these openly rather than hiding them.
“You are not just paying for ink — you are paying for setup, the garment and finishing. The clearer the quote breaks those out, the more you can trust it.”
How to lower your cost without cutting quality
- 1Order in larger batches to spread setup costs further.
- 2Reduce ink colours or simplify artwork for screen printing.
- 3Consolidate print locations to one or two placements.
- 4Match the method to your quantity rather than overpaying.
- 5Always order a sample so you only commit once it is right.
Once you know the levers, custom printing stops feeling like a mystery and becomes a budget you can control. Velocity Wear provides transparent, itemised quotes across screen printing, DTF, DTG and embroidery, with a low 20-piece minimum and worldwide delivery. Send your design and quantity for a free, no-obligation quote.