5 Tips to Help You Save Money on Custom Screen Printed Shirts

If you have ever had to order custom screen printed shirts for your business, team, reunion, event or organization, you know just how expensive it can become. If you are a customer who is knowledgeable about ordering and what raises prices, you can save significant money. It is best to walk into a screen printer's shop with a basic understanding of what drives prices upward. Here are some helpful tips. Lighten up! Light-colored shirts cost less than dark-colored shirts. This is true not only of the price of the actual shirt, but also the printing cost. Screen printers are charged more by suppliers for dark or colored shirts. And it takes more ink to create an opaque image on a dark shirt than a light one. More passes of ink on a shirt and more use of the flash dryer add up to more time spent on the job. As we all know, time and effort cost money. White shirts are always the least expensive color of shirt. Light gray is also an affordable color, but not as inexpensive as white. Order the highest quantity of shirts possible at one time. Price breaks are given at different quantities. The more shirts you order, the less expensive it is per shirt. Screen printers do not mind if you ask for the quantities that allow for a price break.

Also, be sure to order every shirt you need at one time. If you order several hundred shirts and come back to order 5 more, you can not expect the same price. Prices are based on a per job, per set up basis. If your job has to be set up again, you are basically placing a completely new order.

If you are on a budget, you may need to try to keep your design to one or two colors. The amount of ink colors on a shirt also play a part in determining overall price. The more colors of ink, the more your shirt will cost. Each ink color requires a new screen. If you are paying screen or set up charges, adding colors can add a lot to your cost rather quickly. Printing on both sides of a shirt (front and back) costs more than printing on just one side. Printing two sides takes twice as long as printing one and your screen printer must charge accordingly. Research and preparation can save you time and money. If your screen printer charges you for artwork time, which most will after 10 or 15 minutes, you need to be do as much preparation on your own as possible.

If you find the artwork you want for the shirt, find it in an .eps or .ai file if at all possible. If your design requires more than one color of ink, you will need to find an artwork format that your screen printing company can separate. If you are printing a company logo, get a copy from your marketing person. They, no doubt, have had to had a clean copy in the right format for printing, screen printing and publications. It is worth the effort to try to save some artwork charges. They can add up quickly.

These five tips should allow you to make choices that will save you some money on custom screen printed shirts.