yellowbrickroad

I am designing (commissioning an artist to do actual artwork) and marketing a line of kids shirts to boutiques. They are each 2 sided, 8-10 colors on each side. I am supplying him the shirts (American Apparel).

Screenprinter wants to charge me $60 per color for screens +$20 per color for film. This means that just getting my samples is over $1,500 per shirt.

Also - just to verify. Since screen size is static and I'm printing a range of sizes, I have to pick an image size that will work with all size shirts in the range or pay for another set of screens and films?

Also - I'm trying to compare price locally for printers. How do I find other printers. I'm in NJ. I've tried Verizon superpages.

Comments please.

 

Reply With Quote

hcp482

With that many colors screen printing verse cost would not be the best option! I would look for print houses in your area that can do DTG or Can print plastisol transfers and a reasonable price. Seeing how many screens are required it and the variation in size stay away from screen printing... I personally without seeing the design would recommend DTG or some quality transfer.

 

Reply With Quote

yellowbrickroad

What is DTG?

Thanks

 

Reply With Quote

martinwoods

The ink prints directly into the shirt, kind of like sublimation ( but not) there is no feel on light colored shirts but you have to use an underbase and pretreatment for dark shirts with white ink.
You have unlimited colors and the option of having only 1 printed.

hope that helps

__________________
www.martinwoodscabins.com
www.personalizeyouritems.com

 

Reply With Quote

yellowbrickroad

Why is this so much cheaper, and by the way, how much cheaper are we talking?

 

Reply With Quote

martinwoods

Well there are no setup charges like screen printing and no minimums. the cost would depend on the image and how much ink was used.

__________________
www.martinwoodscabins.com
www.personalizeyouritems.com

 

Reply With Quote

yellowbrickroad

And the quality - how does it compare to screenprinting?

Nina

 

Reply With Quote

martinwoods

I myself as well as my customer prefer the dtg to the screen printing. We do both

__________________
www.martinwoodscabins.com
www.personalizeyouritems.com

 

Reply With Quote

hcp482

DTG is a good economical way to go.. You can like Chris said get one off's done. And if you find a local DTG print house you can see samples of there work and judge for yourself. If you want a soft-hand feel this is the way to go and will be much more cost effective.

 

Reply With Quote

SBEMedia

For that many colors I'd agree with everyone else, either use a DTG or other transfer material to bring down the cost

__________________
SBESite.com: Free blogs, forums, stores and more

 

Reply With Quote

out da box

Dtg is a viable option, but the setup charges you quoted are inflated- greatly. Maybe 25-30.00/ color with film at maximum.

__________________
Ridgely, Operations Mngr. Out Da Box
Custom Screenprinting Service Greensboro

 

Reply With Quote

lost1

For other printers in your area try the local yellow pages.
Is this printer doing a 1 off sample?
Will 4 color process work for this design?

__________________

 

Reply With Quote

Solmu

Quote: Originally Posted by yellowbrickroad They are each 2 sided, 8-10 colors on each side.

Eep! Sounds garish. Opinion aside, that's a lot of work (and therefore a lot of cost). If you stick with screenprinting, cutting it down would certainly save you a lot of money. It's hard to believe you need all those colours.

Quote: Originally Posted by yellowbrickroad Screenprinter wants to charge me $60 per color for screens +$20 per color for film.

That's on the high end, but setup charges are only half the story. It's pretty irrelevant the setup charges are above average if the actual print charges are sufficiently below.

Quote: Originally Posted by yellowbrickroad This means that just getting my samples is over $1,500 per shirt.

If the printer is even willing to do a one-off sample on a 20 colour shirt, that's pretty amazing. Not that you'd want to take them up on it anyway at $1500. A press check would be worth it though.

Quote: Originally Posted by yellowbrickroad Also - just to verify. Since screen size is static and I'm printing a range of sizes, I have to pick an image size that will work with all size shirts in the range or pay for another set of screens and films?

Correct.

__________________
Ceci n'est pas une autographe.

 

Reply With Quote

Solmu

Quote: Originally Posted by yellowbrickroad Why is this so much cheaper

Because it's a digital process, not capable of spot colour or specialist inks.

Quote: Originally Posted by yellowbrickroad by the way, how much cheaper are we talking?

If you're doing low quantities, significantly cheaper (no setup charges, so... up to $1485 cheaper ). If you're doing large quantities, it's more expensive.

If you're willing to do four colour process with DTG though, you could also do it with screenprinting and halve your costs.

Quote: Originally Posted by yellowbrickroad And the quality - how does it compare to screenprinting?

Definitely a matter of opinion. This is a back-of-the-envelope guess, but I'd say maybe 30% of people think it's the same as screenprinting, 10% think it's better, and 60% think it's worse. That's my (biased) guess though, not surveyed fact.

__________________
Ceci n'est pas une autographe.

 

Reply With Quote

sweden2008

Hi! Just a quick reflection. Why do so many diffrent colours? What i have learned during my time as a screenprinter is that you can make almost anything with 4-6 colours.

I would re-make the design to make it fit for 4-6 colours!

Does any1 agree?

 

Reply With Quote