Why silk screen printing starts at 50 shirts

Silk screen printing is the cheapest and strongest print for a big order - but only once the work of setting it up is shared over enough shirts. That is why we silk screen print from 50 shirts of the same design, and print smaller orders and samples with DTF.

• Your design is split into its colours, and each colour is printed on its own film.
• Each film is put on a screen coated with a light-sensitive layer, and lit in the light box: the design stays open, the rest closes.
• The screens are set up on the printing table and lined up so every colour lands exactly on the others.
• The ink is mixed to your colours, and test prints are made until it is right.
• After the print, every screen is washed out again.

All of that takes about the same time for 5 shirts as for 500. Shared over 50 shirts or more, it is a small part of each shirt's price - and from there every extra shirt is quick and cheap to print. Shared over 5 or 10 shirts, the setup would cost more than the printing.

The more colours your design has, the more screens - see the price is per colour.

Under 50 shirts - or one shirt first, to check the fit, the colours and the size of the print before a big order - we print with DTF (Direct To Film). There are no screens and no setup, so it costs the same from 1 shirt, with any number of colours, photos and gradients.

• A sample: one or a few shirts in DTF, before you order 50 or more in silk screen
• A small order: under 50 shirts, all in DTF
• A big order: 50 or more of one design - silk screen, or DTF if your design has many colours

A DTF print looks a little different from a silk screen print - it sits on the fabric as a thin, soft layer - but it shows you the shirt, the size and the place of the print, and its colours.