Screen Printing Clothing Manufacturer

Both, in the same building. That matters more than it sounds. When printing is subcontracted, the printer receives finished garments and has no say in how they were built — so if the fabric is too textured to hold fine detail, or the seam sits exactly where the design needs to be flat, nobody finds out until the ink is already down. Because we specify the fabric and then cut, sew and print it under one roof, the print is planned alongside the garment: we place seams clear of the print area, choose a fabric that takes the ink you want, and print flat panels before assembly when a design runs across a seam. It also means one supplier is accountable when something goes wrong, instead of two pointing at each other.

One hundred and fifty pieces per style and per garment colour, and the number of ink colours in your design does not change that minimum. A four-colour print on 150 black hoodies is one style in one colourway, so it meets the minimum on its own. What multiplies the minimum is the garment underneath: each garment colour is its own dye lot, so the same design printed on white, black and sand tees is three colourways and 450 pieces, not 150. Sizes split freely inside each 150, so you choose the size curve, and the MOQ calculator gives you a size split to adjust. Because we make the garment as well as print it, both are planned as one order. At 150 pieces, a bold one- or two-colour design is the most cost-effective place to start; if your artwork is photographic or uses many colours, we will say plainly that DTG or another method suits it better.

Plastisol sits on top of the fabric; water-based ink sinks into it. That single difference drives everything else. Plastisol gives brighter, more opaque colour, especially on dark garments, and is more forgiving to print — it is the industry default for a reason. But it forms a layer you can feel, it can crack on high-flex areas over time, and it makes a heavy print on a lightweight tee feel like a plastic panel. Water-based ink dyes the fibre, so the print has almost no hand feel and ages by softening rather than cracking. It is harder to print, less opaque on dark colours, and generally costs more. Our default for premium and organic ranges is water-based or discharge; for high-contrast graphics on dark garments, plastisol is still often the right answer. One limit: a garment that will carry a GOTS label cannot be printed with PVC plastisol, because GOTS 7.0 prohibits printing methods that use phthalates or chlorinated plastics such as PVC.

Because screen printing prices by colour, not by garment. Every colour in your design needs its own film, its own screen coated and exposed, and its own station aligned on the press, so a four-colour design is four of everything before a single shirt is printed. That setup is fixed per run, which is why the gap between a one-colour and a four-colour print is dramatic at 150 pieces and much smaller at a thousand. Three things add cost. Light ink on a dark garment needs a white underbase, an extra screen and pass even for a one-colour logo. Each print location, such as chest and back, is a separate setup with its own screens. Puff, high-density and metallic inks need extra passes or a separate cure. Reorders are noticeably cheaper because the screens already exist. If budget is tight, reducing the colour count usually saves more than reducing quantity, and we will show you both numbers.

Screen printing for anything you are producing at volume. It gives a lower cost per piece, a more durable result on cotton, and access to inks DTG cannot use — discharge, puff, metallic. The cost driver is colour count, since each colour needs its own screen, so a one- or two-colour design is dramatically cheaper than a six-colour one. DTG makes sense in the opposite case: a photographic design, a gradient, or many colours, where screen printing becomes impractical, and in small quantities where setup would dominate. It is the less durable of the two and the cost per piece barely falls with volume. If your design is a logo or simple graphic and you are ordering a hundred and fifty or more, screen print is almost always the right call.

A well-cured screen print does not wash off; on cotton it comfortably survives dozens of washes and typically outlasts the garment, while a badly cured one can crack after a handful of washes. Curing, not the method, is what usually separates a print that lasts from one that fails, and we print and cure in the same building that sewed the garment. Ink choice is the other factor. Plastisol sits on top of the fabric and can crack on high-flex areas over time. Water-based ink soaks into the fibre, so it tends to soften with washing rather than crack; plastisol is the better choice where you need bold opacity on a dark garment. On our floor, Walter Meyer, our QC lead with 38 years' experience, checks print placement and cure against the approved sample. For how screen printing compares with embroidery and DTG on longevity, see our print method comparison.

Vector artwork is the starting point: an AI, EPS or PDF file with the fonts outlined, so every line prints cleanly at whatever size you choose. Set each ink colour up as its own spot colour or layer, because each colour becomes its own screen and a file built that way separates without guesswork. If the design has a gradient or a photographic area, tell us at the start. It can often be printed as a halftone, a pattern of fine dots, but some artwork suits DTF or DTG better, and we will say so. With the file, send three things: the finished print width in centimetres, the placement, for example centred and a set distance below the neck seam, and a colour reference for each ink. A low-resolution JPEG still shows us what you want, but it has to be redrawn before screens can be made, so ask to see the redrawn version before the sample is printed.

Yes, unless you ask for something different. A screen holds the artwork at one fixed size, so the same print goes onto every size in the run. That suits most chest logos and many back prints, but a large graphic that looks right on a medium can crowd an extra small and look lost on an extra-extra large. There are two ways to handle it. Choose one width that works across your whole size curve, which is usually the simplest answer, or split the run into size groups with a second print size, which means a second set of screens and a second press set-up. Placement needs the same thought: a print measured from the neck seam sits differently on a small body and a large one, so give the distance for each size group in your tech pack. If you are unsure, compare the print on your smallest and largest sizes before you approve bulk.