Screen Printing Explained: Colours, Screens and Setup Costs
By The Velocity Wear Team
Screen printing pushes ink through a fine mesh stencil onto the garment, one colour at a time. Each colour in the design needs its own screen, and each screen carries a setup cost — which is why screen printing gets cheaper per piece as quantity rises but more expensive as colour count rises.
How the Process Works
A stencil of one colour's area is created on a mesh screen. Ink is pushed through the open areas onto the garment beneath, then cured with heat so it bonds permanently. For a design with four colours, that happens four times, with each layer aligned precisely to the last. The alignment step is why complex multi-colour screen printing is skilled work — a fraction of a millimetre out and the design reads as blurred.
Why Colour Count Drives Cost
The setup work — creating each stencil, mixing each ink, aligning each screen — happens once per colour, no matter how many garments you print.
- A one-colour design on 200 shirts spreads a single setup across 200 pieces, which is why it is so economical at volume.
- A six-colour design on 20 shirts spreads six setups across 20 pieces, which is why digital methods usually win there.
- Printing on dark garments generally requires a white underbase layer first, which counts as an additional colour.
- Reducing a design from four colours to two often lowers cost more than reducing quantity would.
Why It Is Still the Volume Standard
Once setup is paid for, screen printing is extremely efficient — the per-piece cost falls steeply and the finish is durable, opaque and vivid in a way digital methods do not quite match on solid colours. It also handles specialist inks that digital cannot: metallics, high-density, puff and glitter finishes are screen printing techniques. For a bold design at volume, it remains the best result and the lowest cost.
“"Screen printing rewards two decisions: order more, and use fewer colours. Both are usually within your control."”
Designing for Screen Printing
If you know a design will be screen printed at volume, design for it from the start. Spot colours — flat, defined areas of a single ink — reproduce perfectly. Gradients and photographic images do not translate directly and have to be simulated using halftone dots, which adds complexity. A bold, limited-palette design is not a compromise here; it is what the process does best, and it is why so much classic merchandise looks the way it does.
Comparing Against Digital
The crossover point depends on both quantity and colour count, so it is not a single number. A two-colour design might favour screen printing from a relatively modest quantity, while an eight-colour illustration might favour DTF well past a hundred pieces. Rather than estimating, run your actual design and quantity through the free instant price calculator, which shows live pricing as you change method and volume.
Ordering
Orders start at 20 pieces with mixed sizes allowed. Screen printing typically takes around 10–15 working days from artwork approval, plus 2–5 working days tracked UK delivery, with bulk discounts reaching up to around 40% as quantities rise. Supply vector artwork with colours specified as Pantone references, and preview placement and scale in the free Design Studio before approving.