Cost of Direct to Garment Printing | Dark vs Light Shirts
Comparing Actual Printing Costs on White and Black T-Shirts
We talk about printing on white shirts versus black shirts quite a bit in this marketplace.
It seems like it might be a good time to do some numbers and get the skinny on how to make money by printing both (and maybe a colored shirt in there too!).
First, let’s look at costs that are common to any shirt you print – the fixed times and costs.
Standard Cost of Printing with Direct to Garment Printers
Both white and dark shirts get pretreated, using roughly the same amount of pretreatment. And the cost of light garment and dark garment pretreatment is typically the same.
Using the G4 direct to garment printing machine and Kokak Kodacholor Inks as an example, the pretreatment needs to be set by the heat press for 45 seconds. That time is the same on both light and dark garments.
Lastly, the cure time for both light and dark garments after printing is also 45 seconds.
These times will probably vary if you’re using a different ink set or DTG printer, but the principal is the same.
You can expect pretreating to cost you between $.35 and $.40 per print, depending on the brand of pretreat and the size of the print area.