This page teaches you how to use the print cost calculator to work out and compare the total cost of screen print against digital print for a given design and quantity, for anyone in a factory who must choose a print method: a merchandiser, a production planner, or a new entrant. This lesson teaches the money flow: which print method costs less for a given quantity decides how much of the order's price stays as profit.
A factory that prints without comparing both methods can pick the wrong one for the quantity involved. Screen print carries a setup cost for every screen, paid once no matter how many pieces are printed; digital print carries no setup cost but a higher cost on every single piece. Picking screen print for a small batch pays for a setup that never spreads over enough pieces. Picking digital print for a large batch pays a higher per-piece rate on thousands of pieces that could have cost far less. Without a clear way to compare the two, a factory either guesses or always uses the same method, and either mistake shows up as lower profit once the goods are sold.
You need: nothing but this page and the print cost calculator. No earlier lesson is required, though T04-C04-L01 and T04-C04-L02 give useful background on what screen print and digital print actually are.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: what screen print and digital print actually are (lesson T04-C04-L01); how a design's colour count decides its screen count (lesson T04-C04-L02); print placement and the faults that ruin a print job (lesson T04-C04-L04); choosing a method on grounds other than cost, such as turnaround time (lesson T04-C04-L05).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Screen print | A print method using one screen per colour, with a per-screen setup cost and a lower per-piece cost at higher volumes. |
| Digital print | A print method with no screens or per-colour setup cost, printing directly at a flat per-piece rate; better suited to small orders or many colours. |
| Setup cost | The one-time cost of preparing a screen before any pieces are printed, paid once regardless of how many pieces the screen later prints. |
| Per-piece rate | The cost per piece of actually printing once any setup is complete, separate from a one-off setup cost; digital print charges this as a flat rate with no setup, while screen print charges it per piece on top of its setup cost. |
| Break-even quantity | The order size at which two print methods cost the same total; below it one method is cheaper, above it the other is. |
| Make to Stock (MTS) | Producing against the seller's own sales forecast, rather than a single confirmed buyer order. |
Total screen print cost equals the number of screens multiplied by the setup cost per screen, plus the per-piece run cost multiplied by the quantity. Total digital print cost equals a flat per-piece rate multiplied by the quantity, with no setup term at all. The break-even quantity is the order size at which both methods cost the same total, found by dividing screen print's total setup cost by the per-piece rate difference between the two methods. Below the break-even quantity, digital print is cheaper, because screen print's setup cost is not yet spread over enough pieces; above it, screen print is cheaper, because its low per-piece run cost dominates once the setup cost is spread thin.
The same rule produces a different winner depending on the quantity involved, the point where the order sits relative to break-even, and whether the factory is printing to a confirmed order or to its own stock plan.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Small illustrative order, below break-even | A design printed in a batch smaller than the break-even quantity | Digital print's flat rate wins, because screen print's setup cost is not spread over enough pieces |
| Large illustrative order, above break-even | A design printed in a batch larger than the break-even quantity | Screen print wins, because its low per-piece run cost dominates once the setup cost is spread thin |
| Order right at break-even | A batch size that lands exactly on the break-even quantity | Both methods cost the same total; the choice is then made on other grounds, such as turnaround time or colour count limits |
| Domestic Make to Stock printing | A domestic factory printing designs to stock, choosing its own batch size for goods it has not yet sold to a specific buyer | The factory itself decides the quantity, so it can use the break-even calculation to pick the batch size and method together, unlike a factory filling a buyer-fixed quantity |
| Knit-to-garment and home-textile printing | The same two print methods print onto knitted garments, socks and hosiery, or home-textile items such as printed bedding | The same setup-plus-run-cost and flat-rate formulas apply whatever the printed product, because the cost comes from the print method, not the garment type |
Delta Garments prints a design to stock for the domestic market. This is Make to Stock: the factory decides the batch size itself, rather than working to a quantity a buyer has already confirmed. Before committing to a batch size, Delta Garments must use the print cost calculator to decide, for the batch size it is considering, whether screen print or digital print costs less. Neither the T-shirt order nor the jeans order specifies a print in the master cast, so this decision uses a new, illustrative print order instead.
The print cost calculator's built-in illustrative example uses a 3-colour design: screen print needs 3 screens at a setup cost of USD 5 per screen, USD 15 total, plus a per-piece run cost of USD 0.08; digital print charges a flat rate of USD 0.35 per piece with no setup cost. The break-even quantity is the setup cost divided by the per-piece rate difference between the two methods.
For the illustrative batch size of 5,000 pieces, well above the roughly 56-piece break-even quantity:
Screen print costs USD 415 for this batch, against USD 1,750 for digital print. Screen print is far cheaper once the quantity is well above the break-even point.
The methodA common mistake is forgetting that the setup cost is a one-time cost, not a per-piece cost, and multiplying it by the quantity as well as the run cost. Doing this to the illustrative example would turn the USD 15 setup into 15 × 5,000, an error of thousands of dollars, making screen print appear far more expensive than digital print at every quantity, when in reality screen print is the cheaper method once the quantity clears break-even. This mistake can push a factory to choose the more expensive method for a large batch, for no reason but a miscalculated setup cost.
Screen print has a cost for setting up each screen, paid once, plus a small cost per piece printed. Digital print has no setup cost at all, but a higher cost per piece. For a small batch, digital print is cheaper, since screen print's setup cost has too few pieces to spread across. For a large batch, screen print is cheaper, since its low cost per piece wins once setup is spread thin. Break-even quantity is the batch size where both cost the same; find it by dividing setup cost by digital print's extra cost per piece. In the calculator's example that point is about 56 pieces. Delta Garments prints to stock and picks its own batch size; the calculator shows a 5,000-piece batch costing USD 415 by screen print against USD 1,750 by digital print, so screen print wins clearly. Never multiply the setup cost by the quantity; it is paid once, however many pieces are printed.
Delta Garments is deciding how many pieces of a to-stock design to print in one batch, before committing either the fabric or the print house's time. The facts in front of the team making this decision:
The document the team reads, the factory's own internal stock-planning note:
Using the break-even quantity of about 56 pieces, which print method suits each batch size? Decide before opening the answer.
Screen print suits both batch sizes. Both 200 pieces and 5,000 pieces are well above the roughly 56-piece break-even quantity, so screen print costs less than digital print at either size in this illustrative example.
Two facts, together, decide this. First, the break-even quantity of about 56 pieces is far smaller than either batch size under discussion; a batch has to fall below that number before digital print becomes the cheaper choice. Second, once a batch clears break-even, screen print stays cheaper as the quantity grows further, because its setup cost is fixed while digital print's flat rate keeps charging the same amount on every additional piece.
Only a batch smaller than about 56 pieces would favour digital print in this example. If Delta Garments used digital print for the 5,000-piece batch by mistake, it would pay USD 1,750 instead of USD 415, a difference of USD 1,335 lost on a decision the break-even calculation was built to prevent.
Choosing the wrong print method for a batch size means paying more than necessary, either an unspread setup cost on a small batch or an unnecessarily high flat per-piece rate on a large one. The illustrative calculation above is the concrete anchor for this: at the 5,000-piece batch size, screen print costs USD 415 and digital print costs USD 1,750.
That USD 1,335 difference, on one batch of one design, is money the print cost calculator's break-even comparison is built to protect, since it comes straight out of whatever profit the finished stock was meant to earn once sold.
Open the print cost calculator and fill in these rows for the design and quantity under consideration. The built-in illustrative example above shows how the columns work together.
| Calculation | Input A | Input B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen print: cost per piece (screens x setup + run cost) | Screens x setup cost | Run cost per piece | Calculated |
| Screen print: order cost (per piece x quantity) | Per-piece cost | Quantity | Calculated |
| Digital print: cost per piece (flat rate, no setup) | Flat rate | — | Calculated |
| Digital print: order cost (per piece x quantity) | Per-piece cost | Quantity | Calculated |
| Break-even quantity | Total setup cost | Rate difference | Calculated |
Download the full working sheet, with the calculator's real formulas already built in, from the link on this course's page.
1. In the calculator's illustrative example, what is the total screen print cost for 5,000 pieces?
2. What does the break-even quantity represent?
3. A different 2-colour design has a USD 20 total screen print setup cost, a USD 0.10 per-piece screen print run cost, and a USD 0.30 per-piece digital print rate. What is its break-even quantity?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen print | طباعة الشاشة الحريرية | Impression sérigraphique | Serigrafi baskı | A print method using one screen per colour, with a per-screen setup cost and a lower per-piece cost at higher volumes. |
| Digital print | الطباعة الرقمية | Impression numérique | Dijital baskı | A print method with no screens or per-colour setup cost, printing directly at a flat per-piece rate; better suited to small orders or many colours. |
| Setup cost | تكلفة الإعداد | Coût de préparation | Hazırlık maliyeti | The one-time cost of preparing a screen before any pieces are printed, paid once regardless of how many pieces the screen later prints. |
| Per-piece rate | السعر الثابت لكل قطعة | Tarif fixe par pièce | Parça başına sabit ücret | The cost per piece of actually printing once any setup is complete, separate from a one-off setup cost; digital print charges this as a flat rate with no setup, while screen print charges it per piece on top of its setup cost. |
| Break-even quantity | كمية التعادل | Quantité de seuil de rentabilité | Başabaş miktarı | The order size at which two print methods cost the same total; below it one method is cheaper, above it the other is. |
| Make to Stock (MTS) | إنتاج حسب المخزون | Fabrication sur stock | Stoğa üretim | Producing against the seller's own sales forecast, rather than a single confirmed buyer order. |
You now know how to calculate and compare screen print and digital print cost and find the break-even quantity between them. The next lesson moves from cost to quality: where a print is placed on a garment, and the common faults, such as misalignment or cracking, that can ruin a print job however correctly it was costed. Back to the course map