Make your tailored pricing page for Screen printers

Screen printing has a lot of setup and breakdown involved. To overcome the cost of creating screens and then setting up those screens on press (as well as breaking down and reclaiming the screens), screen printers need to print a lot of shirts to make the job profitable.

If youre brand new to screen printing, consider starting off with the Riley Hopkins 150 Press. The 150 is a simple, high-quality press thatll help you master the craft. If youre planning on establishing your screen printing business, consider the Riley Hopkins 250 Press or the Riley Hopkins 300 Press.

Perhaps the quickest route to creating a silk screen stencil is to draw and cut it by hand. To take this approach, you will want to tape vinyl or paper down and then draw your design, which can then be transferred onto the silk stencil material.

How To Create And Prepare A Design For Screen Printing A Simple Design. If Possible, Use One Color. Plan Your Color Schemes. Choose Pantone Colors From a Physical Color Book. Use Adobe Illustrator to Create The Design. Let The Professional Handle Color Separations. Save a Copy.

Design your image. Start by making a rough sketch and then deciding what colours you would like to use. Make the stencils. To make a stencil, paint black acrylic paint on semi-transparent film. Coat the screen. Expose the screen. Wash it down. Mask the paper. Register your print. Proof your print.

CALCULATING PROFIT Depending on the situation, most businesses want to aim for 20% to 45% profit. In some shops, the set-up simply wont allow for a 45% margin due to high production time, material costs, or overly competitive local pricing.

Before you start, find out what size your screens printable area is, usually A3 / A4 for T-Shirts and set your artboard to this size so its easier to register (line up) the layers (colours) when screen printing later. The next step is to add your design onto the artboard and resize it to your desired size.

A useful screen printing industry standard is to markup items by at least 50% of your cost. If your garment costs $1.00, you would simply divide by 0.50 to calculate your margin goal of 50%. This means the component price of the shirt alone would be $2.00.