Screen Printing vs DTG: Which Is Right for Your Order?

Ask ten print shops which method is better and you'll get ten sales pitches. Here's the honest version we give customers every day.

The short answer

Ordering 25+ pieces of a design with a few solid colors? Screen printing will be cheaper and the print will pop harder. Ordering a handful of shirts, or artwork with photos and gradients? DTG wins — no setup costs and unlimited color.

Cost breakdown

Screen printing has setup costs per color (burning screens), so a 6-color design on 10 shirts is painful. But once screens are made, each additional shirt costs very little — which is why 500-piece runs are almost always screen printed.

DTG has zero setup. Shirt #1 costs the same as shirt #100. The crossover point is usually somewhere between 20 and 50 pieces depending on color count.

Feel and durability

Screen prints sit on top of the fabric with a slight hand; properly cured, they last for years. DTG ink bonds into the fibers, so it's softer from day one. Both survive 50+ washes when done right — the difference is in the doing, which is why we cure every garment to spec and stand behind the result.

Still unsure?

Send us your artwork and quantity. We'll tell you which method we'd pick if it were our money — and if the answer is "either," we'll quote both.