You want a number. Most shops want to schedule a phone call first. We think that is backwards, so we built a live pricing calculator that prices your order the moment you enter the details. This post explains what each of those details does to the price of screen printing in Knoxville, so when you sit down with the calculator you already know which knobs to turn.
One thing up front. There is no per-shirt price in this article, on purpose. Screen printing prices depend on variables that stack on each other, and a number pulled out of context lies to you. The calculator shows a real price for your order in about a minute. Read this, then go run it.
Why There Is No Single Price for a Custom Shirt
Screen printing is a setup-heavy process. Before a single shirt gets ink on it, somebody has to separate your artwork into colors, burn a screen for each one, register those screens on the press, mix ink, and pull test prints until everything lines up. That work costs about the same whether you order 12 shirts or 500.
Once the press is dialed in, the shirts move fast. So the price of a screen print job is mostly setup spread across however many shirts you order, plus the blank garments and the ink.
The Four Levers That Move Your Price
How Many Shirts You Order
Quantity is the biggest lever by a mile. Pricing runs in tiers, and every time your order crosses into the next tier the per-shirt price drops. The jump from a dozen to two dozen is steep. The jump from 48 to 72 is real but gentler. Into the hundreds, the curve flattens because the setup is already spread thin.
If you are anywhere near a tier line, round up. The extra shirts often cost less than the tier discount saves you, and you end up with spares. The calculator recalculates as you change the quantity.
How Many Ink Colors Are in the Design
Each ink color needs its own screen, its own setup and its own pass on the press. A one-color design is one screen. A four-color design is four screens, four setups and four registrations. Every color you add raises the price on every shirt in the run, so a six-color design on a small order gets expensive in a hurry.
If your art carries a lot of colors, ask about simplifying it, or about halftones that fake shading with a single screen. We wrote a whole post on how many ink colors your design really needs.
How Many Places You Print
Front only is the cheapest. Add a back print and you have doubled the screens and the press time. Add a sleeve hit or a small print at the neck and that is another location with its own setup. A big front graphic and a small left-chest logo count as two locations even though the logo is tiny. Size barely matters here. The number of separate placements does.
Dark Shirts and the White Underbase
This one surprises people. Ink is translucent to a degree, so printing a bright color straight onto a black or navy shirt gives you a dull, muddy version of that color. To fix it we print a layer of white ink first, flash cure it, then print your colors on top. That white layer is called an underbase.
The underbase is its own screen. A one-color red logo on a white shirt is a one-screen job. The exact same red logo on a black shirt is a two-screen job. Same art, same shirt count, more setup. The calculator asks for your garment color for exactly this reason.
The Garment You Pick
The blank shirt is a real chunk of the total. A basic cotton tee, a soft tri-blend, a heavyweight hoodie and a performance polo all sit at different price points before any ink touches them, and extended sizes cost more at the blank level. Match the garment to the job. Giveaway shirts for a fun run in Fountain City do not need the same blank as a retail drop for your brand.
Why One Shirt Costs So Much More Than 48
Take all of that setup work. Art separation, screens, registration, ink mixing, test prints, teardown, screen reclaiming. Now put every bit of it on a single shirt. That one shirt carries the entire setup bill alone, which is why a single custom screen printed tee is priced like a small project rather than a piece of clothing.
Spread the same setup across 48 shirts and each one carries a forty-eighth of it. The blank costs the same, the ink costs about the same, but the setup share collapses. That is the whole story behind volume pricing, and it is why screen printing has a minimum. The screen printing minimum is 50 pieces or $200, whichever comes first. Below that the math stops working for you and for us. For one-offs and tiny runs we steer people toward DTF transfers, which need no screens and barely change price with quantity.
What Changes the Price and What Does Not
| Changes the price | Does not change the price |
|---|---|
| Total quantity in the run | Which specific ink colors you choose (red costs the same as teal) |
| Number of ink colors at each location | Standard adult sizes, small through extra large |
| Number of print locations | Print size within a location, within normal limits |
| Light garment versus dark garment (the underbase screen) | Mixing garment colors in one run, as long as they all take the same screens |
| Garment brand, style and weight | Whether the shirts are for a business, a band or a family reunion |
| Extended sizes, 2XL and up | How many times you change your mind in the calculator |
Run Your Own Numbers From Powell or Anywhere in East Tennessee
We are at 7326 Morton View Lane in Powell, on the north side of Knoxville. Customers from Halls, Karns, Hardin Valley and Fountain City pick up at the shop. Everyone else, across Tennessee and the rest of the country, gets it shipped, and the print price in the calculator is the same either way. Open the live pricing calculator, enter your quantity, colors, locations and garment, and watch the price respond as you change each one.
Questions People Ask
Why won't you just tell me what a shirt costs?
Because the honest answer depends on quantity, colors, locations and garment, and any single number would be wrong for most orders. The calculator shows a real price for your combination in about a minute, and the 456 crew follows up to dial in the details before anything prints. It is faster than emailing back and forth, and you can change your mind as many times as you want.
Does a bigger print cost more than a small one?
Within a standard print area, not by much. What matters is the count of separate locations and the count of ink colors at each one. A full-front design and a pocket-sized design at the same spot with the same colors price very close to each other.
Why does my black shirt cost more than the white one with the same design?
Dark garments need a white underbase so your colors print bright instead of muddy. That underbase is an extra screen and an extra pass on the press, so a one-color design on black is really a two-screen job. The calculator accounts for that when you choose a dark garment.
Is there a minimum order for screen printing?
Yes. The screen printing minimum is 50 pieces or $200, whichever comes first, because screen printing carries real setup work and the minimum keeps the per-shirt price sensible. If your order comes in under it, or you only need a handful of shirts, ask about DTF transfers. They skip the screens entirely and work well for small runs.
Ready to see where your order lands? Open the live pricing calculator, plug in your shirts, colors and locations, and get a real price without waiting on anyone. Pick up in Powell or have it shipped anywhere in the US. If you get stuck, call (865) 951-2323 or email Sales@456printco.com and we will walk through it with you.
Price Your Order Right Now
Pick the garment, the ink colors and the quantity, and see a real per-piece price in about a minute. The 456 crew follows up to dial in the details before anything prints.
Getting stuck? Send us the details here and we will price it by hand.