Light Vs. Dark; In Pricing T-Shirts, It Makes A Difference
When screen printing t-shirts, a surprisingly important factor
in determining price is the color of your textile. Choosing a
white shirt will result in considerable savings in your printing
costs. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, from
initial shirt pricing to factors in the printing process.
T-shirts are usually priced in two categories, "Whites" and
"Darks". White t shirts are always the least expensive shirt
when compared to a colored t-shirt of the same brand and type.
For no other reason than shirt price alone, whites contribute to
a lower overall printing cost.
There are also price advantages in the printing process itself
when using white t-shirts instead of dark. When printing on dark
shirts, many inks need to have more than one layer laid down in
order to completely cover the shirt. In order to keep the layers
from smearing, the first layer will be partially dried under a
heating element in a process called "flashing". Having to flash
colors in a print run adds considerable time to how long a shirt
is on the press and incurs an additional charge. Most colors on
white shirts can go on in one layer and rarely have to be
flashed.
A similar factor that affects price on a dark shirt is the
requirement for a white underbase. Light hues and bright ink
colors will not print well, if at all, on a dark shirt
regardless of how many layers are put down. To overcome this, a
white layer of ink in the same shape as the colored layer is
printed first and then flashed to dry it. Then the final color
of ink is laid down on top of the white. Not only does this have
the flashing charge as described above, but also there is now an
additional ink color, namely white, which further raises the
price.
While beautiful and striking work can be done with screen
printing images on dark shirts (as well as white), if economy is
a major factor for your project, you would be better served to
create a design geared for white shirts.