How this calculator works
Shirt pricing goes wrong when the design is treated as one cost regardless of how many placements it has. A front print, a back print and a sleeve are three transfers, three weeds and three presses — but one blank.
This prices per placement, so multi-location jobs come out right, and handles HTV, DTF and screen print through the same cost stack.
The formula
- Transfers = quantity × placements × cost per placement ÷ (1 − transfer waste %)
- Weeding and positioning = minutes per placement × placements × quantity
- Press cycles = ⌈ quantity ÷ shirts per cycle ⌉
- Spoilage = (materials + press + hands-on labour) ÷ (1 − spoilage %) − those costs
What to watch for
- Placements multiply transfers, weeding and positioning — but not the blank. A front-and-back shirt is two transfers on one garment, which is why flat per-shirt pricing loses money on multi-location jobs.
- Screen print front-loads its cost into setup: burning screens and registering them can be over an hour, which is why it only becomes cheap at volume and is a poor choice for a run of twelve.
- A press failure ruins the garment, not just the transfer, so spoilage is charged against the blank as well.
- DTF removes weeding time almost entirely, which often matters more to the total than its slightly higher transfer cost.
Common mistakes
- Charging the same for a one-placement and a three-placement shirt.
- Quoting screen print at bulk economics for a small run, where setup dominates.
- Forgetting that a scorched shirt costs the blank, not just the vinyl.
- Leaving folding, tagging and bagging out — a minute a shirt across fifty is nearly an hour.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for a custom t-shirt?
For a single-placement HTV shirt on a $4.80 blank, expect a true cost around $9 to $12 once transfer, weeding, press, spoilage, packaging and a share of design and setup are counted. At a 40% margin that suggests roughly $15 to $20, with the exact figure depending heavily on your weeding time and run length.
How do I price front and back prints?
Set placements to two. That doubles the transfer cost, the weeding time and the positioning time while leaving the blank, packaging and folding unchanged — which is exactly how the job actually behaves. Charging a flat per-shirt price regardless of placements loses money on every multi-location order.
Is screen printing cheaper than HTV or DTF?
Only at volume. Screen print has a low per-shirt cost but a large fixed setup — burning and registering screens can take over an hour, and it is charged once whether you print twelve shirts or three hundred. Below about fifty shirts, HTV or DTF is usually cheaper overall.
What spoilage rate should I use?
Three to five percent is typical for HTV and DTF once misalignment, scorching and peeling are counted. Screen print on a good setup can be lower. The important part is that a failure destroys the garment as well as the transfer, so the allowance is applied to the blank too.