What the process looks like
Where it is the right choice
- 1–3 solid brand colours, Pantone matched
- Large runs where unit cost decides the order
- Text, outlines and simple shapes on a cylindrical body
- Powder-coated and painted surfaces
Where it is the wrong choice
Saying this out loud saves a sample round. If your artwork falls into one of these, tell us at enquiry and we will point you at the process that suits it.
- Photographs, gradients or fine shading — use UV or heat transfer
- More than three colours — each colour is another screen and another pass
- Artwork that wraps a full 360° — the seam is hard to hide
- Very small type below about 5 pt — the mesh fills in
More than three colours, or a photograph? Screens stop being the cheap option there. Use UV printing for short runs and artwork that changes, or heat transfer for large runs of one design that has to wrap the body.
Cost and minimum order
From about $0.03 per piece for one colour at volume; each extra colour adds a screen and a pass. Screen setup is a one-off per design. MOQ is 500 pieces per design in stock colours, 1,000 if the body is in your own Pantone. The exact figure depends on your artwork and run size, and we come back with it by the next working day.
What to send us
Vector (AI, EPS or PDF) with text converted to outlines. Tell us the Pantone reference rather than an RGB screenshot — a colour picked off a monitor and a colour mixed in ink are two different things. We return the mockup free before anything is quoted as final.
Two runs that show what the process copes with
1,800 sleeves in a club colour, 22 days instead of 40. A Spanish gift company needed every piece in a custom Pantone orange with a club crest screened onto the silicone sleeve, and the calendar had already eaten half the lead time. The ceramic coating shop took the run first, the silicone screen printing ran alongside it rather than after, and the goods reached the port two days early. That buyer now works on an annual frame contract.
Eight different small logos in one 1,200-piece order. A German buyer had a corporate gift programme where each recipient group got a different mark, in a specified Pantone, before Christmas, with 28 days to go. Eight logos means eight screens and eight setups; we put three screen printing machines on rotation and shipped two days early. The point of the example is not the heroics — it is that the cost driver was the number of setups, not the number of pieces, and that is what to check when you compare a screen quote.
Products these ran on: TH-1005, TI-1256, TI-1262.
What we need to quote it
Screen setup is quoted per colour, so tell us how many marks and how many colours before anything else. Four things, and the quote comes back by the next working day: the model (or the body size and material you have in mind), the run size, the artwork file, and the destination country. The last one decides carton format, labelling and how the freight is calculated, and it is cheaper to answer at enquiry than after 5,000 boxes are printed.
If you are still choosing between methods, send the artwork and say what it is for. We will tell you which process we would run and why, including when the answer is a cheaper one than the page you are reading.
See it running
Laser engraving compared with printing, filmed on our lines — useful for deciding between the two.
Frequently asked
One to three is the normal range. Each colour is a separate screen and a separate pass, so the cost moves with the number of screens rather than the number of pieces — an order of 1,200 with eight different marks costs more in setup than 5,000 with one.
Yes, and we have run it against a tight calendar — 1,800 sleeves in a club colour with the crest screened on. Silicone takes ink differently from a coated body, so it is sampled separately.
Below about 5 pt the mesh starts to fill in and the counters close up. Send the artwork and we will tell you where the floor is on your specific mark rather than quoting a rule.
Silk screen at volume, in one colour. The comparison across every method, with per-piece figures, is on the logo cost page.
500 pieces per design in stock colours; 1,000 if you want the body in your own Pantone.
A digital mockup comes back the same day or the next working day, free. A printed sample takes 7–10 days, because it goes through the same line the bulk order will. That sample, not the screen file, is what the run is judged against.
Ask for the specific model and decoration combination rather than a general answer — how a mark holds up depends on the body finish underneath as much as on the process. We will tell you what we have seen come back from repeat buyers.