Every aspect of putting an image on a shirt isn’t nearly as easy as most people think it is. I’d like to think it’s because we’re all so familiar with tee shirts that we assume things that simply aren’t true when it comes to making them. Besides, can’t you just take an image to Kinko’s and they’ll put it on a shirt right there and then?
The first thing to understand is the process itself is going to cost you money. There’s no way around it and nowadays, everyone seems to think they’re entitled to getting something for free. Why this is, I don’t know. We don’t go into McDonald’s and order a hamburger but ask to get the buns for free, right? The simple fact of the matter is that the place printing your shirts is running a business. Businesses exist to make money and nothing else. If you want something done by them, you’re going to pay for it, period.
Taking into consideration your blank garments have been ordered, here’s a list of what you can expect to pay for along with the whys.
Artwork
The entire process starts with the artwork. You may think you have something ready to go onto a shirt but for as long as I’ve been doing this, I’ve never once seen something 100% ready to go onto a shirt. Even if the client provided something from an artist who touted their file as ready to be printed, it’s never happened.
“Is that why I’ve been charged for artwork from the print house when I supplied them a high-resolution file?”
Yes. Give me a high-resolution file and I have to do a ton of things to it to get it ready to print onto a substrate. If your artist tells you that his/her file is ready to be printed, unless they hail from the screen-printing world and have referred to themselves as a Separator, you’re most likely getting something ready to be printed onto paper and that’s a whole different ball game. Just be forewarned, some images, like some of the ones shown on my site can take up to and over 6 hours to prepare to go onto a tee. You’re definitely not going to get anyone to do that for you for free.
Consider your artwork the absolute most important part of the process. I’m not saying this because I’m an artist either. If your artwork sucks, your tee’s going to suck. It’s that simple so start your process carefully.
Art charges are inevitable. Most shops charge in the area of $60/hr for art time, which includes design and color separations. If you provide them with a high-resolution graphic, it still has to go through a very particular process in order to print correctly onto a garment so be prepared to encounter those charges. Of course, if you’re using someone like me, you’re golden. 
Film
Film is next in the process. Some places are going direct to screen with some new technology but most print shops still use film and film costs them money. The film is created from the color-separated file of your original artwork. There is no such thing as “camera ready” artwork anymore. That term is antiquated and has been for a long time. Now, everything is done in the computer and there is no camera involved in outputting film.
You own this film. Most places will keep your film on file for a period of time but I suggest keeping it if you expect to print somewhere else afterwards or don’t intend on printing that same job for a while. Some printers run their invoicing differently and don’t show the film as part of what you paid for but trust me, you’re paying for it so don’t be afraid to ask for it if you want to take them with you. If they are running a direct to screen system, they won’t have film but they’ll have the color separated file and you can request that. Again…trust me, you’ve paid for it…even if they don’t show it on the invoice.
Screens
Here’s where people get tripped up a little when thinking they’re “in the know” about screen-printing. You do not own the screens. Most print shops don’t even own all of their screens. They get rotated out from job to job, break, traded in for new ones, you name it. You will pay for the screens because the film that’s been output from the file you’ve provided is going to burn an image into the emulsion that’s sitting on the screen. You need one piece of film per color, per imprint and one screen per color, per imprint.
The entire process of coating a screen with emulsion, lining up the film onto each one and “burning” them (exposing to intense light) then washing out the emulsion that was covered by the film is a very delicate and time consuming one and takes someone with a special touch to do it correctly.
Sometimes printers can be cool and admit they “gang” your screens, meaning they have both the back image and front image on the same screen if the colors used are the same so you may get a break there but I wouldn’t expect one. Don’t feel bad to ask them if that’s possible though. You may get lucky.
Tags: apparel, artist, brokers, Screen-printing, tee shirts
