Decoration Pricing Calculator
Screen print, embroidery, DTF, and laser priced the way suppliers actually bill it.
Decoration math is where quotes go wrong. Not because it is hard, but because every method bills on a different shape: screen print charges per color per location plus a screen fee, embroidery charges per thousand stitches plus digitizing, DTF charges by transfer size plus application, and laser charges a flat run rate plus a setup per position.
This calculator holds all four shapes. You enter your own supplier rates, it does the arithmetic and shows you the whole order: decoration per piece, setup fees separated out, all-in cost, and your sell price at whatever margin you run.
Price the decoration
Enter your own supplier rates. Nothing here is stored, sent, or shared, and no supplier pricing is baked in.
The order
Most suppliers charge a full run charge and a full setup per location.
Your net cost on the garment or item. Set to 0 to price decoration only.
Screen print rates
Charged per color, per location.
Many suppliers waive screens above a break. Leave at 0 if yours does not.
Your margin
Set this to whatever your shop runs. It is not stored and there is no default worth trusting but your own.
$2,379.17 for the order at 40 percent margin
All in, setup amortized
On the whole order
Cost breakdown
Run the same quantity through two methods to find your real crossover. DTF usually wins small runs because setup is zero, and screen print takes back over once the screens spread across enough pieces.
Margin is applied as sell = cost / (1 - margin), the way distributor margin actually works. Setup fees are amortized across the run in the per-piece figures. Estimates for scale, not a quote.
How the math works
Screen print
Run charge is per piece, per location, and rises with color count. Screens are a one-time setup billed per color per location, and most suppliers waive some or all of them above a quantity break. Total = (run charge x pieces x locations) + (screens x screen fee).
Embroidery
Run charge is priced per thousand stitches, per location, so a 9,000-stitch left chest and a 22,000-stitch jacket back are not the same order. Digitizing is one-time per design and usually tiered by stitch count. Total = (stitch thousands x rate x pieces x locations) + digitizing.
DTF and heat transfer
Transfers price by print size, and application labor is charged separately per piece per location. Setup is often zero, which is why DTF wins on low quantities and loses on high ones against screen print.
Laser, pad print, and engraving
Flat run charge per piece per position with a setup per position. The simplest math of the four, and the one most often quoted from memory and missed.
Cost to sell price
Margin is not markup. To hit a target margin you divide by (1 minus the margin), you do not multiply by it. A 40 percent margin on a $6.00 cost is $6.00 / 0.60 = $10.00, not $8.40. The calculator does the division and shows the gross profit so the difference is visible.
The production version
Decoration Pricing Calculator
Live in productionSetup fees, run charges, and margin math without the tribal memory.
Proof: Pricing questions that used to mean asking the one person who knows now take thirty seconds.
Questions, answered
No, and that is deliberate. Every rate is a field you fill in with your own contract pricing. Published supplier rates go stale in a quarter and yours are better than any number I could hardcode.
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Want this running inside your systems?
A calculator is the demo. The version I run reads the order, applies the rates, and produces the client document without anyone opening a spreadsheet. The teardown is free and I will tell you plainly whether it is worth automating.