Comparison · apparel decoration · digital direct-to-garment vs screen printing · AMD per unit · crossover arithmetic
These two methods are usually described as if one is modern and the other is old, and that framing is useless to a buyer with a fixed event date and a fixed budget. Direct-to-garment is a digital printer that puts water-based pigment ink directly onto a pre-treated garment, which means no screens, no per-colour setup and unlimited colour inside a single design. Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh stencil one colour at a time, which means a setup charge per colour and a unit cost that collapses as the run grows. Neither is better. They are optimised for opposite ends of the same problem, and the crossover sits close enough to the middle of most corporate order sizes that guessing it wrong costs real money. This page compares both on what a unit costs at 25, 100, 500 and 2 000 pieces, what the setup charge buys, whether the artwork survives the process, which garments each suits, and how the print looks after forty washes.
Direct-to-garment printing, usually written DTG, is a large-format inkjet process built for textiles. Water-based pigment ink is jetted into the surface of a garment sitting on a platen or a garment loader inside a tunnel, and the whole piece is cured in a heat press at roughly 160 to 180 degrees for a short dwell. For dark garments a white underbase is laid down first and cured, then the colour prints over it. Cotton is the ideal substrate because the pigment sits in the fibre rather than on top of it. Industrial heads run at roughly 1 400 to 1 800 dots per inch and place four colour plus white without a screen, which is why a photographic image, a soft gradient or a forty-colour logo costs the same decoration charge as a two-colour mark.
Screen printing is a stencil process. An image is separated into colours, each colour burned onto a fine mesh screen, and each screen laid on the garment in turn with ink pushed through by a squeegee. Between colours the garment returns to a flash dryer, and the final screen is cured at around 160 degrees. Every additional colour is another screen, another burn, another squeegee pass, another flash and another registration risk. That is the argument in one sentence: screen printing converts artwork into labour, and labour is expensive once and cheap by the thousand; DTG converts artwork into data, and data is expensive once and cheap thereafter.
Cost is a two-term calculation: a one-time setup term and a repeating per-unit term. Screen printing puts almost everything in the setup term, so its per-unit price falls steeply with volume. DTG puts almost everything in the per-unit term, so its price barely moves as the design gains colour but does fall as the run grows and the press amortises its own time. A quotation stating one price for one method is describing a specific order, not a rate.
Artwork decides the method before volume does. Flat vector shapes, solid fills and a bounded colour count are screen printing territory, and the cheapest possible outcome in that territory, because each additional colour is a screen you pay to burn. Anything with continuous tone — a photograph, a gradient, fine colour transitions — is DTG territory, because a halftone screen at 140 to 180 mesh reproduces continuous tone at a resolution that reads correctly at arm length and reads as a dot pattern at conversation distance. Many corporate orders contain both, which is why the most efficient answer is frequently a split.
The garment decides what is technically possible. DTG needs a knit structure it can saturate with pre-treatment, so 100% cotton in jersey, fleece and pique is ideal, cotton-poly blends up to roughly a 50/50 split work with care, and 100% polyester demands a different underbase chemistry and a longer cure. Screen printing is far less demanding on substrate: plastisol and water-based inks will sit on cotton, polyester, blends, canvas and nylon. Where the garment is technical, dark, or a blend with high synthetic content, the substrate conversation comes before the artwork conversation.
A printed garment is judged after washing, not off the press. Two questions dominate: does the print stay bonded, and does the colour stay put. Pigment ink cured properly into cotton fibre passes both to around 30 or 40 washes and then fades rather than cracks, which is a graceful failure. Pigment on a synthetic blend is less predictable, because the fibre does not absorb the binder and the print sits on the surface, so it can crack along the knit stretch. Plastisol forms a film on the surface and passes 30 to 50 washes well, but it has a heavy hand on a fine fabric.
The figures below describe decoration cost only: ink, screens, machine time and the handling around them. The blank garment is a separate line and moves in the same direction for both methods, so it does not change which one wins. They assume one design, one garment position, a chest print in an A4 to A3 area, a mid-weight 100% cotton tee, three spot colours for the screen-printing column and a full-colour design for the DTG column. Both columns exclude VAT.
| Run length | DTG, full-colour design, one position | Screen print, three spot colours, one position | Which is cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 units | 6 800 – 10 500 AMD | 5 200 – 7 900 AMD | Screen print, marginally, because the design is simple |
| 100 units | 4 100 – 6 200 AMD | 2 600 – 3 900 AMD | Effectively level for three flat colours |
| 500 units | 2 900 – 4 300 AMD | 1 350 – 2 400 AMD | Screen print, by roughly half |
| 2 000 units | 2 250 – 3 300 AMD | 950 – 1 700 AMD | Screen print, by more than half |
Three things about this table are where most comparisons mislead. First, the crossover is not a single number. It moves with the design: for one spot colour it sits near 50 pieces, for three spot colours near 120 pieces, and for a six-colour design it moves out past 400. Second, the DTG column barely changes as the design gets more complex — adding a photograph to a logo-shaped mark costs very little extra in DTG and a great deal in screen printing, where it costs a halftone screen per colour. Third, below about 80 pieces both methods are dominated by setup and press time, so the unit price is largely an artefact of overhead rather than of the method.
Setup is where the two methods are least alike, and it is the term most often left off a quotation. In screen printing the setup is physical and repeated per colour per position. Each colour is separated, each separation burned onto a mesh of the appropriate count, and each screen registered to the garment. A three-colour front and back chest print is six screens, not three, because the back is a separate set; a dark-garment print adds a seventh, the white underbase. A typical screen burn and preparation charge here runs from about 25 000 to 60 000 AMD depending on mesh count, image complexity and whether film output is supplied or produced in-house. That charge does not scale with quantity, so a design repeated across three garments and two colours generates six screens and holds six setup charges in the order.
In DTG the setup is digital and paid once per design rather than once per colour. It is a file preflight — resolution, colour mode, transparency, overprint, and any font converted to outlines — plus a colour profile and a test panel printed on the actual garment stock. A typical preflight and test-panel charge runs from about 20 000 to 50 000 AMD per design, and it covers forty colours exactly as it covers two. The same design on a light cotton tee and a dark cotton tee changes only the pre-treatment recipe and the underbase, which is a machine parameter rather than a new screen.
The arithmetic a buyer should run is simple. Divide the setup difference by the run length to get the per-unit setup penalty, then compare it against the per-unit production difference. Worked example: a two-colour screen print at 200 units generates two screens at roughly 35 000 AMD each, so setup adds about 350 AMD per unit; DTG at the same 200 units adds no per-colour setup but its production cost sits around 3 800 to 5 200 AMD per unit against a screen-print production cost of about 1 900 to 2 800 AMD. The setup penalty does not close the gap; the production cost closes it. The reverse case is a 30-unit order of a six-colour photographic design: six screens plus an underbase at 40 000 AMD each is 280 000 AMD of setup on thirty garments, or more than 9 000 AMD per unit of pure setup before a garment is printed.
This is the sharpest technical difference between the two methods. A spot colour is a single, uniform, opaque ink covering an area with no gradient: it is either there or it is not. Screen printing reproduces spot colour natively, and if the artwork is built from spot colours — which is what a competent designer produces for a screen-printed application — the result is a solid, even, saturated field with no dot structure and no registration error inside the fill. Where two spot colours meet, the meeting point is a registration point, and on a knit garment under stretch that line can move by a millimetre or two. That is normal, invisible at conversation distance on a dark design, and visible on a large light field printed across a seam.
DTG reproduces continuous tone because it is a photographic process. Every pixel is built from four process inks plus an optional white, so a gradient is not approximated, it is generated. Fine detail, thin strokes, a photograph, a soft background wash and a colour transition across a logo are all native output. The cost is a floor: pigment ink on light cotton is bright but slightly flatter than plastisol, and fine light-on-dark detail can lose contrast because the white underbase must be thick enough to cover dark fabric. None of that is a defect. It is a different aesthetic, and a buyer who expects a DTG print to look like a screen print has misunderstood what was bought.
Screen printing can approximate continuous tone only by halftoning. A photograph is separated into plates, each broken into a dot grid, each grid printed on a mesh of typically 140 to 180 threads per inch. At arm length this reads as a photograph; at conversation distance it reads as a dot pattern, and on a knit fabric the structure deforms with the garment in a way no flat print does. Setup cost rises too, because four halftone screens must register precisely against each other.
Cotton is the substrate both methods prefer, for different reasons. Pigment ink needs a fibre it can bond to and saturate, and combed or ring-spun cotton jersey at 180 to 220 grams per square metre is the ideal DTG canvas. Screen printing prefers cotton because it is stable, takes plastisol cleanly and holds registration well. Both methods handle cotton fleece, pique and heavier knits, though a heavier pile flattens a print area and a high-pile fleece needs a longer flash cycle to stop ink sinking into the nap.
Blends are where DTG requires a conversation. A cotton-polyester blend at up to roughly 50/50 is printable on current industrial heads with correct pre-treatment. Higher synthetic content is progressively harder: the synthetic fibre does not absorb, the pigment sits on the surface, the print loses the soft hand that is DTG main advantage, and under repeated washing a surface print on a stretchy knit is prone to fine cracking along the neck and sleeve seams. A poly-rich performance tee is more reliably handled by screen printing with a polyester white underbase and a higher flash temperature.
Dark garments invert the economics of both methods. A DTG dark garment takes a pre-treatment bath, a white underbase pass, a cure, the colour pass and a final cure, a materially longer cycle than a light garment, which is part of why the per-unit figure above is a band rather than a number. A screen-printed dark garment needs one extra underbase screen and one extra flash, which is a setup cost rather than a per-unit cost, so the dark premium is heavier in screen printing at low volume and lighter at high volume. Print area is the last practical constraint. A standard industrial DTG tunnel handles roughly 40 by 45 centimetres, with some presses configured for an all-white-delivery area up to about 40 by 50; beyond that the garment is reloaded or the print split, and quality degrades before the mechanical limit is reached. Screen printing has no hard area limit, but large solid areas on a knit stretch and misregister, and a full-bleed all-over print across many seams produces visible joins. A full-front photographic graphic 40 by 50 centimetres is DTG territory without exception.
Durability is quoted as a wash count, and both figures are estimates, because the outcome depends on cure temperature, dwell time, fabric weight, wash temperature, detergent and frequency. The working figures for corporate apparel here are 30 to 50 washes for a well-cured plastisol screen print, 20 to 40 for a discharge or soft-hand water-based print, and 20 to 40 for a correctly pre-treated and cured pigment DTG print on cotton. All three degrade by fading rather than flaking, which matters: a faded mark is a cosmetic issue and a flaked mark is a rejection. The failure mode to watch is not pigment on cotton, but pigment on a synthetic blend, where a surface print on a stretch knit can show fine cracking after a dozen washes.
Colour matching risk runs the other way, and this is the strongest technical argument for screen printing. A spot-colour plastisol ink can be mixed to a named Pantone reference and checked on a spectrophotometer against the physical standard, typically landing within a Delta-E of 1 to 2. Water-based spot inks mix less predictably and hold a wider tolerance. DTG is a process-colour device with no spot-colour capability on most production heads, so a named Pantone solid cannot be hit reliably; the closest process build is measured against the target and accepted on a Delta-E tolerance, typically 3 or more. For a brand identity where a specific corporate colour is contractual — a bank, a telecom, an airline, a national event with a mandated palette — that gap is decisive. A buyer who says "it must be Pantone 294 C" has bought a screen print. A buyer who says "it must look like our photograph" has bought DTG.
| Decision variable | DTG | Screen printing |
|---|---|---|
| Best run length | Below roughly 120 units, or any run where the design is photographic | Above roughly 120 units for one to three spot colours; above 400 for six or more |
| Setup cost profile | One preflight and test panel per design, roughly 20 000-50 000 AMD, independent of colour count | One screen per colour per position, roughly 25 000-60 000 AMD, repeated for every additional colour |
| Colour count effect on price | Almost none inside the design | Linear and immediate, before any quantity effect |
| Spot-colour accuracy | Process colour only; a named Pantone solid is approximated | Excellent with mixed plastisol, typically within Delta-E 1-2 of the named reference |
| Photographic capability | Native continuous tone, four process inks plus white | Requires halftone screens; visibly dotted at close range |
| Dark garment handling | Pre-treatment, white underbase, two cure cycles, longer cycle time | One additional white underbase screen and one additional flash |
| Wash durability | 20-40 washes on cotton; surface-bound and crack-prone on synthetic blends | 30-50 washes with plastisol; soft-hand water-based 20-40 |
| Hand feel | Soft, integrated into the fibre | Firm film with plastisol; soft with discharge or soft-hand water-based |
| Maximum practical print area | About 40 x 45 cm standard, up to 40 x 50 cm on configured presses | No hard limit; very large areas misregister across seams |
| Re-order behaviour | Preflight charged again; colour may shift with a new ink batch | Screen reusable for years if artwork and stock are identical |
The following verdicts assume a corporate apparel order for a fixed event or a fixed internal audience, priced in AMD and delivered into Armenia. Where the answer depends on a fact the buyer holds and we do not, that fact is named.
Choose DTG when the run is below about 100 units. At 25 units a three-colour screen print costs close to a full-colour DTG print and gives a worse result on the artwork. At 50 units the DTG position is decisive. Below that, setup dominates both methods and the difference is small enough that lead time and quality should decide it rather than price.
Choose screen printing when the design is one to three flat spot colours and the run is above roughly 120 units. This is the standard case for a company logo on a staff tee or a volunteer shirt. At 500 units the screen-print decoration cost is roughly half the DTG cost, and at 2 000 units it is less than half. Add the reusable screen argument if the same design is reordered annually.
Choose DTG when the artwork contains a photograph, a gradient or continuous tone. No volume makes a halftone screen print of a photograph better than a DTG print of the same photograph. Where the design is photographic at any quantity, the screen-print cost is not a discount; it is an approximation with a visible dot structure.
Choose screen printing when a specific Pantone reference is contractually required. A named spot colour that must match a brand standard cannot be hit reliably by a four-process-ink device. This applies to regulated industries, co-branded events and any run produced under a strict brand book. If the colour mandate applies but the artwork is photographic, screen print the brand mark and DTG the image.
Choose screen printing when the garment is polyester, a poly-rich blend or a technical fabric, or when it is washed hard and often. Pigment ink integrates into cotton and sits awkwardly on synthetics. Unless the blend is close to a 50/50 and the order is short, plastisol on a synthetic surface is the more predictable and more durable result. Industrial laundering on hot cycles likewise favours a cured plastisol film.
Choose DTG when the print area is large or the design is full-bleed. A 40 by 50 centimetre graphic across the front and back is mechanically awkward and photographically impossible in spot colour.
Split the order when the design has both a flat logo and an image. Screen print the logo, DTG the photographic panel. This usually lands below the cost of either method applied to the whole design.
Neither method is the right answer if the brief is embroidery or sublimation. Embroidered marks survive a hundred washes and read as premium at close range but cannot reproduce a gradient; dye sublimation is the correct process for polyester at volume. If the requirement is a hundred-plus wash life, compare those methods instead.
For a three-spot-colour design, roughly 100 to 150 decorated garments. For one spot colour the crossover sits nearer 50 pieces, because fewer screens mean less setup to recover. For a six-colour design it moves out past 400 pieces. A photographic design never crosses over, because reproducing continuous tone in spot colour requires halftone screens that cost more at every volume. The crossover is a property of the artwork as much as of the quantity, which is why the useful comparison prices the actual design at four quantities rather than quoting one number.
Not reliably. DTG is a process-colour device running four process inks plus white, and a named spot colour sits outside its gamut. The closest process build can be measured against the physical standard and usually lands within a Delta-E of three or more, which is visibly different under a colour-comparing light and unacceptable against a strict brand book. A mixed plastisol ink screened onto the garment can be checked on a spectrophotometer against the Pantone standard and typically lands within one to two Delta-E. If the specification names a Pantone solid, screen printing is the appropriate process.
For corporate apparel in this market, a well-cured plastisol screen print holds 30 to 50 washes, discharge or soft-hand water-based holds 20 to 40, and a correctly pre-treated and cured pigment DTG print on cotton holds 20 to 40. All three fade rather than flake, so failure is cosmetic rather than a defect. The exception is pigment on a synthetic blend, where the print sits on the surface of a stretch knit and can show fine cracking after a dozen washes. If the garment is laundered industrially on hot cycles, screen printing is the safer choice regardless of quantity.
No. Corp-Merch is an independent B2B merchandise supplier. References to Pantone and the Pantone Matching System, GOTS, GRS, OEKO-TEX, FSC, ISO standards, the EAEU customs union and any textile machinery manufacturer or certification body referenced on this page are informational only. They imply no partnership, sponsorship, endorsement or official-supplier relationship with any of them, and no trademark is claimed as owned by Corp-Merch.
This page is written for B2B buyers of custom apparel in Armenia and the wider EAEU choosing between direct-to-garment printing and screen printing. Corp-Merch is an independent B2B merchandise supplier. Cost figures are typical decoration-cost bands for this category, in AMD and excluding VAT, drawn from standard production practice rather than from a quotation; they describe one design at one garment position on a mid-weight cotton tee and will move with artwork, quantity, size breakdown, fabric weight, colour count, ink system and delivery terms. Every order is quoted individually against a written specification, and nothing on this page is a binding price.