284 decoration method against product type combinations

This half of the matrix crosses every decoration method with the product types that method actually works on. Each pair states the condition that has to be met, the minimum volume, the lead time and the net price per piece.

Request a quote

What this half of the matrix contains

The matrix in this section has two halves. One crosses product type with the industry it works in and is published under product type against industry. The other crosses a decoration method with a product type. You read the second half when the question is not what to give away, but how to mark it, and the answer arrives with the limits of the technique already attached. Both halves describe the same merchandise, from two directions, which is why they work well together.

Every entry names a method and a product type and explains why the pair works. Screen printing needs a flat panel, because the screen transfers ink to a flat carrier. DTF printing needs a printable area and sits on the surface of the fabric instead of entering it. Embroidery has a minimum stitch width, so fine detail on a coarse mesh is not available at any price. When a pair does not work, the page says so and names the condition that would have to change.

The other half of the matrix answers a different question, namely who receives the item. The same products in a different environment have different thresholds, because the way the item is used and the rate of replacement both change. An apron for a bakery and an apron for a laboratory are different orders at the same unit price. Read this half when the technique is settled and the substrate still has to be chosen, or when the programme has to reach recipients in one particular industry.

How to choose inside this sub-section

Start from the method when the brand or the artwork is already decided. If the logo is single-colour and has to survive washing, choose the method first and then work down the list of product types that accept it well. Start from the product type when the merchandise is fixed, because the t-shirts are ordered already or the bags are leftovers from an earlier project. Then read the methods listed against that product and drop the ones that impose conditions the product cannot meet.

The entries are short on purpose. The method and the product type are in the title, the reason the pair works is in the first part of the page and the condition is in the second. Read the condition before the price. A combination that looks cheap per unit can be the wrong one, because the method needs a preparation that only pays off above a certain quantity, or because the product needs a colour the supplier does not hold in the size you order.

When two entries look equally good, washing usually decides. A print that cracks or fades after ten washes is a worse result than a slightly flatter embroidery that lasts for years. The page of each method states what to expect on the concrete substrate, so the comparison does not have to be guessed. In practice, laundering is the most frequent reason for switching technique after a first order.

Volume, lead time and price

Prices on these pages are given in euros net, and a Polish business client receives a VAT 23% invoice issued through KSeF. A single figure on a matrix page is a starting rate for the simplest version of the product with single-colour decoration, not an offer. The price per piece moves with the quantity, with the number of colours and with the scope of the artwork preparation, and with several garment sizes it adds a separate screen for every colour.

The minimum volume decides most programmes. The usual entry points are 25 to 50 pieces for single-colour screen printing on a light garment, 50 to 100 for DTF and for embroidery, and higher when the method has to open a production line of its own or prepare a separate plate. A trial run below the minimum is possible at a higher unit price, and it is usually worth doing once, on the product type you are least sure about.

The lead time is counted in working days from artwork approval, not from the order. Until that moment the file is prepared, a strike-off is printed, it is approved, and only then does production start. Standard production takes 5 to 8 working days for a method that enters an existing line, and from 10 to 15 days when the order opens a new preparation. The 48 or 72 hour express version carries a surcharge of 20 to 30% and needs the artwork closed at the first sample.

The artwork: what to prepare

Send vector artwork whenever the method allows it, as an.ai,.eps or.pdf file with the text converted to outlines and no linked images. What the file has to contain is decided by the method. Screen printing needs one separation per colour and a closed contour. DTF accepts a bitmap file but prints better from a vector. Sublimation needs a real vector, because the dye enters the polyester instead of staying on its surface.

For embroidery, send the design as it should look and leave the digitisation to us, and the stitch sample is then approved on the real fabric. Thread colours are picked from the stock list, and the number of stitches moves the price, so a design built from fewer and larger elements normally costs less to embroider than the same logo drawn with fine detail. Give the size in millimetres and the decoration position too, because one badge on the left breast and on the back costs a different amount.

Decoration methods in brief

Screen printing and direct to garment printing are the cheapest routes at high volume, but both need a smooth surface. Screen printing wins with a few colours and a large run, because the screen and the plate pay for themselves quickly. Direct printing wins with many colours and a small run, because there is no preparation, but it needs a light base and it takes longer on every single piece.

Heat transfer and sublimation are the routes for synthetic materials, where the dye or the film reaches into the fibre itself. Sublimation is more durable, because the colour enters the polyester and therefore survives washing, but it requires a vector. Heat transfer is more flexible, it works at low volume and on different substrates, yet the film can be felt under the finger, which matters for a t-shirt worn under a jacket.

Embroidery, UV printing, laser engraving and pad printing are the methods for hard surfaces, for fabrics woven too loosely for a screen, or for small and precise marks. The choice inside that group is usually narrow, because each of those techniques has a narrow window of application. For every one of them the page in this matrix gives the minimum volume, the lead time and the net price, so the comparison between them is a matter of one table.

Three typical programmes seen through this half

A uniform programme for the whole company. Three hundred t-shirts for three departments, one artwork, one colour, one size per wearer. At that quantity screen printing wins clearly, and the condition is a flat panel, which means a t-shirt without pleats and without a shoulder yoke. In this matrix you will find the screen printing variant for every kind of t-shirt, including the ones with pockets, and you can see where the flat panel condition stops being met.

A conference kit. One hundred and twenty pieces for the attendees, part of it embroidered on a pocket, part of it printed on a t-shirt, plus a bag, water and a notebook. Here the lead time decides, and so does the question of whether the material can reach the local warehouse inside the agreed delivery window. In this matrix you will find the pages on embroidery for bags, t-shirts and fleeces, and with each of them the minimum volume condition, which with conference kits is the most frequent reason to change the technique.

A client gift, which means a small quantity. Forty bags or forty mugs with a laser mark, sent one by one to individual recipients. At that scale the minimum volume decides the method, and the price per piece lands with laser engraving and with heat transfer rather than with screen printing. It is worth checking at that point how many pieces are needed to bring the preparation cost down, and to keep a reserve for corrections.

When it pays off and when it does not

This half of the matrix pays off when the range is wide and the decoration is decided once. A company that keeps the same programme across ten product types wants one decoration standard, one artwork file and one approval, and this list shows which products are able to carry that standard. At high volume with a repeating design, it is the simplest route to one predictable price per piece.

It does not pay off when every piece is a separate case. If the product changes every time and the decoration changes with it, a decision per piece is faster than reading 284 entries. In that situation the other half of the matrix, product type against industry, is the better tool, because it starts from the situation of the recipient and not from the technique.

How to read the numbers in this half

Every page in this matrix is built the same way, so that different combinations can be compared with each other. It opens with a line on the material and on what the technique does with it. Then comes a line on the minimum volume and the net price per piece. Then a line on the lead time and on what is counted inside it and what is billed separately. It ends with the list of restrictions under which the combination is not worth repeating.

That layout was chosen because comparing is exactly what those four lines are for. When two suppliers offer the same goods with different decoration, the first line does not settle it, the third and the fourth do, meaning the lead time and the restrictions. If one of them promises half the price, it almost certainly uses another technique or another fabric thickness, and that is visible in the description.

The most common quoting mistakes

The most frequent cause of a delay is not production, it is the file. To quote we need a vector file with the logo, the dimensions in millimetres and the colours, ideally in the Pantone system. If the logo exists only as a raster file, send a version at 300 dpi or better in the target size, because with heat decoration the resolution is the limit of quality that printing cannot make up for.

The second mistake is leaving out the size breakdown. A programme in sizes from S to XXL needs a separate screen and a separate plate for every size, and that is a completely different preparation cost from a programme in a single size. The third mistake is decorating a place the item does not have, such as the top of a hood or on a pocket that gets removed. Marking the position on a physical sample before quoting avoids all three.

The strike-off and the approval

The strike-off is a sample made with exactly the same method as the one that will produce the whole batch. It normally arrives on a single piece, in the same colour the run will use. What you check on the sample above all is the colour, that is whether the ink matches the artwork, and also that the image fits onto the product.

Production starts only after the sample has been approved. While it is in front of you, it is worth checking the size of the logo on the item rather than only on the printout, and asking how the specific colour holds up in the wash. With embroidery the sample is a stitch sample, so the density and the thread colour can be judged before the whole volume is produced.

Delivery and warehousing

Shipping leaves the hub in Warsaw, so delivery inside the country is quick and predictable. With a single order going to several collection points, list all of them in the brief, because parcels to one address go out cheaper and travel in one pass. Splitting an order into a separate parcel for every recipient raises the logistics cost and the number of parcels to handle.

At high volumes part of an order is often kept in the warehouse as stock. That solution has a price of its own: cash frozen for a long time, the cost of storage, and the risk that the style changes before the stock runs out. With stock on hand it is worth fixing the delivery dates straight away, so that it does not sit longer than it has to.

Walking the matrix and choosing a variant

Walking the matrix lets you make a quick estimate before anyone starts talking about colours and sizes. Go through the methods listed against the product you already know and set aside the ones that require a condition it cannot meet. Two or three pairs usually remain, and comparing their thresholds and lead times fits into a single table.

It is also worth checking whether the same pair appears in the other half of the matrix with different thresholds. If you operate in one industry, the other half shows the conditions the technique itself does not describe, and that usually moves the decision about volume more than the difference in price per piece.

Colours, separations and colour matching

Colour in decoration is more than a choice from a palette. Every technique has its own limit on the number of colours, and screen printing additionally needs a separate screen for each colour, which means separate preparation and a separate cost. DTF and direct printing carry a much higher colour limit and often come out cheaper with several colours, even though the method itself costs more at small volumes.

Colours are printed in the Pantone system rather than in screen RGB. If you supply a logo in RGB it has to be converted to the print palette and a finished proof approved, because what is visible on a monitor usually looks different once printed. With embroidery the matching runs separately: threads have their own range, chosen from the availability list, and you have to say which shade in that range corresponds to the brand colour.

Multi-colour decoration adds one more decision, namely the order of the colours and whether the design carries an outline or a knock-out. An outline adds one colour and sometimes one more screen, and on small elements it can eat the detail of the drawing. It is therefore worth marking in the brief which elements have to stay legible at a small size and which may be simplified.

The substrate that decides everything

The substrate decides everything: whether the technique is possible at all, how the result wears and what the preparation costs. Cotton and its blends lead to screen printing, direct printing and embroidery. Polyester leads to sublimation and heat transfer. Hard plastics and metal lead to UV printing, laser engraving and pad printing.

In the matrix those limits are described at every combination, so you can move from the material to the technique rather than the other way round. Two things are worth keeping in mind, because they do not show up in the description. First, the weight and the composition of the fabric change the price, because the producer receives a different material to print on. Second, choosing a technique without naming the substrate is guesswork, because the same artwork on a t-shirt and on a mug looks completely different.

Decoration method against product type (284 pages)

In alphabetical order by method, and within each method by product type. Every entry opens the page that describes the combination, its conditions, its price band and its production lead time.

Questions about this half of the matrix

What exactly does one entry in this matrix tell me?

It names a decoration method and a product type, explains why the combination works, and states the condition that has to be met, such as a minimum volume, a garment colour or a type of panel.

Does a combination listed here guarantee availability?

No. Availability depends on the stock position and on the production route at the time of the order. The matrix says whether the combination makes sense, and we confirm stock and date when quoting.

Can we order a combination that is not on the list?

Normally yes. The matrix covers the combinations we repeat most often, and we can quote almost any other one. If the method and the product type both appear side by side in the other half of the matrix, such a combination can usually be produced.

Send the brief

Seven fields are enough: product, quantity, decoration, size, colour, deadline and delivery city. We answer within one working day from Warsaw.