A behind-the-scenes look at what really goes into your custom printed apparel
If you’ve ever ordered screen printed apparel and noticed a “setup fee” on your invoice, you may have wondered:
Why is there a setup fee every time I place an order—even if I’ve used this design before?
It’s a great question, and one we hear often at Sure Shot Screen Printing. The answer lies in the complex, hands-on process of preparing your job to go to press. Screen printing is not just about putting ink on a shirt—it’s about building the foundation that ensures every print is clean, aligned, and vibrant. The setup fee helps cover that foundation work.
Let’s walk you through exactly what’s involved.
1. Preparing Your Design Files
Before anything hits the press, we need to make sure your artwork is ready for production. That means:
- Communicating with our design team to confirm layout, sizing, and print location
- Converting your artwork into spot colors, so each color can be printed separately
- Layering and separating the artwork for each print location (front, back, sleeve, etc.)
- Exporting the file and running it through separation software to prep for print
This pre-production stage is critical. It ensures your artwork translates properly from screen to garment without compromising clarity or color accuracy.
2. Printing Transparency Sheets
Once the file is properly separated, we print transparency sheets for each layer of color. These transparencies act like stencils, allowing us to expose your design onto individual screens.
Every color, every image, and every placement on the shirt requires its own transparency. These are printed using specialized film and ink, and each sheet comes at a cost. For a multi-color design printed on both the front and back of a shirt, that’s multiple transparencies—each one carefully prepared to line up perfectly on press.
3. Burning Screens for Each Color
With transparencies in hand, we move to the screen exposure stage. Here’s what that entails:
- We coat a blank screen with emulsion, a light-sensitive chemical
- Each transparency is placed on the screen and exposed to high-intensity light
- The exposed emulsion hardens while the covered areas (your design) stay soft
- We then rinse the screen, washing away the soft emulsion to reveal your image
Again, this is done for every color, image, and print placement. A four-color front and one-color back design would require at least five screens—each one coated, exposed, rinsed, dried, and labeled.
4. Washing, Drying, and Setting Up the Press
After burning, the screens are carefully rinsed, allowed to dry completely, and then moved to the printing press.
At this point, we:
- Check and count in your blank garments to ensure accuracy in sizes and quantities
- Tape the edges of each screen to prevent ink leakage
- Align and level each screen on press so your design prints in perfect registration
- Mix custom inks to match your brand or artwork
- Run test prints to fine-tune pressure, off-contact, and alignment
Only after all of this is complete do we begin printing your actual shirts.
5. Why the Setup Fee Matters
As you can see, there is a substantial amount of labor and material required before we print a single shirt. The setup fee helps us cover:
- Design and file prep time
- Transparency film and ink
- Emulsion and screen usage
- Labor to coat, expose, rinse, and dry screens
- Press setup and test printing
Each of these steps requires attention to detail and contributes directly to the quality of your final product.
Even if you’ve printed the same design before, the setup fee is still applicable—because we repeat this process every time. Screens don’t stay burned indefinitely. They are reused for future jobs, which means we have to re-burn the artwork, re-align it on press, and re-test everything to ensure it prints correctly.
Your Brand Deserves the Best
At Sure Shot Screen Printing, we’re not just pressing buttons. We’re craftsmen who care deeply about the quality of your prints and the integrity of your brand. Our setup process ensures that every shirt, hoodie, or tote bag that comes off the press looks professional, feels consistent, and represents you well.
If you ever want to see the process firsthand or have questions about your next project, we’re always happy to talk shop. Just give us a call or swing by the shop—we love educating our customers and showing them what really goes into making great apparel.
Ready to get your brand looking sharp with custom screen printed merchandise?
Reach out to us today. Let’s build something awesome together.
