Custom T-Shirt Cost: Quantity, Size and Print Sides

How Does Quantity Change the T-Shirt Price?

Quantity changes both the total and the share of that total assigned to each shirt. One shirt carries the whole opening price, $42.79. Adding a second shirt moves the total to $64.19, so the pair averages about $32.10 each. A third shirt moves the total to $96.29 and the average stays about $32.10. At four shirts the one-side total is $120.00, and it stays $30.00 a shirt through nine: $150.00, $180.00, $210.00, $240.00, and $270.00.

The steps are not a smooth percentage off the first shirt. From one to two, the total rises by less than another $42.79. From three to four, the each figure settles at $30.00 and then holds. Order the quantity you will hand out. Nine is not a better buy than six if three shirts will sit in a box.

Both sides follow their own steps, in the same table. One shirt printed on both sides is still $42.79. Two are $74.89, about $37.45 a shirt. Three are $108.00, and from three through nine the both-sides price holds at $36.00 a shirt. Five both-sides shirts are $180.00. Eight are $288.00. Nine are $324.00. Read across the row for the side count you actually want. A both-sides job priced off the one-side column is the wrong total.

These rows stop at nine on purpose. They are the direct-to-garment quantities. The next section on ten or more is a different process, and it does not continue this table.

Do Size and Color Change the T-Shirt Price?

No. S, M, L, XL, 2XL, and 3XL are one price at a given quantity and side count. White and black are one price. A single white shirt in size S is $42.79. A single black shirt in size 2XL, printed on both sides, is $42.79. Six white shirts in size 3XL, one side, are $180.00, the same as six black shirts in size L.

L is the size the page opens on, and black is the color it opens on. Changing either one does not move the dollar. Change them because they are the shirts you want, not because you are hunting a lower row.

One line is one size and one color. Six single-sided shirts in that one size are $180.00. A second size is a second line, priced at that line's own quantity. The table does not add a surcharge at 2XL or 3XL, and it does not add two different size lines into a new total.

The shirt itself is a soft 100% cotton Bella Canvas tee. There is not a second fabric on this page. You are not choosing a cheaper blank and a premium blank. The choices that move the money are quantity and whether the back is printed.

What Does Printing Both Sides Cost?

Both sides are $42.79 for one shirt, $74.89 for two, about $37.45 a shirt, and $36.00 a shirt from three through nine, so six both-sides shirts are $216.00 and nine are $324.00. Printing both sides means a front file and a back file. At one shirt the total does not change from the one-side price. From two shirts up, the both-sides column is higher than the one-side column: two shirts are $74.89 instead of $64.19, and from three through nine, budget $36.00 a shirt instead of $30.00.

The back is its own artwork. A race shirt often wants the name large on the back and a smaller mark on the front, which is the split in the sample photos: a circular ridge on the black front, and an arched name on a white back. Send both files. If you only have a front, order one side. Do not leave the back as "same as front" unless you have looked at that art turned around and you still want it there. A wide chest logo can sit too low or too wide once it is placed on a back.

Both sides still uses the same shirts and the same sizes. It does not change production into a different garment. It changes the print. On the proof, look at the front and the back as two pictures. Check that the name is spelled the same way in both places if it appears in both places, and that a design meant only for the front did not get copied to the back by habit.

One-side totals and both-sides totals are both in the table so you can pick with the numbers in view. A six-shirt crew with a front logo only is $180.00. The same six shirts with a back print as well are $216.00. The difference is the second print, not a different shirt.

What We See on Proofs for T-Shirt Prints

A white box drawn behind the artwork prints as a white patch on a black shirt. Design tools often drop a logo onto a white rectangle and export the rectangle with the logo. On a black Bella Canvas tee that rectangle is ink, and it shows up as a bright slab behind the mark. If the art should sit directly on the black fabric, the file needs a clear background, not a white one. The sample trail-club shirt in the photos lets the ridge sit on the black knit. You can still see the fabric in the close view. That is the direct-to-garment look. A white tile behind the ridge would hide it.

Fine hairlines go soft. A one-point rule, a thin script, and small type inside a badge lose their edges in the ink. Direct to garment is a soft print into cotton, not a vinyl cut. Build the mark with strokes that are thick enough to see on a shirt from a few feet away. The name on the chest should be readable while the person is wearing it, which means fewer words at a larger size.

Dark art on a black shirt disappears. If the shirt is black, the design needs light colors or a real contrast, the way the sunset ridge uses magenta, orange, and teal. If the shirt is white, the same dark navy logo that failed on black will hold. Pick the shirt color after you look at the art, or pick the art after you look at the shirt. The price will not change. The proof will.

Also watch the edges of a full-bleed shape. A circle that gets cut off by the shirt's printable area should be redesigned smaller, not scaled until it clips. Approve the proof with the shirt color in mind. A proof viewed on a white screen hides the white-box problem until the shirt is black in your hands.

What About Orders of 10 Shirts or More?

Runs of 10 or more are screen printed. Request a bulk quote. The direct-to-garment table above is the price through nine shirts. It is not a rate you can multiply out to twelve, fifteen, or twenty-four and treat as the order.

Screen printing is a different process for a longer run. This page does not publish a screen-print price list, and it does not publish a direct-to-garment total past nine. If the count is ten or more, ask for the quote and wait for that number. Extending the $30.00 row or the $36.00 row would describe a shirt the shop is not selling that way.

Under ten, stay on the table. One through nine, one side or both, S to 3XL, white or black. Production on these direct-to-garment shirts is 1 to 5 business days after artwork approval. The clock starts when you approve the proof. A white box caught on the proof, or a hairline you decide to thicken, is fixed before that clock starts.

Shipping is a flat $10 on the order. Add transit after the production window when the shirts have a hand-out date. Design it for me is +$29.99 with two revisions, and it is free when the item is $499 or more. Every row in the table is under $499, so the fee applies if you want the art built. Making your own image print ready through AI image to print is $14.99 once per item.

Start the order on the custom t-shirt page. Set the quantity, the size, the color, and one side or both. The total on the page should match the row you are reading here.