Embroidery
Screen Printing
VS.
Benefits:
Embroidery is a lot of times considered more professional looking.
No minimum quantity on orders. You can order as few as one.
Quicker turn around on most orders. 1-2 week delivery on most orders. 4-6 day rush service available.
There are usually no setup fees associated with embroidery. If your embroidery design is created using designs from our catalog, there are no setup fees.
May hold up better and is not as susceptible to harsh conditions (i.e. extreme heat).
With embroidery you have the option to choose a design from our library of over 22,000 stock designs.
There is no additional cost for additional colors so embroidered designs can be more colorful.
Benefits:
Printing sometimes cost a lot less than embroidery. This is particularly true if you plan to do a large area. If you are doing a large area such as the full back of a shirt, embroidery will cost between $15.00 and $30.00 per item where as printing will cost between $0.50 and $5.00 per item depending on the number of colors and the quantity.
Printed designs can be a lot more elaborate and detailed. Almost any design can be screen printed where as some designs are impossible to embroider.
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Printing can be done on thin material such as lightweight t-shirts and panties without causing the material to sag or puting wholes in the material.
Cons:
Embroidery puts a lot of thread on the item being embroidered. The weight of this thread of a large design on a thin item such as a Tee Shirt can cause the shirt to sag.
The setup process for embroidering your own design involves converting the design file to a stitch file that the embroidery machine can understand. This process usually cost more then the set up for printing and can cost anywhere between $20 and $150. However this is a one-time cost, therefore there would be no setup charges for future orders with the same design. This design process is called digitizing. You can read about it HERE.
Cons:
Because screens have to be set up and paint applied to those screens, the minimum quantity for printing is 24. Where as the minimum quantity for embroidery is one.
There is a set up cost associated with screen printing of $20 per color. However this is a one time cost, therefore there would be no charges for future orders with the same design.