Print & Apparel Minimums, Turnaround & Pricing

Where we stand on pricing

Most print shops make you call to learn anything. We would rather publish our minimums, explain exactly what moves your number, and then quote you fast. Send what, how many, and when — that is enough to price almost any job, and it usually comes back the same business day.

01 — MINIMUMS

Every minimum, in one table

Almost nobody in this market publishes these. Here they are, across all eight service lines.

What you are ordering	Minimum	Why
PRINT & PAPER
Business cards	100	Digital or offset; foil, spot UV and painted edge add finishing passes
Postcards, flyers, rack cards, sell sheets	100	Priced by stock, size and coating
Brochures, booklets, catalogs, menus	100	Folding, scoring and saddle-stitching are separate operations
Table tents	25	Scored, folded and assembled — low floor by design
Presentation folders	100	Die and setup on the first run; reorders are cheaper
Letterhead, envelopes, NCR forms	250	Business stationery runs on a fixed press setup
Door hangers	250	Die-cut, so the die drives the floor
EDDM & direct mail	200	USPS bundle rules set the practical floor
Greeting cards, invitations, notepads, calendars	100	Same digital press economics as cards
APPAREL
Screen printing	24 per design	Screens are burned and the press is set up per colour, per location
DTF transfers	1	No setup — unlimited colour at any quantity
DTG printing	1	Printed straight into the garment
Embroidery	12	One-time digitizing, then priced per stitch
Dye-sublimation	1	Dyed into polyester or a coated blank
SIGNS, STICKERS & PACKAGING
Stickers, labels & decals	1	Custom die shapes may carry a one-time die charge
Roll labels	250	Roll production has a practical minimum run
Yard signs, banners, large format	1	Priced by material and square footage
Trade-show displays, table covers, flags	1	Built to order per unit
Packaging & promo	Varies	Boxes, pouches and promo goods each have their own tooling floor

Typical figures, not hard rules. Odd jobs get a straight answer rather than a policy — ask. Not sure which stock or size you need? Start with the paper & stocks guide.

02 — TURNAROUND

Turnaround

Category	Typical turnaround
Business cards & digital print	3–5 business days
Marketing print with folding or bindery	5–7 business days
Stickers, labels & decals	5–7 business days
Signs, banners & large format	3–7 business days, material depending
Apparel — screen print, DTF, DTG, embroidery	7–10 business days
Packaging & custom promo	2–4 weeks, tooling depending

All of these start at proof approval, not at quote. Approving your proof the day you receive it buys you more time than anything else you can do. Rush is often possible — give us the real in-hands date up front.

03 — WHAT MOVES YOUR PRICE

The eight things that move your price

01. Quantity

The biggest lever on almost every job. Setup — plates, screens, dies, digitizing — is fixed, so it spreads thinner the more you order. On print, 100 to 250 often drops the per-piece cost by a third. On screen printing, so does 24 to 48.

02. Stock, substrate or garment

A 14pt gloss card, a 32pt painted-edge card and a soft-touch laminated card are three different cost bases before anything is printed. Same for 4mm coroplast versus aluminium, or a 4.2 oz retail tee versus a Carhartt work shirt. This is the second-biggest lever and the one most people never think about.

03. Size & format

Printed sheets are cut from parent stock. A size that nests efficiently costs less than one that wastes a third of the sheet, and a 4×6 postcard is not simply half the price of a 6×9. We will tell you when a small size change saves real money.

04. Finishing

Raised foil, spot UV, soft-touch, painted edge, die-cutting, scoring, folding, perforation, saddle-stitching, numbering, poly bagging, hang tags. Each is real labour, each is a line you can see on the quote and remove.

05. Colours & print locations

Screen printing charges per colour, per location — a front and a back are two setups. Digital and offset print full colour as standard, so on paper the colour count is free and the coating is not.

06. Deadline

Standard scheduling is the cheapest scheduling. Rush means moving other jobs, and that carries a cost. The best way to save money on a deadline is to give us the real one early.

07. Artwork condition

Print-ready art costs nothing to prepare. A logo pulled off a website at 400 pixels wide has to be redrawn before it can be printed well. We will tell you which situation you are in before we start — see the file prep guide.

08. Mailing & distribution

EDDM, addressed mailing, list processing, postage, folding and bagging by name, delivery or drop-shipping. Optional on every job, priced separately, never assumed.

04 — STARTING PRICES

Starting prices

To be filled in. This is where per-product “starting at” figures go — the single biggest gap in the Columbus market, since no local competitor publishes a price table. Send Zach’s real floors (e.g. 100 16pt business cards, 250 4×6 postcards, 100 table tents, 24 one-colour screen-printed tees, a 3×6 vinyl banner, 100 die-cut stickers) and they drop straight into a table here.

Until then: send the job and get a real number. A quote costs nothing and takes about a day.

05 — HOW TO GET A CHEAPER NUMBER

Six ways to lower your quote

Order the next quantity break up. 100 to 250 on print, or 24 to 48 on shirts, is usually the biggest per-piece saving available — and you will use them.
Ask about the stock before you fall in love with it. A house stock at the same weight often prints identically to a specialty one for meaningfully less.
Let the size nest efficiently. A quarter-inch trim change can be the difference between two-up and three-up on the press sheet.
Reduce colours or locations on apparel, not quality. A sharp two-colour print on a good blank beats a muddy four-colour on a cheap one, and costs less.
Give us the real deadline early. Standard scheduling is the cheapest scheduling.
Send usable artwork. Print-ready files cost nothing to prepare. See the file prep guide.

06 — FAQ

Pricing FAQ

What is your minimum order?

It depends what you are ordering. Most printed pieces — business cards, postcards, flyers, brochures, menus — start at 100. Table tents start at 25. Letterhead, envelopes, NCR forms and door hangers start at 250, and EDDM direct mail at 200. On apparel, screen printing starts at 24 per design, embroidery at 12, and DTF and DTG have no minimum at all. Signs, banners, stickers and decals have no minimum — we will print one.

Do you publish prices?

We publish minimums, turnaround and exactly what moves your number, and we quote fast. Print pricing genuinely moves with quantity, stock, size, coating, finishing and deadline, so a single figure on a web page is usually wrong by the time it reaches your job. Send the three variables and you will have a real number, usually the same business day.

Why is a business card minimum 100 but a banner minimum 1?

Because the cost sits in different places. A banner is priced by material and square footage, so one costs roughly what one costs. A business card carries press setup that has to spread across a run — printing 12 cards would cost nearly what 100 do, so 100 is where the number starts making sense for you.

Does the price drop if I order more?

Yes, and usually more than people expect. Setup is fixed and spreads thinner as quantity rises. On print, the jump from 100 to 250 or 250 to 500 is often the biggest per-piece saving available. On screen printing, 24 to 48 does the same thing.

Why does adding one more ink colour cost more?

On screen printing, each colour is a separate screen, a separate setup and a separate station on the press — a real cost that does not disappear with volume. On digital and offset print, full colour is standard and costs nothing extra; there it is the stock, the coating and the finishing that move your number.

Is design included?

A design review is included on every order — we check your file, flag problems and fix small things at no charge. Full design work is a separate line item, quoted up front. We are a design studio first, so this is not an upsell we resent.

Are there hidden fees?

No. Screen charges, embroidery digitizing, die charges for custom shapes, folding and bindery, mailing services and rush fees all appear on the quote before you approve anything.

Can you beat a price I got somewhere else?

Sometimes, and sometimes we will tell you to take the other quote. If someone is genuinely cheaper on a commodity job, that is fine. Where we win is on jobs where the design, the file prep, the stock choice or the finish is what actually matters.

Every minimum, published.