Free tool · for custom-apparel, DTF & embroidery shops
Decoration Cost Calculator (DTF, Vinyl, Screen Print & Embroidery)
Ask a custom-apparel shop what the decoration on a shirt costs and you will usually get one number, arrived at by feel. The trouble is that no two methods bill in the same units: DTF charges you by the square inch of film, heat-transfer vinyl charges you by area and then again in minutes of weeding, screen printing charges you per ink color with a screen to burn for each one, and embroidery charges you by the thousand stitches while the machine runs without you. One flat decoration fee is guaranteed to be wrong for at least three of them. This free calculator converts a design’s size into a real cost per piece in that method’s own units — materials with waste, your hands-on minutes at your loaded rate, the machine’s own hourly cost, and the setup spread across the run you are quoting — then holds the margin you set. Six worked examples ship pre-filled, one per method.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the files.
What it does
- Costs six decoration methods in their own units — DTF and sublimation per square inch, heat-transfer vinyl per square inch plus weeding minutes, screen print per ink color, embroidery per thousand stitches, and pressed plastisol transfers per transfer.
- Separates YOUR minutes from the machine’s: an embroidery machine sews unattended, so those stitching minutes never draw your wage — only the machine’s own hourly cost, which applies for as long as the station is tied up. That one split is the difference between competitive embroidery pricing and pricing yourself out of every jacket order.
- Adds setup once per job (a screen to burn, a design to digitize, a cut file) and divides it across the run size you type, so the same decoration honestly costs a different amount per piece at 12 and at 48.
- Prices every row at your target gross margin and again at a run of 48, side by side — so a quantity break stops being a haggle and becomes arithmetic you can show a customer.
- Ships pre-filled with six worked specs, one per method, taken straight from the full workbook — nothing is blank when you open it.
Own it, don't rent it
Want the quote, the order queue and the profit too?
This free calculator costs the decoration, and stops there. The full workbook works your loaded shop rate out from your own overhead and production hours, adds a blanks catalog with 2XL and 3XL upcharges and case minimums, turns the two into a quote, then runs the order queue that follows — deposits, proof approvals and a computed risk flag on every job, profit by order, by customer and by decoration method, and a shelf that knows what your live orders have already promised. Ten connected tabs in Excel and Google Sheets, plus five guides.
A one-time purchase you keep, quote after quote — the owned system between a blank spreadsheet and a monthly print-shop subscription.
A business reference, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Every figure is illustrative — film, vinyl, ink and thread prices, machine rates and your own labor rate vary widely, so enter your own. Free to use; please don’t resell or redistribute.