Twenty-five full-color custom shirts have a base price of $625 before separate promotions. That's $25 a shirt with the shirt included, no setup fee, no minimum and no quote to wait for.
The word that matters is full-color. Most printing prices quoted online are for a one-color design, and the moment your artwork is a photograph, a gradient or a multi-color illustration, those numbers stop applying to you. This page is about the real thing: what it costs to put a full-color image on 25 shirts.
What it costs here
These are base prices before separate promotions, tax or shipping. There are no quantity-based price tiers. The buy-two, third-half-price promotion is applied separately at checkout.
| Shirts | Per shirt | Order total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25.00 | $25.00 |
| 10 | $25.00 | $250.00 |
| 25 | $25.00 | $625.00 |
| 50 | $25.00 | $1,250.00 |
| 100 | $25.00 | $2,500.00 |
The number of colors never changes that price. We print DTF — the design goes onto a film, the film goes onto the shirt — so a photograph of somebody's grandfather costs exactly the same as a one-color logo. No per-color charge, no screen fee, no art setup, because there are no screens to make.
Included: the blank, a full-color front print and the art setup. Not included: a back print is $5 a shirt, 2XL is $28, 3XL is $30. Shipping is $8 flat anywhere in the US and free over $50, or free pickup in Highland Park and free delivery within 10 miles.
Why screen printing isn't the comparison
People assume screen printing is the default and ask us to price against it, so it's worth explaining why it doesn't apply to a full-color job.
Screen printing charges by the ink color, because each color needs its own screen. French Press Custom publishes the escalation: at 24 pieces it's $9.75 a piece for one color, $11.86 for two, $13.96 for three — roughly $2.11 more per shirt for every color you add, and that's decoration only, with the garment sold separately on top.
Now count the colors in a photograph. It isn't three or five — it's halftones and gradients that need simulated process printing, more screens and exact registration. That's why most shops either won't quote a photo at 25 pieces, or the number stops being sensible long before they get there. Screen printing is a genuinely great process. It just isn't built for this kind of artwork.
What full color actually costs elsewhere
The real alternative is DTG — direct-to-garment. French Press publishes those prices too, which makes it a clean comparison from a single source. At 24 pieces, decoration only: $15.00 a piece on a light garment, $20.00 on a dark one, because dark shirts need a white underbase laid down first.
Their own worked example does the math: 24 shirts on a light garment comes to $22.19 each — $7.19 for the blank plus $15.00 to decorate it. Run the same job on black and it lands near $27.19. Their timeline is 7–10 business days.
Side by side, 25 full-color shirts
| Us | DTG, light | DTG, dark | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per shirt, before separate promotions | $25.00 | $22.19 | ~$27.19 |
| 25 shirts | $625.00 | ~$554.75 | ~$679.75 |
| Turnaround | 2–5 business days | 7–10 | 7–10 |
| Minimum | None | None | None |
At these base prices, our 25-shirt total is $625 before separate promotions, between the light- and dark-garment DTG examples above.
DTF and DTG aren't the same thing
Both put full color on a shirt, and they behave differently. DTG sprays ink into the fabric, so it has a softer hand and does its best work on 100% cotton in lighter colors. DTF sits on top of the fabric, which makes it bolder on dark garments, more consistent across blends and polyester, and generally tougher in the wash. Neither is simply better. If you want the absolute softest possible hand on a white cotton tee, DTG has the edge. For most of what people actually order — a photo on a black shirt — DTF is the more practical choice, and on these numbers it's the cheaper one.
Where our number wins by the most
- Your artwork is a photograph or full color. No per-color charge, no screens, no setup — and a hundred colors costs what one color costs.
- The shirts are dark. No separate white-underbase charge.
- You need fewer than 24. A lot of shops won't take the job at all. We'll print one.
- You need them this week. 2–5 business days, and local pickup is faster still. Nobody quoting 7–10 business days is making Saturday's service.
- The sizes run large. 2XL is 12% more here. The national sites are commonly 25% more at 2XL and 35% at 3XL.
- You want to talk to somebody. The number on this site reaches the person who prints the shirts.
The short version
Our base per-shirt price does not decrease with quantity. Your garment size and optional back print can change the price; separate promotions are calculated at checkout.
Design your shirt, or use the bulk quote form for 50 or more. Memorial and photo tribute shirts have their own pricing page. Or just call — (626) 383-9176.
Prices checked September 2026. Our figures above are base prices before separate promotions. The comparison figures are from French Press Custom's published screen printing and DTG pricing pages on that date — go check them, they move.