T-Shirt Printing in Canada

Choosing the right method is the biggest decision in custom t-shirt printing. Screen printing is the workhorse for bulk orders with 1-4 ink colours — per-location pricing starts at $10.00 for a single shirt and drops to $2.50 per location at 76-100 shirts. It produces vibrant, durable prints that survive years of washing.

DTF and DTG for Full Colour

DTF printing handles unlimited colours, gradients, and photographs with no setup screens — $21 per location for 1-4 shirts, falling to $6 per location at 76+ shirts. DTG printing sprays water-based ink directly into cotton fibres for a soft-hand feel on detailed artwork, ideal for small runs of premium tees.

The Simple Rule

Big order, few colours: screen printing. Full-colour artwork or small quantities: DTF or DTG. Not sure? Send us your design and our team will recommend the most cost-effective t-shirt printing method — compare real numbers in the pricing guide.

The blank you choose shapes how your t-shirt printing looks, feels, and lasts. The Gildan 5000 ($4.95) is Canada’s best-selling budget blank — a sturdy heavy cotton tee that takes screen printing beautifully. The Gildan 2000 Ultra Cotton ($5.45) adds extra weight for workwear and giveaways.

Fitted and Premium Options

For a retail feel, step up to the Gildan 6400 Softstyle ($5.75) or Bella+Canvas ring-spun tees — softer fabric, slimmer cut, and a smoother surface that flatters DTG and DTF prints. The American Apparel 1301 ($6.95) is the heavyweight streetwear favourite. Canadian-made ATC blanks like the ATC1000 ($6.50) balance quality and price for team and corporate custom t-shirt printing.

Great t-shirt printing starts with good artwork. Vector files — AI, EPS, SVG, or PDF — are ideal because they scale to any print size without losing sharpness. If you only have a raster file, send a PNG or JPG at 300 DPI or higher at the actual print size. A 500-pixel logo pulled from a website will look soft and pixelated when enlarged to a 12-inch chest print.

No Print-Ready File? No Problem

Every custom t-shirt printing order includes free design help. Our in-house designers vectorize logos, clean up low-resolution images, separate colours for screen printing, and prepare transparent backgrounds for DTF and DTG. You approve a digital proof before anything goes to press, so there are no surprises. Send whatever you have to [email protected] and we will tell you exactly what we can do with it — usually within one business day.

Brand colours matter. With screen printing, we mix inks to Pantone (PMS) numbers, so your corporate blue is the same blue on every shirt, every reorder. If you have brand guidelines, send the PMS codes with your artwork and our press team matches them before production begins.

Digital Methods and Fabric Colour

DTF and DTG reproduce full-colour artwork from your file, so what you see in the proof is very close to what prints. Keep in mind that fabric colour affects perception — the same red reads slightly differently on a white Gildan 5000 than on the black ATC1000. Dark garments get a white underbase so colours stay vivid. For colour-critical t-shirt printing jobs, order a single printed sample first; the cost can be applied to your full run.

Standard t-shirt printing locations are full front, full back, left chest, sleeves, and nape. A full front or back print typically runs 10-12 inches wide, positioned about 3 inches below the collar. A left chest logo runs 3-4 inches wide, aligned with the centre of the chest pocket area — the classic spot for corporate and uniform shirts.

Pricing Is Per Location

Decoration is priced per print location, so a front-and-back design counts as two locations. Screen printing runs $10.00 per location for 1 shirt down to $2.50 per location at 76-100 shirts; full-colour DTF runs $21 down to $6 per location at 76+. Sleeve prints (about 3.5 inches wide) and nape tags are affordable ways to add polish. Our designers confirm exact placement on your proof so every shirt in your custom t-shirt printing order prints consistently.

Professionally cured prints last. Properly cured screen printing routinely survives 50+ washes without cracking; DTF transfers are stretchy and resistant to peeling; DTG soaks into the fibres so there is nothing to flake off; and embroidery effectively lasts the life of the garment. The difference between professional t-shirt printing and a home heat press is curing — our conveyor dryers and commercial presses bond ink at the exact temperature each method requires.

Care Tips That Double Print Life

Wash printed shirts inside out in cold water, skip bleach and fabric softener, and hang dry or tumble on low. Never iron directly on a print. Follow those four rules and the shirts from your custom t-shirt printing order will still look sharp seasons later — something our 4.9-star reviewers mention again and again.

Volume is where t-shirt printing gets cheap. Based on 7,641 real orders, the median all-in price per printed tee is $26.95 for 1-11 shirts, $22.95 for 12-23, $18.14 for 24-49, $17.95 for 50-99, and $12.70 at 100+. Bulk screen printing starts from $8.99 per shirt all-in.

Screen Print Pricing Per Location (1-4 Ink Colours)

Add a blank from $4.95 and the math works out fast. For a complete cost walkthrough with DTF tiers and real order examples, read the Custom T-Shirt Pricing Canada 2026 guide. Orders over $250 ship free anywhere in Canada.

Personalization turns a team shirt into your shirt. We add individual player names for $6.00 per name and numbers for $3.50 per number on top of your base t-shirt printing — heat-applied in durable vinyl that resists cracking and peeling through a full season of wear and washing.

How Roster Orders Work

Send us a simple spreadsheet with each person’s name, number, and size. Our production team prints the shared design on every shirt, then personalizes each one to your roster — no mix-ups, no mismatched sizes. Back names typically run 2-3 inches tall above an 8-inch number, mirroring the pro-sports look. This is the same workflow we use for team t-shirts, custom hoodies, and full uniform packages, so you can personalize an entire kit in one order.

Deadline coming fast? Our standard t-shirt printing turnaround is 10 business days, but rush production compresses that to 5-7 business days for roughly a 50% surcharge on decoration. Because everything is printed in-house in North York — not brokered out — we control the schedule and can genuinely commit to rush dates.

How to Place a Rush Order

Email [email protected] with your design, quantity, and in-hands date before ordering so we can confirm capacity. Rush jobs jump the production queue, and since shirts ship from Ontario rather than across the border, there are no customs delays eating into your timeline. Simple designs on in-stock blanks like the Gildan 5000 are the safest bets for the tightest custom t-shirt printing deadlines.

Sustainable t-shirt printing is about three choices: the ink, the blank, and the kilometres. DTG uses water-based inks with minimal waste, making it the greenest method for small full-colour runs. For screen printing, ask about water-based and reduced-plastisol options that soften the environmental footprint of bulk jobs.

Blanks and Local Production

Ring-spun cotton tees like the Parkour S05610 ($5.75) use combed cotton for durability — a shirt that lasts longer is the most sustainable shirt. And because your order is printed in Canada and shipped domestically, it skips the cross-border freight of US printers entirely. Organizations with sustainability mandates regularly choose our custom t-shirt printing for exactly this reason; ask our team for blank recommendations that fit your goals.

Businesses are our largest customer group. From restaurant staff tees to trade-show giveaways, corporate t-shirt printing demands consistent branding, dependable reorders, and invoicing that keeps accounting happy. We keep your artwork, Pantone colours, and sizing history on file so the fiftieth reorder matches the first.

Right Blank for the Job

For daily-wear uniforms, the Gildan 2000 Ultra Cotton ($5.45) and ATC S05650 50/50 blend ($5.11) shrug off industrial laundering. For client-facing teams and retail merch, softer ring-spun blanks present a premium image. Left-chest logos pair naturally with embroidery on hoodies and polos for a complete corporate kit. With no minimums, you can outfit a team of three or a company of three hundred — and free shipping over $250 means most business orders ship free.

Events run on t-shirts — staff identification, participant swag, volunteer crews, and merch tables all start with t-shirt printing. The keys for event orders are a hard deadline and a wide size range, and we are built for both: 10-business-day standard production, 5-7 day rush, and blanks stocked from youth sizes through 5XL.

Event Order Playbook

Order roughly 10% extra shirts beyond your registration count to cover walk-ups and size swaps. Use colour-coding — volunteers in safety green, staff in black — so roles are visible across a venue. Bulk screen printing from $8.99 per shirt keeps per-attendee costs low at festival quantities, and the median all-in price drops to $12.70 per tee at 100+ shirts. Run the numbers for your event in our pricing guide, then send your artwork for a firm quote.

Fundraising shirts succeed on margin. With bulk t-shirt printing from $8.99 per shirt and a typical $25 sale price, a 100-shirt campaign clears roughly $1,500 for your cause. At the median 100+ price of $12.70 all-in, you still net over $12 per shirt — strong economics for school teams, charity runs, and community causes.

Tips From Successful Campaigns

Collect pre-orders before printing so you order exactly what is sold — with no minimums, there is no risk of forced overruns. Choose a budget blank like the Gildan 5000 ($4.95) and a 1-2 colour design to maximize margin; every extra ink colour and print location adds cost. Charities, school councils, and sports clubs across Canada run their custom t-shirt printing campaigns through us every season — our team can help you price yours for the profit target you need.

Schools and sports teams have outfitted with our t-shirt printing since 2012 — spirit wear, gym uniforms, club shirts, grad tees, and team warm-ups. Mixed youth and adult sizing in a single order is standard for us, and blanks like the Gildan 5000 are stocked in both ranges so a whole school community matches.

Built for Coordinators

One person usually carries the whole order, so we make it light: spreadsheet-based size collection, a single digital proof, player names at $6.00 and numbers at $3.50 each, and one shipment to the school. Teams ordering 12-23 shirts land around the $22.95 median all-in price; bigger programs at 24-49 drop to $18.14 per tee. Pair shirts with custom hoodies for fall and your program is covered for the year. Email [email protected] for a school quote.

After printing for thousands of customers, we see the same avoidable mistakes. Low-resolution artwork is number one — a screenshot logo cannot become a crisp 12-inch print. Wrong method for the design is second: an 8-colour gradient ordered as screen printing costs far more than the same art run as DTF.

The Rest of the List

Ordering exact headcount with no spares (always add 5-10%), guessing sizes instead of collecting them, leaving no buffer before a hard deadline, and putting too many print locations on a budget — remember t-shirt printing is priced per location. Finally, skipping the proof review: read every name and number on your roster proof carefully, because what you approve is what prints. Our team flags all of these during artwork review, which is one more reason custom t-shirt printing with a real production shop beats an anonymous upload portal.

Ordering t-shirt printing from a US website looks cheap until the shirts hit the border. Duties, brokerage fees, and exchange-rate surprises routinely add 20-40% to the real cost, and customs clearance can stall a shipment past your event date with no recourse. Printing in Canada removes every one of those risks.

Local Means Accountable

Your order is produced at our facility at 18 Raitherm Road in North York, Ontario, and ships domestically — free over $250. Prices are in Canadian dollars, support answers in your time zone, and if anything ever needs a reprint, it is days away rather than weeks. Since 2012, more than 100,000 customers have chosen custom t-shirt printing that stays in Canada, and our 4.9-star rating across 1,500+ Google reviews reflects it. Canadian printing is not just patriotic — it is the lower-risk, often lower-cost choice.