Screen Printing vs. Embroidery: Which Is Right for Your Order?
If you are ordering custom apparel for a Boyertown team or a Pottstown business and cannot decide between screen printing and embroidery, the short answer is this: screen print large, colorful designs on tees and hoodies, and embroider logos on polos, jackets, and caps. CIV Enterprises has run both in-house in Bechtelsville since 2000, and most orders sort themselves out once you know how each method actually works.
What screen printing does best
Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh screen, one screen per color, directly onto the garment. That makes it the better choice when:
- The design is large (a full chest hit, a back print, a sleeve).
- You need higher quantities at a lower per-piece cost. Screen printing typically starts at 24 pieces per design, and the price drops as the run grows.
- You are printing event tees, spirit wear, or fundraiser shirts where bold color matters more than texture.
A Boyertown Area School District spirit-wear run of 200 tees is a screen-print job. So is a stack of event shirts for a Reading 5K. We proof every run before it goes to press and color-match Pantone where you need it.
What embroidery does best
Embroidery stitches thread directly into the fabric from a digitized file. It is the better choice when:
- You want a logo on a polo, jacket, quarter-zip, or cap for a Pottstown office or a Gilbertsville contractor.
- The garment will see heavy, repeated wear and you want decoration that holds up wash after wash.
- You want a clean, professional look rather than a large graphic.
Embroidery typically starts at 12 pieces. Send us a clean logo or a .DST stitch file and our in-house art team will digitize it, usually at no extra cost on most orders. Once we have run your logo, we keep the file so reorders stay consistent.
A quick way to decide
| If you need… | Choose |
|---|---|
| A big, colorful graphic on tees or hoodies | Screen printing |
| A logo on polos, jackets, or caps | Embroidery |
| The lowest per-piece cost on a large run | Screen printing |
| Durable decoration for daily-wear uniforms | Embroidery |
Plenty of orders use both: screen-printed tees for the crowd, embroidered polos for the staff. We run them together on one job so the colors and logo stay consistent across the whole order.
Get a quote
Tell us the garment, the quantity, and where the design goes, and we will recommend the method that fits the budget and the deadline. Start with custom apparel in Boyertown or custom apparel in Pottstown, or request a quote and we will get back to you within one business day.