What does a print actually cost you?

Jake Einspinner • August 13, 2026

Ask a shop what a full-front DTF transfer costs them to produce and most will give you a shrug, a guess, or a number their supplier told them two years ago. It matters more than almost anything else in the business - it sets your pricing, your margins and what jobs are worth taking - and almost nobody measures it.

A minute through the calculator - every number on screen is computed live by the page.

So we built a calculator that answers it

The ink cost calculator is free on the site - no login, no email wall. You pick your process, put in your print size and weekly volume, and it prices the job per print on our live shop pricing: ink, film and powder, all of it. Type in a custom size and it works out how many prints nest across the roll, flags wasted width, and reprices as you type.

It covers DTF, UV DTF, DTF embroidery film and TPU UV film today, with more of the range coming. Each technology carries its own inks, films and running costs, so the numbers change the moment you switch tabs.

What it actually does

It is a costing tool rather than a brochure. Everything below is live on the page right now:

  • Cost per print, itemised. DTF splits into ink, film and powder. UV DTF splits into white, varnish, CMYK and film - because that is where a UV DTF job's money actually goes.
  • Cost per linear metre of roll. The number to quote from when a customer asks for a price on running metres rather than per piece.
  • Nesting, worked out for you. Give it a size and it tells you how many prints fit across the roll, how much roll each row consumes, and the printed area per print - then warns you when an odd size leaves width unused.
  • Standard presets or your own size. Left chest, A4, full front and a full-width gang sheet are one tap; custom width and height reprice as you type.
  • Both roll widths. 60cm and 30cm A/B film, costed separately, because which roll you run changes the per-print number.
  • A market comparison you can overwrite. It opens on typical Australian market rates - if you are paying something different, type your figures in and yours win.
  • Real weekly volume, annualised. Put in what you actually print in a week and it totals the difference per week, per month and per year.
  • "See the maths". One click opens every line of the working - market price, GZ price, savings per print, weekly volume, weekly and annual totals. Nothing hidden behind a rounded number.
  • It draws the job. A to-scale diagram of your prints nested across the roll, then applied to the garment.

Your numbers, not ours

The GZ side of the comparison runs on the same prices you'd pay in the shop, ex GST. The market side is a starting point, not a claim about any particular supplier - it is editable for exactly that reason. If our number only looks good because the comparison was rigged, it is not worth showing you.

A worked example

The video above runs a 20 x 30cm DTF transfer at 250 prints a week. At today's shop prices that lands at $0.41 a print against a $0.69 market default - $0.28 saved on every print, which the calculator totals to $3,692 a year. Those aren't campaign numbers, they're the page's own output - change the size or the volume and watch them move.

It'll even draw the job for you: your prints nested across the roll, then applied to the garment. Handy when you're explaining to a customer why a gang sheet is the cheaper way to run their order.

Run your own numbers

The calculator lives at the link below. If your volumes are big enough that the shop prices deserve a sharper pencil, email info@gzaustralia.com and we'll have a proper chat about bulk pricing.

Open the ink cost calculator

All prices AUD ex GST. GZ consumables pricing as shown in the shop at time of writing; market defaults are editable inside the calculator.

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