Set-up Charges

                What is a set-up charge?

A set-up charge is the cost associated with the creation of a die, plate, screen, or other fixture that is used in our machines to print your logo on your desired item.  Since each item has a unique imprint area, surface, and imprint methods vary from item to item, it’s necessary to create fixtures for imprints every time you order an item for the first time. Each new fixture created requires another set-up charge.

A set-up fee is not an artwork fee. Designing your artwork or converting it to high quality file types is a different cost and a service that Cubik generally does for no charge. 

Set-up charges can also be called screen charges. That term is usually used when screen printing on clothing.

                What work does the set-up charge cover?

For screen printed items, the setup covers preparing a screen with the inverse of your logo on it, carefully cutting out the logo, and readying the ink. It also includes the clean-up and prep of the machines for printing.

For laser engraved items, it means calibrating your logo into the laser.

A digital printing setup charge consists of uploading your image into the printer.

Heat transfer setups include printing your logo onto transfer material, and then transferring it onto your items. 

                Why do some items not have a set-up charge?

All items will have a setup cost, but we try to discount (or eliminate) them as much as we can so you can maximize your marketing moola! 😊

                Why do some items have multiple set-up charges?

If your desired imprint has multiple colors and/or locations, this will require multiple setup fees. This is because when you have your items screen printed, a screen is created for each part of your imprint that’s a different color or going in a different location on the item.  For instance, if you are printing a t-shirt with a 2 color logo on the front you would incur 2 set-up charges, if you add another different design on the back in 2 colors there would be an additional 2 set-up charges for a total of 4.

The exception is a digitally printed item. Digitally printed items only have one setup fee because your art is being sent to a large printer instead of being broken up into different screens.

                I ordered multiple items; does the set-up charge cover all of them?

Nope, unfortunately it doesn’t. Every single different item that you order has a unique setup fee. To start, each item has a unique imprint area.

Stress balls have imprint areas around 2” by 2”, pretty tiny, right? On the other hand, t-shirt imprints can go up to 14” by 14”. Would you even want the same imprint on a stress ball and a t-shirt? Most likely not! Can you imagine how small a stress ball-sized logo would look on a t-shirt? 😊

Think of it like a rubber stamp placing your logo. Once you carve out the rubber stamp, you cannot go back and adjust its size.

All of our promotional products are made in many different factories across the country. So even if you have two items with the same imprint method and area, you’ll likely still have to pay separate charges because they are usually being made and shipped from different places.

The only time you won’t have to pay a different setup fee is if you get the exact same item but in a different color. For example, if you had placed one order with 150 Peristyle Bottles (see right!) in red AND 150 in blue, then you’ll only have one setup fee. 

Printing extra colors and locations on items

In addition to set-up charges you may incur other extra run charges on some items if you print more than one color or in more than one location on the item.  This varies from item to item and not all items can be imprinted in more than one color or in multiple locations. 

Typically, when looking at pricing for promotional items there will be a note stating how many colors and locations are included in that price.  If you need to add additional there is generally an extra charge incurred.              

                Additional color imprint charges

This is the cost associated with printing an additional color on the item. As explained with the set-up charges, to print another color on an item adds another set-up but also adds another step to the production process. The additional charge you pay for this is to cover the additional cost in production of doing the extra step.

                Additional location imprint charges

Much like the extra color imprint charge, this is simply to cover the additional cost in production of doing the extra step in printing another location on the item.  This could mean turning the pen over and running the machine again to print the second side.

Embroidery Costs

Embroidery is different than printing and the set-up and run charges work a little differently. When embroidering a logo onto material a special type of file needs to be created of your artwork that converts the design and colors into stitches.  Creating the file is call digitizing and embroidery pricing is based on number of stitches in the design instead of number of logo colors. The number of different thread colors that can be used varies depending on the embroidery machine but the most common limit is 7 thread colors per design.

                Digitizing Charges

The digitizing charge is the cost associated with an art team converting your logo file into the embroidery file type that is needed.  The file is created at a specific size so if you change the size of your logo on future orders, a new file would need to be created and you would incur another digitizing charge.  If the logo stays the same size, they can simply use the same file and you wouldn’t have to pay another digitizing charge.

Digitizing charges can vary depending on the number of stitches in the design.  If the design is 10” wide you will likely pay a higher digitizing fee than that same logo at 3” wide.

                Additional stitches charge

When looking at pricing for embroidered goods there will usually be a note stating how many stitches are included in that price.  If your design has more stitches there is a run charge that usually goes per 1,000 stitches. So, for instance if the pricing includes 6,000 stitches and your design is 7,500 stitches you will likely get charged a small additional charge for 2,000 stitches. You can reduce the number of stitches in your design by decreasing the size or changing the way the design looks such as removing a background color.

Still have questions about set-up or additional charges?  We would love to hear from you and answer any and all of your questions! Please don't hesitate to ask in the comments area below or contact a Cubik rep directly. :)