How to Choose Print Colours for Your Tote Bags

When you order custom printed tote bags, you choose how your artwork will be printed. Our product pages offer two methods, and they answer two different kinds of artwork.

The one question that decides it

Can your design be separated into flat, solid colours, each with its own colour code?

• Yes → screen print. Choose the number of colours, 1 to 10, in the print dropdown.
• No → full colour print - DTF. Choose "Full color print - DTF".

That is the whole decision. The rest of this guide explains why, and what each one costs.

Screen print: 1 to 10 separable colours

Screen printing pushes ink through one stencil, called a screen, for every colour in your design. Each colour is mixed as a solid ink to an exact colour code, usually a Pantone number, and printed as a flat area.

That is why the colours have to be fully separable. If a printer can look at your artwork and write down a list like "PMS 186 red, PMS 289 navy, white", it can be screen printed.

Screen print is the right choice for:

• Logos, wordmarks and text
• Flat illustrations, line drawings, crests and icons
• Designs that have to hit exact brand colours
• Larger runs, where it is clearly the cheapest method per bag

Screen print cannot reproduce:

• Gradients. One colour fading into another, or fading out into the bag, has no single colour code, so it cannot be split into screens. A gradient always needs DTF.
• Soft shadows, glows and semi-transparent layers
• Photographs
• Very fine detail in many colours at once

What counts as "one colour"

One colour = one screen = one colour code. This catches people out, so it is worth being precise:

• Two shades of the same blue are two colours.
• A red shape with a black outline is two colours.
• White is a colour. On a natural or coloured bag, white ink uses a screen like any other.
• The bag itself is free. Letting the bag colour show through instead of printing a background costs nothing.

Screens are made fresh for every order, so each extra colour adds a fixed set-up cost on top of the print itself. That cost is divided across your order, which is why a fifth colour barely moves the price on 1,000 bags and changes it noticeably on 50.

1 colour

The most common and cheapest option: a single ink, one screen. Ideal for a logo, a wordmark or a short message, and a deliberate look in its own right.

1-colour print on a navy 140 g/m² cotton tote bag

2 colours

A second ink gives contrast, a two-tone brand palette, or a logo plus a tagline in another colour. Still simple to set up and still inexpensive.

2-colour print on a yellow tote bag, Arnold Busck

2-colour design for a plant shop.

3 to 4 colours

Enough range for a detailed flat illustration, a multi-colour crest or an event graphic. The colours are still solid areas, there are simply more of them.

3-colour print on a natural drawstring bag.

4-colour printed canvas tote bags.

5 to 10 colours

Yes, screen print goes well beyond four. Detailed illustrations, maps, festival line-ups, anniversary artwork and richly coloured crests are all still screen printable, as long as every colour is a solid area with its own code.

All ten colour counts are priced on the product page, so you can see exactly what the eighth colour costs on your quantity before you commit. At larger quantities a 10-colour screen print usually still comes out cheaper per bag than full colour.

Full colour print - DTF

DTF stands for direct-to-film. Your artwork is printed digitally onto a transfer film in CMYK, then pressed onto the bag with heat. There are no screens, so there is no per-colour set-up and no limit on how many colours your design contains.

Choose full colour when your design has:

• A gradient of any kind, including a fade to transparent
• A photograph, or a painted or hand-drawn image
• Soft shadows, glows or transparency
• Fine multicoloured detail
• So many colours that counting screens stops making sense

What you give up:

• CMYK mixes colours from four process inks, so an exact Pantone brand colour cannot be guaranteed. It will be close, not identical.
• Metallic, neon and fluorescent inks are screen print only.
• The price per bag falls more slowly with quantity, because there is no set-up cost to spread over the order.

A common mix-up: "4 colours" is not CMYK

Because CMYK uses four process inks, people often assume that a 4-colour print and a full colour print are the same thing. They are not.

• 4 color print on our pages means four separate solid inks, four screens, four colour codes of your choosing.
• Full color print - DTF is CMYK: unlimited colours, photographic, no colour codes.

If you have been quoted "4-colour process" elsewhere and it meant CMYK, the equivalent here is the full colour option.

Which is cheaper?

It depends entirely on quantity, because screens are paid once per order and DTF is paid per bag.

Your order	Simple 1-2 colour logo	Detailed 8-10 colour artwork	Photo or gradient
25-50 bags	Screen print	Full colour is usually cheaper	Full colour
100-200 bags	Screen print	Compare the two on the page	Full colour
300 bags and up	Screen print	Screen print	Full colour

Every product page prices all twelve options at your exact quantity, so you never have to guess. Change the quantity and the whole list updates.

Print sizes

Standard print area is up to 23 × 32.5 cm, which covers almost every logo and most illustrations. The large full colour option prints up to 33 × 36 cm, for artwork meant to fill the front of the bag.

You can also print the back of the bag. The back is a separate choice with the same range: 1 to 10 screen colours, or full colour.

Preparing your artwork

• For screen print: vector files (AI, EPS, PDF or SVG) with each colour as a separate solid fill, ideally with Pantone codes. Convert text to outlines.
• For full colour: a high-resolution file, 300 dpi at the size it will be printed. PNG with a transparent background, or PDF.

More detail in File Types for Printing Cotton Tote Bags.

Not sure which method your artwork needs? Send it over with your order and we will tell you before anything is printed.

In short

• Solid, separable colours with codes → screen print, 1 to 10 colours.
• Gradients, photos, soft edges, countless colours → full colour print - DTF.
• Small runs favour full colour; larger runs favour screen print.
• Exact brand colours are only possible with screen print.

Learn More About Custom Printed Bags

Printing Methods for Cotton Tote Bags

What Is DTG Printing and When Is It Used for Custom Tote Bags?

File Types for Printing Cotton Tote Bags

8 Ways to Make Cotton Tote Bags Look Exclusive