Embroidery or printing: how to choose

The comparison table

Criterion	Embroidery	Printing
T-shirt price (Maison Brody)	$27	$23
Setup fees	$7 digitizing, free from 5 pieces	None
Lifespan	As long as the garment	Very good, with careful washing
Number of colours	Ideally ten or fewer	Unlimited, no extra charge
Gradients and photos	No	Yes
Artwork size	Small to medium: chest, sleeve, cap	Up to full back
Feel	Raised	Soft, almost flat
Look	More polished	More graphic
Pieces offered	All eight, beanie included	Seven, beanies can’t be printed
Lead time	5 to 7 business days	5 to 7 business days

When embroidery wins

• The sales team’s polo. An embroidered chest logo looks sharper than a print, and it holds up wash after wash.
• The cap. The curved shape and hands rubbing the brim wear a print down. Thread doesn’t.
• The piece people keep for years. A team hoodie, a year-end crewneck: when the piece has to last, embroidery lasts.
• The beanie. No choice: acrylic warps under the press. At Maison Brody, beanies are embroidered on the cuff, at $30.

When printing wins

• Detailed artwork. An illustration, a photo, a gradient, fine text. What thread can’t follow, ink can.
• Large formats. A full-back design in embroidery would take tens of thousands of stitches. In print, it costs the same as a chest logo.
• The event. T-shirts worn for one day, for a race or a trade show: printing at $23 does the job, with no setup fee.
• The tight budget. $4 to $8 less per piece, no digitizing. Over a hundred pieces, the difference adds up to hundreds of dollars.

The rule in three questions

1. How long will this piece be worn? More than two years: embroidery.
2. Does the artwork fit in one hand? Yes: embroidery. No: printing.
3. Does the logo have gradients, a photo or more than ten colours? Yes: printing, no hesitation.

If the answers contradict each other, the third question wins. A logo that can’t be embroidered faithfully won’t be saved by its lifespan.

Combining both in one order

Nothing forces you to pick a single technique. One order can bring together embroidered polos for the sales team and printed T-shirts for an event. At Maison Brody, the volume discount is based on all the pieces, across techniques: twenty embroidered polos and ten printed T-shirts make thirty pieces, so 5% off the lot.

What embroidery can’t do, even well paid

Some limits can’t be fixed with time or budget. Embroidery doesn’t reproduce a gradient: thread is one colour per pass. It can’t render text under 5 mm tall: the letters close up. It can’t follow a line thinner than the thread itself. And beyond ten or so colours, the logo gets heavy, stiff and expensive.

When a logo falls into one of these, we suggest an adapted version before producing. If the adaptation betrays the logo, we recommend printing. It pays us less, and it’s better for you.