Free tools for people who run production
Calculators, production checklists, and plain-language guides for print, garment decoration, embroidery, signage, engraving, and fabrication businesses. Everything is free, nothing needs an email address, and every formula is explained.
Calculators
Free pricing, costing, and investment calculators for print and decoration businesses — transparent formulas, editable assumptions.
Production checklists
Printable production checklists — order intake, artwork preflight, DTF production, final QC, packing and dispatch — with the reasoning behind every item.
Guides
Practical guides on pricing and file preparation that back the calculators and checklists — written for shop operators, not designers.
Equipment reference
Sourced reference records for production equipment — printers, presses, embroidery machines, cutters and finishing units — with every specification traced to an official source.
Materials & consumables
Sourced reference records for materials and consumables — vinyl, thread, inks, films and powders — with manufacturer guidance clearly labelled as such.
Downloadable templates
Free operational templates — approval form, QC form, job sheet, maintenance log, daily planner, and a job-costing worksheet — as printable PDFs and editable spreadsheets. No email required.
Industry glossary
Plain-English definitions across processes, artwork and file prep, materials, equipment, and the business side — cross-linked to the tools that use them.
Calculator
Print job profit calculator
Work out the true cost, profit, and margin on any print or decoration job — materials, labour, setup time, and overhead included — and see the price you'd need to charge to hit a target margin.
Calculator
Break-even calculator
Find how many jobs or units you need to sell each month to cover your fixed costs, and how many more to hit a profit target — using contribution margin, the standard break-even method.
Calculator
DTF cost-per-print calculator
Estimate what each DTF transfer really costs from film, ink, and adhesive powder consumption — with print layout, labour, and waste factored in — so gang sheet and per-print pricing stops being guesswork.
Calculator
Machine ROI & payback calculator
Before buying a printer, press, embroidery head, or laser: estimate how many months the machine takes to pay for itself and what it returns over your chosen horizon, from extra profit and running costs.
Calculator
True labour cost calculator
Find what an hour of work actually costs your business — wages plus employer on-costs, spread over the hours someone really works and the share of time that's productive — the number your job pricing should use.
Checklist
New-order intake checklist
Everything to confirm before a custom print or decoration order enters production — spec, artwork, quantities, dates, and payment terms — so problems get caught in a five-minute review instead of on the press.
Checklist
Artwork preflight checklist
The file checks to run on every piece of customer artwork before it reaches a RIP, press, or embroidery machine: format, resolution, colour, size, fonts, and transparency — the faults that cause most reprints.
Checklist
DTF production checklist
A start-to-finish run sheet for DTF transfer production: printer condition, RIP setup, powder and cure, press parameters, and post-press checks — the routine that keeps transfers washable and colours consistent.
Checklist
Final quality-control checklist
The last inspection before custom goods are packed: decoration quality, placement, quantities against the order, and consistency across the run — a structured pass that catches what tired eyes skip.
Checklist
Packing & dispatch checklist
From QC-passed goods to a tracked parcel the customer can't mis-receive: pack verification, labelling, documentation, carrier handoff, and the record-keeping that settles disputes in your favour.
Guide
How to price print jobs: costs, margin, and what shops get wrong
A practical pricing method for print and decoration businesses: build the true cost of a job (materials, labour, setup, overhead), choose margin deliberately, and avoid the mistakes — free owner labour, margin/markup confusion, and copying competitor prices.
Guide
Print file preparation: the basics behind clean output
What actually matters when preparing artwork for print and decoration: vector vs raster, resolution at output size, colour modes, fonts, and transparency — explained for the person checking customer files, not the designer sending them.
Template
Artwork approval form
A one-page printable form that captures a customer's sign-off on the exact artwork, placement, size, and colours before production starts — the record that turns "that's not what I asked for" into a documented decision.
Template
Final quality-control inspection form
A one-page Pass/Fail/N-A inspection form for finished custom orders — order match, counts, placement, decoration quality, cure state, finishing, and packaging — with an inspector sign-off and rework notes.
Template
Production job sheet
A two-page, duplex-printable job traveller for custom production: order, product, artwork version, decoration spec and size breakdown up front — dated workflow stages, QC and dispatch on the back.
Template
Machine maintenance log
A maintenance record for production equipment: an editable workbook with a full log, equipment register and recurring schedule, plus a printable one-page log sheet to live on a clipboard next to the machine.
Template
Daily production planner
Plan a production day on one sheet: jobs, processes, quantities, estimated minutes, operators, machines and status, with transparent capacity totals in the workbook version and a printable day sheet for the wall.
Template
Job-costing worksheet
An editable workbook that costs a job end-to-end — materials, decoration, setup, artwork, labour, packaging, shipping, wastage, overhead and fees — then shows cost per unit, break-even and target prices, profit, margin and markup with every formula visible.
Equipment
Epson SureColor SC-F2200 (US: F2270)
Epson's hybrid direct-to-garment and direct-to-film printer, sold in the UK as the SureColor SC-F2200 and in the US as the F2270: PrecisionCore MicroTFP head, UltraChrome DG2 ink, platen-based printing up to 406 × 508 mm — specified from Epson UK's product page and datasheet and the EU user's guide.
Equipment
Brother PR680W
Brother's six-needle embroidery machine with a 12 × 8 in maximum field, 1,000 spm top speed and wireless design transfer — specified from Brother USA's product and specification pages, with the speed condition preserved.
Equipment
Roland DG VersaSTUDIO GS2-24
Roland DG's current desktop vinyl cutter: 584 mm maximum cutting width, 30–500 gf blade force and servo drive — specified from Roland DGA's product page and the April 2026 datasheet, including the warranty's registration small print.
Equipment
Hotronix Fusion IQ
Stahls' Hotronix Fusion IQ heat press: 16 × 20 in platen, 32–430 °F range, swing-or-draw operation and 1800 W draw — specified from Hotronix and Stahls' official pages, with the tiered warranty reproduced as published.
Equipment
Mimaki TxF150-75
Mimaki's roll-fed DTF printer: 800 mm maximum drawing width, PHT50 water-based pigment ink with white circulation, and RasterLink7 RIP — specified from Mimaki Europe's product page and EU datasheet, with the UK channel evidenced by Mimaki's own distributor statement.
Equipment
Epson SureColor SC-F6400
Epson's 44-inch-class roll-fed dye-sublimation printer for transfer paper, in 4-colour SC-F6400 and 6-colour SC-F6400H versions with UltraChrome DS ink — specified from Epson UK's product pages and GB datasheet, with unpublished fields left visibly unverified.
Equipment
Roland DG VersaSTUDIO BN2-20A
Roland DG's current desktop eco-solvent print-and-cut machine: 480 mm maximum print/cut width, CMYK 220 ml cartridges and VersaWorks — specified from Roland DG's en-GB page and EMEA datasheet, which also confirm the original BN-20 is no longer available.
Equipment
Secabo TC5 SMART
Secabo's modular 38 × 38 cm clamshell heat press with Bluetooth app control: 225 °C maximum, 250 g/cm² maximum contact pressure and a 230 V / 1.8 kW rating — specified from the German manufacturer's own product data, with UK dealers named on its dealer page.
Equipment
Tajima SAI
Tajima's compact eight-needle embroidery machine (model MDP-S0801C): 200 × 300 mm field, 800 stitches per minute and a 7-inch touch panel — specified from Tajima's own product page and catalogue, with the UK distributor named by Tajima itself.
Equipment
Adkins DTF Inline Compact 600
A UK-brand inline DTF powder shaker and curing unit for media up to 60 cm: automatic powder application, built-in filtration and extraction, and a 220–240 V UK-13A supply — specified from the brand's own spec sheet and public operation manual.
Equipment
Vivid Matrix MX-530DP
Vivid Laminating Technologies' dual-sided roll laminator: 500 mm maximum film width, 10 m/min mechanical speed and 0–140 °C temperature range, with a 32 A supply requirement stated on the datasheet — specified from the UK manufacturer's own datasheet and current product page.
Equipment
Trotec Speedy 400
Trotec's flagship CO2/flexx laser engraver-cutter: 1016 × 610 mm working area, up to 4.32 m/s processing speed and 80–120 W CO2 laser options — specified from Trotec's own UK site and dated technical datasheet, with a verified UK subsidiary and named showrooms.
Equipment
Mimaki CJV330-160
Mimaki's wide-format solvent print-and-cut machine: 1,610 mm maximum print width, integrated contour cutting, SS21/SS22/BS4 ink sets and RasterLink7 — specified from Mimaki Europe's spec table, with the UK channel through Mimaki's named distributor.
Equipment
Graphtec CE7000-60
Graphtec's professional roll-feed cutting plotter: 603 mm maximum cutting width on media up to 712 mm wide, 4.41 N blade force and registration-mark contour cutting — specified from Graphtec's own specification table, which also resolves a width mix-up on the UK distributor's page.
Material
Siser EasyWeed
Siser's flagship polyurethane heat-transfer vinyl: 90-micron PU film applied at 150 °C for 10–15 seconds with a hot-or-cold peel — application settings reproduced from Siser's own page and reference chart, as guidance, not universal fact.
Material
ORACAL 651 Intermediate Cal
ORAFOL's workhorse calendered sign vinyl, specified here from the European documentation that governs UK supply: 70-micron polymeric PVC with a permanent polyacrylate adhesive and up to five years' rated vertical outdoor durability in a Central European climate — with the differing US-market figures identified separately.
Material
Madeira Classic Rayon No. 40
Madeira's standard viscose embroidery thread: 100 % filament viscose in count 135 dtex × 2, 422 colours, OEKO-TEX class I certified — specified from Madeira's official range page and the November 2023 data sheet, fastness table included.
Material
Sawgrass SubliJet UHD
Sawgrass's dye-sublimation ink for its SG500 and SG1000 desktop printers — recorded from Sawgrass's official pages, with cartridge capacity left unverified because it appears only in product imagery, and the warranty small print noted.
Material
Madeira WEBLON
Madeira's polyamide cut-away embroidery backing, sold in the UK as SuperCut Weblon: 34 g/m² black and 44 g/m² white variants with an OEKO-TEX class I certificate — specified from Madeira's data sheet, certificate document and its UK subsidiary's shop listing.
Material
ORATAPE MT95 Application Tape
ORAFOL's transparent polyethylene-film application tape for transferring cut vinyl graphics: 147-micron film-plus-adhesive build with a measured 2 N/25 mm adhesion — specified from ORAFOL Europe's 2023/49 technical datasheet and February 2026 compliance document.
Material
Metamark MD5
Metamark's UK-manufactured polymeric calendered digital-print vinyl: 70-micron film with permanent acrylic adhesive, rated up to 7 years unprinted, for solvent, eco-solvent, latex and UV printing — specified from Metamark's versioned technical data sheet (V1.1_26).
Material
Epson DS Transfer Multi-Purpose II
Epson's own dye-sublimation transfer paper for SureColor F-series printers, in 61 cm and 111.8 cm × 91.4 m rolls at 105 g/m² — recorded from Epson UK's product pages, with the absence of a published technical data sheet stated honestly.
Material
Mimaki PHT50 DTF Ink
Mimaki's water-based heat-transfer pigment ink for its TxF DTF printers: CMYK in 600 ml and white in 500 ml degassed aluminium packs, with white-ink circulation and an OEKO-TEX Eco Passport certificate — specified from Mimaki's own supply pages and safety data sheet.
Material
Avery Dennison MPI 1105 Wrapping series
Avery Dennison's premium cast printable wrapping vinyl: 50-micron gloss white cast face film with long-term removable acrylic adhesive, rated up to 10 years unprinted — specified from the EU product data sheet, with its recommended DOL overlaminates stated by Avery's own documents.
Material
Avery Dennison DOL 1400 Z Series
Avery Dennison's cast protective overlaminates for printed wrap films: 30-micron clear cast vinyl in gloss, lustre and matt finishes with a 6-year rated vertical durability — specified from the EU product data sheet issued March 2025.
Material
Stahls' CAD-CUT Premium Plus
Stahls' polyurethane heat-transfer vinyl sold through its UK operation: 90-micron stretchable film applied at 150 °C for 8 seconds at medium pressure — specified from Stahls' UK's product page and the Stahls' Europe application instruction sheet, with their differences reproduced.
damantra is the system behind the spreadsheets these tools replace
Quotes, orders, production stages, a customer portal, and invoicing in one calm place — built for the same shops these resources are written for.