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.
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.
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.