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Color Pricing #

Color Pricing allows you to automatically calculate additional printing costs based on the number of colors used in a customer’s design. This is commonly used for printing methods such as screen printing, vinyl printing, and other production processes where the number of print colors affects manufacturing costs.

Product Designer App supports two color pricing methods:

  • Charges Per Color – Apply a fixed cost for each print color.
  • Charges With Colors – Apply different pricing based on the total number of colors used.

Color Pricing can also be combined with other pricing rules such as design area, size, quantity, elements, and printing sides to create flexible pricing models.

When to Use Color Pricing #

Use Color Pricing when the printing cost depends on the number of colors in the customer’s design.

Typical examples include:

  • Screen Printing
  • Vinyl Printing
  • Heat Transfer
  • Textile Printing
  • Promotional Products
  • Industrial Label Printing

If your printing process charges the same price regardless of color count (for example, DTG printing), this pricing method may not be necessary.

Open Printing Type #

Navigate to:

WordPress Admin → Product Designer App → Printing Types

Create a new Printing Type or edit an existing one.

Inside the pricing configuration, click Add Print Attribute.

This allows you to add additional pricing rules.

Select Color Pricing #

Choose one of the following pricing attributes:

  • Charges Per Color
  • Charges With Colors

Each option calculates pricing differently.

Charges Per Color #

Charges Per Color applies a fixed charge for every color detected in the customer’s design.

For example:

Number of ColorsExtra Price
1$2
2$4
3$6
4$8

If the configured charge is $2 per color, a design containing four print colors automatically adds $8 to the product price.

This method is simple and works well when each additional print color has the same production cost.

Typical use cases include:

  • Basic screen printing
  • Vinyl cutting
  • Flat-rate color pricing

Charges With Colors #

Charges With Colors allows you to create pricing tiers based on the total number of colors.

Instead of charging the same amount for every color, you define different prices for different color ranges.

Example:

ColorsExtra Price
1 Color$5
2 Colors$8
3 Colors$10
4 Colors$11
5+ Colors$12

This pricing model is useful when additional colors become less expensive after the initial setup cost.

Typical use cases include:

  • Professional screen printing
  • Commercial printing
  • Bulk production
  • Production workflows with setup costs

Apply Pricing to the Entire Design Area #

Color pricing can be calculated using all printable objects within the Design Area.

When this option is selected, the system counts every color used inside the printable region, regardless of object type.

For example:

A design contains:

  • Red text
  • Blue logo
  • Green icon

The system detects three colors and calculates the price according to the selected color pricing method.

This option is recommended when your printing process charges based on the total number of print colors.

Apply Pricing to Individual Elements #

Instead of calculating colors across the entire design, you can apply pricing only to specific element types.

Supported elements include:

  • Text
  • Photo
  • Clipart
  • QR Code
  • Barcode

For example:

You may charge color pricing only for:

  • Text

while ignoring:

  • Photos
  • QR Codes
  • Barcodes

Or charge only for:

  • Clipart

This provides greater flexibility for different production workflows.

Combine Color Pricing with Other Attributes #

Color Pricing works together with other Product Designer App pricing methods.

It can be combined with:

  • Size Pricing
  • Area Pricing
  • Element Pricing
  • Quantity Pricing
  • Side Pricing
  • Product Attributes

For example:

Product Base Price
        +
Front Side Price
        +
Large Size Price
        +
Color Pricing
        +
Quantity Discount
        =
Final Product Price

This allows you to create highly flexible pricing rules for virtually any printing process.

Example 1 – Fixed Price Per Color #

Configuration:

SettingValue
Pricing MethodCharges Per Color
Price Per Color$3

Customer Design:

  • Black text
  • Red logo
  • Blue icon

Detected colors:

3 Colors

Price calculation:

3 × $3 = $9

The product price increases by $9.

Example 2 – Tiered Color Pricing #

Configuration:

ColorsPrice
1$5
2$8
3$10
4$12

Customer design:

  • Four print colors

The system applies:

4 Colors = $12

instead of multiplying a fixed cost per color.

Combine with Quantity Discounts #

Color Pricing can also work together with quantity-based discounts.

Example:

Base Price
      +
Color Price
      +
Side Price
      -
Quantity Discount
      =
Final Price

This allows large orders to receive discounted pricing while still accounting for the number of print colors.

Combine with Multiple Printing Sides #

For products with multiple printable sides, color pricing can be calculated separately for each side.

Example:

Front:

  • 3 Colors

Back:

  • 2 Colors

Each side can calculate its own color charge before being added to the total product price.

Best Practices #

For the best pricing accuracy:

  • Use Charges Per Color when every additional color has the same production cost.
  • Use Charges With Colors when pricing depends on the total number of colors.
  • Apply pricing to the entire Design Area when all colors affect production costs.
  • Apply pricing to individual elements when only specific object types should influence pricing.
  • Combine Color Pricing with Side Pricing, Size Pricing, Area Pricing, and Quantity Discounts to match your real production workflow.
  • Test several customer designs with different color combinations to verify that pricing is calculated correctly.

Properly configured Color Pricing ensures customers receive accurate pricing while reflecting the true production cost of multi-color printing.

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