Print-on-demand: 200 designs a month on Ideogram 4.5, plus cutouts
200 text-on-shirt designs a month cost about $16 at Ideogram 4.5 medium or $58 at high on Sume, plus $4.75 for cutouts. The budget, line by line.
A print-on-demand shop that ships typographic designs needs two things per design: an image with legible text, and a transparent PNG. On Sume that is an Ideogram 4.5 render followed by background removal. This post prices 200 designs a month, with one render and one cutout per design, so you can see what the quality tier is worth.
Sume prices every job at the vendor list price × 1.25, then adds a 5.5% fee on that result, so $1.00 of list becomes $1.31875 (how the formula works). The tables below show both the catalog price (list × 1.25) and the all-in figure with the fee.
Unit costs
| Step | Vendor list | Catalog price | All-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ideogram 4.5 medium | $0.06 | $0.075 | $0.079125 |
| Ideogram 4.5 high | $0.22 | $0.275 | $0.290125 |
| Background removal (rmbg) | n/a | $0.0225 | $0.023737 |
200 designs a month
| Plan | Renders | Cutouts | Monthly total (all-in) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium, one render each | $15.82 | $4.75 | $20.57 |
| High, one render each | $58.02 | $4.75 | $62.77 |
| Medium, three tries per keeper | $47.47 | $4.75 | $52.22 |
Which plan
Three medium tries per keeper ($52.22) cost less than one high render each ($62.77). Ideogram's strength is text rendering, so generate three medium options, pick the best, and spend the high tier only on the designs you will print at scale. Check the lettering by eye before you cut out; a cutout does not fix a misspelled word.
Sources
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