Glossary of Promotional Products Terminology

A practical glossary of promotional products terminology — written for buyers, not industry insiders. Each term is defined as it is used in the custom-imprinting business, with typical price ranges and use cases where relevant. Bookmark this page and link to it from your team's procurement docs.

MOQ: Minimum Order Quantity. The smallest quantity a supplier will produce on a custom-decorated order. MOQs exist because setup costs are largely fixed; below the MOQ, the per-unit cost exceeds what the supplier can charge profitably. Typical MOQ ranges by category: 25–100 for stock pens and basic apparel; 250–1,000 for custom-molded items; 500–5,000 for fully custom designs.
Setup fee: A one-time charge per decoration screen, plate, or die — distinct from per-unit cost. Typical range: $25–75. A two-color logo on the front and back of a shirt is four setups, not one.
Run charge: A per-piece, per-additional-color fee added to the base unit price. Standard range: $0.10–0.40 per piece per additional color. Charged on screen printing primarily.
PMS match: Pantone Matching System color match. Specifying a brand-exact PMS color usually adds $25–50 per color match. PMS codes appear on most brand style guides as a six-digit number like 'PMS 286'.
Pantone: A color identification standard used in printing. Spot colors are referenced by their Pantone code; CMYK process colors are mixed from cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
CMYK: Four-color process printing using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). Used for full-color digital printing of photographs and gradients.
Vector file: An artwork file made of mathematical paths rather than pixels. Vector files (.AI, .EPS, .PDF, .SVG) scale to any size without losing quality. Required for laser engraving and most premium decoration methods.
Raster file: An artwork file made of pixels (.JPG, .PNG, .GIF, .TIF). Raster files have a fixed resolution; scaling them up causes pixelation. Usable for some decoration methods but vector is preferred.
DPI: Dots Per Inch. The resolution measurement for raster art. Print-quality artwork is typically 300 DPI at intended print size.
Spot color: A single solid ink color, mixed before printing rather than created from CMYK process. Spot colors are referenced by Pantone code. Most economical for one to four color logos.
Imprint: The applied decoration on a promotional product. Methods include screen printing, embroidery, laser engraving, full-color digital, UV printing, and debossing.
Imprint area: The maximum dimensions in which a logo can be decorated on a product, typically measured in inches. Smaller items have smaller imprint areas.
Drop shipping: Shipping different orders to different addresses from a single production run. Common for distributed-team gifting and multi-location programs. Adds per-destination freight cost.
In-hands date: The date by which the recipient must physically have the product. The in-hands date drives the production and shipping timeline; suppliers quote backward from this date to determine when art approval is needed.
Lead time: The time from proof approval to product ready for shipping. Standard lead time is 7–14 business days; rush is 3–7 business days at a surcharge.
Rush production: Production completed inside the standard 7–14 business day window. Standard rush tiers: 5 business days +20%, 3 business days +50%, 24-hour rush +100% with quantity caps.
Blank goods: Undecorated products. Suppliers can sell blank goods to distributors or end clients who want to decorate elsewhere. Blank pricing is significantly lower than decorated pricing.
Decorated goods: Products with custom imprint applied. The category sold to most end clients.
White label: Production for a reseller where the items ship in the reseller's packaging with no supplier branding. Common for promotional product distributors selling to their end clients.
Volume pricing: Tiered per-unit pricing where the price drops as quantity increases. Suppliers publish typical tiers like 100/250/500/1,000/2,500/5,000/10,000.
Tier: A quantity bracket in a volume-pricing schedule. The per-unit price within a tier is fixed; jumping to the next tier reduces it. Buyers near a tier boundary should check whether rounding up reduces total cost.
Embroidery digitization: The process of converting vector artwork into a stitch-by-stitch embroidery file. One-time fee of $40–80 per logo.
Sublimation: A full-color digital printing process that uses heat to dye polyester or polyester-coated surfaces. Produces durable, vibrant prints. Limited to white or light-colored polyester substrates.
Full-color process: Any printing method that reproduces continuous-tone color, including CMYK digital, sublimation, and DTG. Distinguished from spot-color methods like screen printing.
DTG: Direct-to-Garment printing. Inkjet printing directly onto fabric, used for photo-realistic and gradient artwork on apparel. Lower setup than screen printing; better for short runs.
Screen printing: Stencil-based decoration where ink is pushed through a mesh screen onto the substrate. One screen per ink color. Industry standard for high-volume cotton apparel and tote bags.
Laser engraving: Permanent decoration produced by a focused laser removing a thin material layer. Produces a tone-on-tone mark on metal, wood, glass, and leather. No color, but cannot fade or peel.
UV printing: Digital printing with ultraviolet-cured ink. Produces vibrant, scratch-resistant color on hard substrates including plastic, metal, glass, and acrylic.
Debossing: Decoration created by pressing a heated metal die into a substrate to create a recessed impression. No ink used; the imprint is the absence of material. Used on leather, faux leather, and paper.
Embossing: The opposite of debossing — a raised impression rather than recessed. Less common in promotional products than debossing.
Pad printing: A printing method that uses a silicone pad to transfer ink onto irregular shapes. Used for small logos on items like pens, USB drives, and curved surfaces.
Heat transfer: A decoration method that applies pre-printed graphics to fabric using heat and pressure. Common for athletic apparel and personalized items.
Net 30: A payment term meaning the invoice is due 30 days after issue. Typically extended to qualified business accounts with annual order volume above a threshold.
Purchase order: A buyer-issued document authorizing a supplier to fulfill an order, with the buyer's procurement reference number. Required by most government and large enterprise buyers.
Sample: An undecorated or pre-decorated example of a product, sent to the buyer for evaluation before placing a full order. Blank samples are usually free; decorated samples may incur production cost.
Digital proof: A computer-rendered preview of the decorated product, sent to the buyer for approval before production. The proof shows logo size, position, color, and decoration method.
Pre-production sample: A physical decorated sample produced before the main run. Used for high-value orders where the buyer needs to see and approve the actual print before committing to the full quantity.
Company store: A private branded e-commerce portal where an organization's employees or departments can order pre-approved branded merchandise on demand. Used for distributed teams, recurring gifting programs, and uniform programs.
Reseller: A promotional product distributor, marketing agency, or event production company that purchases from a supplier and resells to end clients, typically under a reseller pricing arrangement and often with white-label production.

See these terms in action

Many of the definitions above show up directly on our quote responses and product pages. The decoration methods page walks through screen printing, embroidery, laser engraving, full-color digital, UV printing, and debossing in detail. The UCHANGE Standard page documents how we apply transparent pricing (tier, setup fee, run charge, PMS match) on every quote.

If you want a quote written using these terms applied to your specific project, email sales@uchangepromo.com or use Get a Quote. Average first reply is about 17 minutes during business hours.