The Iowa Print Shop

06/13/2026

It’s peak banner season, with parades, fairs, and festivals filling up the calendar! Whether you are preparing for a local tradition like the 4th of July or getting ready for RAGBRAI, here are some tips to ensure your banner or sign looks its absolute best.

1. Plan Ahead.
Most of our area’s events—like the 4th of July and the Felix Grundy Festival—happen annually, but even one-time or newly introduced events give you plenty of time to organize. However, unexpected delays can still happen, so ordering as early as possible will save you a lot of stress.

2. Hire a Professional Designer
Investing in a qualified designer protects the quality of your brand and makes the printing process smooth for the production team. If your designer uses the font we did in this post, or places logos in a white box on a background, you may want to look elsewhere. A quick, clean logo fix takes less than a minute to fix, and there are many highly skilled designers who charge the same rates as an inexperienced freelancer and you will have a much better looking result.

3. Skip the AI
While AI tools can be fun, they often result in sloppy, generic designs. To ensure your banners don't end up looking identical to everyone else's, it is always best to stick with an authentic, human touch.

4. Designing It Yourself? Follow These Print Specs:
If you prefer to design your own large-format banners, keep these professional guidelines in mind to guarantee a crisp, vibrant final product:

Resolution: Target 200–300 DPI at your banner's final physical size. Avoid scaling up tiny web images to prevent pixelation.

Color Mode: Convert your project to CMYK. Banners print using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (Key) inks, which can make bright RGB screen colors look a little dull in print.

Vector Formats: Always submit files as vectors (like .PDF, .EPS, or .AI). Vector files can scale infinitely without losing quality.

Scale and Bleeds: Design at a 1:1 scale whenever your software allows. If your artwork goes right to the edge, make sure to add 0.125 to 0.25 inches of bleed on every side.

Outline Fonts: Convert all text to outlines! This saves everyone time by preventing missing-font errors on the printer's end.

If these design terms sound completely foreign to you, reaching out to a professional designer is always a great next step.

05/27/2026

Spartan Fans - WEAR BLUE this Thursday night to the home baseball and softball games vs Oelwein.

05/27/2026

This tiny piece of fuzz can wreak havoc on an embroidery machine. I found this little guy in the bobbin case causing the thread to break every couple hundred stitches.

05/21/2026

It’s been an eventful week so far! As some of you know, the turnaround between qualifying track meet and state is quite short. We typically qualify on Thursday night and need to have shirts in hand by Wednesday the following week. That leaves Friday through Monday afternoon to place orders, which is not much time. I’ve noticed that regardless of whether a store is open for four days or four months, there are always people calling in with the most creative excuses for not being able to order in time. This time, with all the stores involved, surprisingly only two orders were late. We’re off to a good start!

Everything was coming from one-day shipping warehouses, except for some performance wear and Grundy’s hoodies. They chose a “fun” color, which means it’s not heavily stocked, so that was expected. Still, everything is going well.

On Tuesday, Zach was our UPS driver, morning drop-off for the win! Almost everything that was supposed to arrive did. Some orchid tees were swapped for white long sleeves, but that was an easy fix, so no need to panic. Shirts for the first two teams went smoothly, and they were out the door to be delivered. The same happened for the second two teams. Then, the first hiccup occurred. I went to make the screen for the next team but blew the emulsion to pieces. I tried again, but it was the same. Apparently, one day’s cleaning batch wasn’t degreased properly. Despite the setback, I remained calm and continued with the rest of the orders.

I started Grundy’s shirts next and printed until around 8 p.m. My back was giving out, and the shop being 85 degrees all day took its toll. I left the shop and started feeling great being outside and decided to go back and finish all of what was left of Grundy’s shirts (the ones we had anyway). I finished sometime after 9 p.m. In bed by 11 p.m. and asleep around midnight. I felt really good, with only a few hundred items left to do tomorrow. I should be able to wrap them up and deliver them by 11 a.m.

Wednesday morning, I woke up at 3:45 am and decided to go to work. I printed the next team’s order, which was mostly done by 5:30 am, except for a few items still coming that left me stuck. My entire press was full with two teams waiting on those items. I worked on some hats for a softball team, set up a web store, and went to Casey’s for breakfast. Zach was our driver again, so we were running early. I finished the team from earlier in the morning without any issues, tore down their screens and moved on to the next team.

The ink for the next team was being very uncooperative. I had nonstop phone calls, 3 hours of sleep, the shop being 85 degrees again, a late delivery, and still no GC hoodies to print. Finally, I took a break to check the tracking on the hoodies. Short version, they were lost in shipping. So, I missed my deadline. I headed to D**e for deliveries 5 hours later than I had planned.

I was told that all of the missing items would arrive tomorrow. So, depending on when they get delivered, they will be printed as soon as possible. I apologize for the delay.

Thank you to everyone who ordered! We are incredibly honored that you chose us for your store. Your support means the world to us. Good luck to all the athletes at state!

05/20/2026

State Golf store is open.

05/18/2026

05/15/2026

Not really a business post, but here it is anyway:

We have two vehicles available for sale. The first is a 2016 Jeep Wrangler. If you prioritize comfort, luxury, advanced technology, and excellent fuel efficiency, this is not for you. However, if you enjoy strangers leaving toy ducks on your car randomly, this could be the perfect choice! I purchased this vehicle new as a reward for myself after three years of business. Back then, I believed that being self-employed was an exciting and fulfilling endeavor, rather than a path to an early grave. I could provide a detailed list of its accessories and features, but you can see most in the photo. It has a soft top and is a manual transmission (my favorite part). As of today, it has 7,351 miles. It has been stored in a climate-controlled garage from November to April since new.

Next up is a company car, a 2000 Toyota Camry. It is a LE, 4 cylinder, automatic with leather and a sunroof. It had new tires and a battery I believe last spring. It is not an exciting car, but no one buys a Camry to be cool. As of today it has 147,608, which probably leaves it with more life left in it than the Jeep. It gets decent gas mileage, it does have a check engine light that comes on about once a year for some sensor, some rust behind the back wheels and one of the back doors. I’ve travelled all over the state in the the last few years and would trust it to go anywhere. Due to some disappointing circumstances I no longer by needing it, but will probably regret letting it go.

If you’re interested or want more info email [email protected] or stop by the shop during business hours. You can message on here also, but you’re not likely to get an answer.

05/13/2026

We’ve been getting a lot of requests for team Kyle shirts lately. We’re happy to support him, but the smaller quantities are more expensive to print. Please order this round if you want one or share this with someone who will. Better yet, skip the shirt and make a donation at Green Belt Bank instead. We do have one large royal on hand if you want one right away.

05/11/2026

Just wanted to give a quick heads-up that we will have limited availability over the next two weeks. We have a tight print schedule this week due to multiple extensions for late orders on our web stores, and two track meets to attend. Next week, we’ll be focused on state track printing, which historically involves a two-day print marathon with around four hours of sleep.

During this time, we will check emails intermittently, but response times will be slower than usual. If your matter is urgent, please call our office at 319-825-2676.

Otherwise, we will respond to your message as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding!

05/08/2026

Today is National Paste-up Day. During my college days, we had a half-hour course that introduced us to the process of paste-up as part of our industry’s history. They predicted that we would never encounter it in real life. Little did I know when I started my first job, they were still using wax paste-up. Needless to say, it was a tedious process, and I promptly transitioned to digital layout.

For those unfamiliar with this concept, here’s a brief history lesson:

Wax paste-up was a traditional analog graphic design method used before the advent of desktop publishing. This method was the standard for newspapers, magazines, and advertisements until the rise of digital design software.

We would type the articles, create the ads, and print them out. Then, we would cut them to size and run them through a waxer, a machine with rollers that melted a thin layer of wax onto the back of the paper. We would then place the items on grid paper to create the pages. Once arranged, the pages were sent to a camera room where they would be photographed to produce film negatives for printing.

Currently, we utilize design software to create advertisements, convert them into PDFs, and then incorporate them into a design document, allowing us to flow text around them. This document is then converted into a PDF and emailed to the press for printing. This streamlined process not only expedites the workflow but also enables designers to work from anywhere.

At one point, we were responsible for producing not only the Grundy County Shopper but also various other shoppers and newspapers across the state. If you are interested in using our design services, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].