Iowa State University

Our printers use pigment-based, high color gamut archival inks. Posters on our standard paper medias that are laminated and posters on our vinyl medias may be used outdoors. These posters will not fade for two to five years depending on placement and will not be damaged by moisture. Posters placed in climate-controlled environments will not fade for many years.

Printing Services offers several roll media and size options for large format posters. The non-printing margins on roll media are 0.12 inches or 3 mm left and right. We can print posters on many cut-sheet medias as well. Recommended maximum thickness for cut-sheet medias is 19 mil or 0.5 mm.

We can laminate posters up to 40” wide. Our lamination is double sided and we recommend a half-inch border beyond the edge of the poster. Total lamination thickness is 10 mil and we offer both gloss and matte.

We can also mount your poster on foam core board. Lamination is optional. Printing carries four sizes of mounting board, 18 x 24, 24 x 36, 32 x 40 and 40 x 60. The size of foam core required for a job depends on the size of the poster to be mounted. A poster mounted and laminated on foam core board is approximately ¼ inch thick. Printing & Copy Services will not mount customer-supplied material.

If your poster needs to hang for a long period, we can apply grommets for you. Our grommets are 3/4” brass and applied with a reinforcement strip.

We also offer poster tubes to protect and ship your posters. These tubes are 43” x 3-1/2” diameter cardboard with plastic end caps. In addition, we offer an industrial-grade, high-quality vinyl wrap for the tubes with carrying straps and Velcro closure.

Poster templates based on the Iowa State University visual identity program are available on this Web site (http://www.print.iastate.edu/postertemplates.shtml) in PowerPoint and Adobe Illustrator formats.

We charge by the linear inch using the shortest dimension when possible. For example, a 24” x 36” poster printed on 36” wide roll media would cost the per-inch rate of the media times 24”. There is an additional handling charge per electronic file and an optional charge for trimming.