Factors to Consider Before Purchasing a Card Printer

Identity cards have become common place in daily life. We use them for gym membership, library cards, driving licences and employee id badges, to name a few. Most have been produced using a card printer. The old labour intensive method of cutting, pasting and laminating an identity card is fast becoming a thing of the past. Using a digital card printer is a one step process. The information including text, graphics and pictures are all stored on a computer, enabling a replacement card to be easily re-printed.

There are several factors to consider before purchasing a card printer, and this article will deals with some of them.

Card printers will generally print a card of the standard and accepted dimensions. The standard is the CR-80 Card, which is 30 microns thick, or .75 millimetres, by 85.5 millimetres long and 54 millimetres wide with rounded corners. We have come to expect a plastic card to be this size, though different sizes can be accommodated for special purposes.

Card printers range from those suitable for high volume needs to the simpler card printers suitable for the occasional use. It is likely, however, that most people will be more interested in the latter. As with paper document printers, card printers are capable of printing at different speeds. It will be especially useful to have fast speed capabilities if you need to print both sides of a card. Printers offering this are likely to be more expensive.

Card printers come in a variety of sizes. If you lack office space, then a printer with a small footprint that takes up minimum space will serve you best. Larger printers may also be noisier, and in a small enclosed office space this will be a factor to consider, especially if you will be doing regular printing.

Not everyone is an instant expert with modern technology. For this reason card printers that have a difficult operating learning curve should be avoided. The best card printers are those that anyone with minimal technical experience can get to grips with, in the minimum amount of time. Remember that while an employee may be comfortable with operating a standard printer used for A4 documents, card printer can prove an unfamiliar challenge. Choose a printer that is simple to set up and is easy to use.

Card printers use a thermal digital printing process. There are two distinct types of thermal printing, depending on what you wish to achieve.

Mass transfer printing is most suitable for printing bar codes and machine-readable text. The print is usually only black and the quality can be somewhat variable. This method works well when precision is not a requirement.

The other thermal printing method is dye sublimation. This method is used in card printers to render photo-realistic images on cards in full colour. It can print very accurately and is increasingly the printing method of choice.

Other considerations when choosing card printers include using good quality stock plastic cards to achieve the best results. A specialist card printer retailer or manufacturer will be to advise you on this and help choose the best type of card printer for your particular requirements.