Choosing Your ID Card Printers

As the main component in any ID card system, ID card printers come in a wide variety of styles with versatile features and functions.  Before deciding on a printer, every company and organization needs to consider what capabilities they want the printer to perform.

Single or dual-sided printers – Single-sided ID cards work well for basic identification needs and some single-sided printers are equipped with advanced features such as magnetic stripe and smart card encoding.  For organizations on a budget, single-sided printers can print dual-sided ID cards by first printing on the back, and then in a separate pass laying down card information on the front.  Dual-sided printers, however, are ideal for organizations looking to efficiently print a large number of cards.  Dual-sided cards have increased and more advanced security features.

Color or monochromatic – Deciding whether or not to print in color largely depends on the style of the organization.  Where simple identification is needed, monochrome images, graphics and text may be all that is required.  Color can be one the easiest ways to inject creativity and personality into an ID card program.  Using color, companies can even denote different levels of security clearance for access control applications.