When you’re looking for a new ID card printer, the most important thing to consider is how you will use your cards – what features do you want, and what design or security requirements do your cards have? One of the first decisions you’ll need to make is do you need a single-sided or dual-sided card.

Single-Sided Printers

Single-sided cards are great for designs that don’t require a lot of information to be printed on the card, so everything will fit onto the front side. These cards are also cheaper to produce because the printers and ribbons are less expensive than their dual-sided versions. If you’re on a budget and don’t have a design that requires printing on both sides, a single-sided ID card printer would be a good option.

Because the single-sided version is the base model of a printer, you will have the widest range of printers to choose from. Some printers do have dual-sided upgrades you can add on at a later date, but it is more efficient to purchase the dual-sided model from the beginning.

If your budget is limited and absolutely need dual-sided cards, you can print them on a single-sided printer. Once you’ve printed the front side you can load the card into the printer again to print the back; this process is time consuming, however, and not recommended for most applications.

Dual-Sided Printers

If you do have a design that requires dual-sided printing, such as a card with barcodes on the back or additional cardholder information, you’ll want a dual-sided printer. Dual-sided upgrades are available for most, but not all, ID card printers and do increase the cost of the system – the dual-sided upgrade can range from $200 to $750 more than the base model, and your cost-per-card price can increase $.05 to $.31 per card.

The advantage of a dual-sided printer is in the convenience – the printer will automatically flip your card and print the back side, eliminating the work of manually flipping them yourself. If you need to print more than a small handful of cards, this time savings will be significant.

Learn more about single-sided and dual-sided ID card printers in our Learning Center.