Choosing an ID card printer may take some time and research, but finding the right ID card printer for your organization’s unique card needs makes it pain-free to print cards for years to come. Our seven step guide will walk you through every decision you’ll need to make when purchasing an ID card printer.
Step One: Determine Your Budget
ID card printers can range in cost from under $1,000 to over $5,000 – and once you add in card design software, blank cards, printer ribbons, and cleaning kits, the costs will continue to add up. Knowing your budget going into the purchasing process will help you narrow down your search.
Step Two: Single or Dual-Sided Printing
Before you buy a printer, you should have a general idea of the card design you want to print – or at the very least, if you want single or dual-sided printing. While some printers can be upgraded later on to dual-sided printing if you change your mind, that’s not an option on every printer.
Do you need single or dual-sided printing?
Step Three: Select Print Method
Most ID card printers use one of two printing methods – dye sublimation or reverse transfer. Which type of printing technology you want will depend on your card design and how you’ll use the cards.
The difference between dye sublimation and reverse transfer.
Step Four: Volume Requirements
Are you a small organization that will only printer a few cards at a time? Or are you a large organization or school and you need to print hundreds of cards at a time? Knowing how many cards you’ll printer in a year will help you find a printer designed for your expected uses.
Low, mid, and high-volume printers.
Step Five: Lamination, Visual Security & Encoding
Do you want to laminate your cards to make them last longer? Will you encode your cards so they can be multi-functional cards that can pay for parking, lunch, or printing? These features often cannot be added after you purchase the printer, so knowing what you want before you buy is important.
Step Six: Determine Connection Type
How will you set up your new ID card printer? Will it be used by the same person at his or her desk, connected only to one computer? Or do you need multiple people to print cards from several different computers? Depending on your office setup, you may need USB, Ethernet, or a WiFi connection for your printer.
How to determine connection type.
Step Seven: Other Considerations
Finally, you’ll need to consider some other options including field upgrade options if your card printing needs change down the road, operating system compatibility (not every printer is Mac compatible, for example!), and the manufacturer warranty.
