The designing and printing of crisp, full-colour ID cards used to be the domain of multinational corporations, large government agencies, or professional printers. But nowadays, in-house PVC card printers are becoming an effective and affordable tool for businesses of all sizes.
The organisations have gone very creative with their plastic card printers, using them to produce everything from promotional items to season passes, from super-tough storage labels to rewritable student attendance cards. Of course, plastic card printers are also efficient for fabricating employee IDs, membership cards, and access control cards.
With the myriad of manufacturers in the plastic card printer market, deciding which printer is right for you can be challenging. We're here to help you make an informed and wise decision. With years of experience in the industry, we will guide you on the best way to choose an ID card printer.
A reliable printer is a key to keeping any ID card solution running. Whether your business prints five cards a year or more than 100 ID cards daily, the requirements are the same.
An ideal ID Card Printer will create high-quality ID cards quickly and efficiently. But how would you know which one is suitable for your business? So let's study how to analyse and find the best-suited ID Card Printers as per the nature of your business.
Card Printing Volume
To understand which printer is right for your organisation, first understand the volume that needs to be printed on an average basis, as mentioned below:
- < 1,000 annually = Small batch/Low volume printing
- 1,000 to 5,000 annually = Medium batch/Standard volume printing
- > 5,000 annually = Large batch/High volume printing
Card Appearance needs
The next way to analyse the right printer for your company is to understand what are the appearance needs of the card:
- Single-Sided Printing: The organisation can print on both sides if they want, but that has to be done twice in a single-sided printer and works best when the cards have fixed data on one side. Some single-sided printers can be upgraded to double-sided after initial purchase, but the upgrade can cost more than double-sided printers.
- Dual-Sided Printing: The advantage of having a dual-sided printer is that no manual intervention is needed while printing on the other side. The card automatically flips to be printed on the backside.
- Monochrome Color: Monochrome printers are less expensive; They are usually used in a specialised situation, e.g. when integrating into a mainframe system.
- Full Color: They have a high cost, but they are the most versatile and practical option in the long term. Any colour printer can also use monochrome ribbons to print monochrome images.
- Edge-to-Edge Photo Quality: These printers use a thermal print head to transfer the colour from the ribbon to the card along with standard ribbon accessories. Photos printed with these printers have realistic colours with light fringes.
- Borderless High Quality: Retransfer printers have the best image quality with a high-tech printing process and require additional retransfer ribbons for further processing. In addition, they offer highly durable and tamper-resistant cards suitable for high-quality printing on uneven surfaces, and most importantly, these printers eliminate borders.
What Type of Printer is Right for You?
One can choose from the below-listed types to conclude the right kind of printer that is suitable as per the nature of their business:
Smart cards: Cards with an integrated circuit and a chip (e.g., credit cards). Control access and storage time, presence, and personal information.
Proximity cards: Contactless chip cards that use, for example, Near Field Communication (NFC). An RFID card grants access and provide security through the contactless entry.
Purely visual identification cards: may contain magnetic strips or barcodes.
A PVC card printer, known as an ID card printer, uses several methods to transfer the design on the PVC card, including:
- Dye Sublimation
Dye sublimation is most commonly used with colour PVC card printers. It is a favourable method of ID card printing, thanks to its easy learning process, low initial investment, and wide range of products already prepared for sublimation.
- Reverse Transfer
PVC Card printers use reverse transfer to ensure high image quality with security against any image alteration that exists otherwise.
Both the methods are used in printing ID cards; now, let us understand the difference between the two:
| Particulars |
DYE SUBLIMATION |
REVERSE TRANSFER |
| Production of over-the-edge printed cards |
No |
Yes |
| Print of access control cards |
No |
Yes |
| Handle high-definition photos & graphics |
No |
Yes |
| Be easily duplicated or tampered with |
Yes |
No |
| Withstand wear & tear |
No |
Yes |
| Providing a highly secure form of identification |
No |
Yes |
If you are looking forward to buying ID card printers for your business, this chart will help you analyse the best suitable type of printer you are looking forward to at a nominal price.
The Best ID Card Printers
At Alankit, we deliver the prime quality in the ID card printers to endeavour for perfection as IDP Solid 510D is the actual essence of the card printers because of the following reasons:
- High Print Speed
- Enhanced FINE Imaging Technology
- 300, 600 & 1200 dpi Printing Resolution
- New Input Hopper
- Removable Output Hopper
- Support of Transparent Cards
- Support of CR79 Cards
- Front-Side Mag Encoding
- All-in-One Type Lock System