Looking for an ID card printer system to make custom plastic cards for your company needs? The following information will help you when making your decision.

There are a number of high quality plastic ID badge printers in the market. Popular, reliable manufacturers you may want to consider include Evolis, Fargo, Zebra, Datacard and Magicard. These companies have been making printers for many years and are on the cutting edge of ID card making. If you prefer a certain brand over the others, there is sure to be a model printer within that brand that will provide the custom card output that you require in your card printing needs.

Most all printers provide full color custom cards that will produce a clear photo image and logo. Some models of printers, especially entry level printers, will only print a single color. This is called monochrome printing. If that is the option you desire, there are special printer models that fit the card printing need you have. Other card printers are rewritable and do not use a print ribbon. An Evolis printer may be perfect for a rewritable purpose.

Some printers will only print a single side surface of the card while other printers print on two sides of the card surface. This dual sided printing can be easily handled with a dual sided printer. These printers turn the card over in the printer within the printing process so that the card does not have to be turned over by hand.

Some companies need to have an encoded magnetic stripe on the back of the printed card. The stripe is the dark black stripe that you often find on your credit card. These stripes are able to hold data needed for various payroll, loyalty card, and access control functions. Magnetic encoding options are available on many printer models as an upgraded option. Some printers have the option to add the magnetic encoder in the future.

The volume of cards printed many determine the printer you select. Many small businesses print a card or two a day. Other organizations print thousands of cards per sitting or thousands of cards per yet. The printers have various volume capabilities. This includes the number of cards that can be contained in both the input hopper and the output hopper.

Some printers have the capability to provide an overlaminate on the card. This option provides a longer lifespan to the printed card. The overlam is a 1 ml thick layer of plastic the covers the card surface. The lamination also provides an additional layer of protection for the image and the custom data printed on the card. If using the overlaminate, it is important to select the higher grade cardstock due to the heat of the overlaminate process. The extensive heat will potentially warp the regular image grade 30 ml card. This process can also reduce the amount of tampering and card duplication attempts made with company ID cards.

There are many things to understand about plastic card printers. With a little research and by talking to a few card integrators, the lingo will become somewhat familiar and you will find that the desktop ID card printer is not that difficult to understand and operate.

Author Bio: For more details about id badge printer & Evolis Printer, please visit http://www.safecardid.com/completephotosystems.html.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: id badge printer, Evolis Printer