We are all used to our convenient desktop ink-jet printers, whether we use them at work to print documents, or use them at home to print our family photographs. But when people approach the subject of ID card printing, they often think that it must be complex and expensive. In fact, ID card printers and ID badging software are very easy to install and to use, and the equipment and running costs are also surprisingly affordable.

Even small companies can have their own printer now

If you look at ID card printers now, you will see a revolution in what you can buy.

• Printers which are easier to install and use than your office ink-jet.

• Smaller printers, mechanically less complex and more robust.

• A very attractive price to buy and to run.

This means that even small companies or organisations, as low as 50 people in size, can now afford their own printer, and that they don’t need to employ experts to operate and support the printer.

Simple printers, designed for what you need

An example of a new, no-nonsense design is the Magicard Tempo ID card printer. Compared to printers in the past, the Tempo is a much simpler design. It is only 20 cm each side and weighs just over 3kg, thus making it very portable. If used together with a notebook computer, the Tempo provides a portable printing solution that can be easily taken to branch offices. The Tempo is a hand-fed printer – the user feeds in one card at a time, holding it by the edges to keep it clean. For many applications, this is quick and convenient, and even allows for easy double-sided card printing – just flip the card over and print the other side.

Loading consumables is equally easy. Dye-sublimation printers like the Magicard Tempo use a simple drop-in ribbon. Unlike ink-jet cartridges, ribbons don’t get clogged with dirt, or require frequent cleaning cycles. Just because printers like the Tempo are smaller and less expensive, it does not mean that the quality of the printed card is compromised; cards are still printed edge-to-edge in bold and vibrant colours.

Printing a quality card

The latest ID card printers are also very easy to setup. You don’t need to spend hours making detailed printer settings to get great quality cards. In most cases, the printer driver settings will work out-of-the-box, and if you need to adjust them it’s a simple case of maybe increasing the printer head power or adjusting the colour balance. There are also many excellent ID badging software packages, which allow you to design a card so that what you see on the screen is what gets printed on the card. Most ID card printers use dye-sublimation technology to produce an excellent photo-quality image, with a repeatable quality from print to print. However, because dye-sublimation printers thermally transfer dye into the card surface, the print quality does suffer if dirty or sub-standard cards are used, or if the printer is not cleaned regularly. What happens is that dirt actually gets sealed into the card surface by the clear overlay that is used to protect the card from fading and scratching. All the user has to do is to buy good quality, smooth and clean plastic cards, and to clean the printer from time to time, using simple cleaning cards, and replacing or cleaning the dirt-removal roller in the printer.

Not just printing, but encoding as well

ID card printers such as the Magicard Rio 2 and Tango 2 will also encode a smart card at the same time as printing. This means that the chip on a contact chip card or a contactless (proximity) card is written to within the printer. For users who employ contactless cards for access control, for example, this means that they only need one piece of equipment – the ID card printer – to issue cards. It is not necessary to train users to use multiple pieces of equipment, and there is no danger of issuing cards that are printed but not encoded. All printers offer the option of magnetic stripe card encoding as well.

Adding card security with a click of the mouse

With Magicard printers, you can even print a secure watermark across the card surface just using your standard printer. With a simple click of the mouse, you can choose to turn on and off watermark printing. The watermark is placed on the card at time of printing, so does not involve any complex laminate films that need to specially ordered at extra cost. This Magicard watermark technology, called HoloKote, allows all users to employ simple card security.

Low cost of purchase and ownership

In the past, there was often a compromise between cost of purchase and cost of ownership. The printers that were low cost to buy had expensive consumables, and the printers that had low-cost consumables were very costly. This has changed, and it is now possible to buy a proper dye-sublimation printer for US$1,500 or less, and the cost per single-sided print runs at around US$0.40 or less. The costs are now very comparable to those of ‘cut-and-paste laminated’ ID cards, and of course the quality and durability of a plastic card produced by a proper dye-sublimation printer is far higher than that of a cut-and-paste card.

Conclusion

ID card printers are now easier to use than desktop ink-jet printers. In terms of installing the printer, designing the card and using the printer driver, loading consumables, and printing cards, anyone who has a computer can easily use an ID card printer. Printers can even encode smart cards and magnetic stripe cards at the same time as printing for a one-stop solution. Together with the affordable price of purchase and operation, this means that even organisations as small as 50 people can buy, and can easily operate, their own ID badging solution.

Original Source:

http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/making-id-cards-easy-579297.html