Finding the best ID card printer for you can be difficult. Anyone can find customer/user reviews online for a wide range of quality ID card printers, however, even if an ID card printer has a great review, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right one for you. Printers are generally selected for light, medium, or heavy duty volume printing.

There are three types of ID card printers: single side card printers, dual side card printers, and retransfer printers. Singleside printers print on one side of the ID card in one pass, while dual side ID card printers print on both sides in one pass. Retransfer printers print onto film instead of directly onto the ID card allowing for higher printing quality on uneven card surfaces (though hard to see with the naked eye, ID cards with embedded technologies often have uneven surfaces).

We’ve put together a checklist of questions you should take into consideration before deciding what kind of ID card printer is best for you. By answering the following questions you will be able to figure out which factors are most important to you in an ID card printer, making your decision that much easier!

1. What exactly do you want printed on your card?

Imagine what the ideal ID card for you looks like. Does it include the card holder’s picture? Does it include your company logo? What other information do you consider necessary to include on these ID cards?

Once you figure out exactly what you would like your card to look like, make sure that you pick an ID card printer that is capable of including all of those elements.

2. How will the ID cards you print be used?

The most common use for ID cards is to be able to confirm the identity of the card holder. The best type of ID card printer for this type of use is one that will clearly print the card holder’s picture and information. Having a high-quality, easy to see and read ID card will make confirming the ID card holder’s identity that much easier.

Another popular use for ID cards, especially in businesses in hospitals, is to be used as a key to grant access to certain areas. If the ID cards you print are going to be used to open doors, access computers, etc. then you need to be looking for a printer capable of embedding technologies or adding a magnetic stripe.

3. What Security Features are Most Important for You to Include?

How secure are you looking to make your ID cards? In order to make your cards both tamper-proof and hard to fake, it’s important to add extra security features to your ID cards. The perfect ID card printers in this instance is one that allows you to incorporate ID card software programs.

ID card software programs allow users to encode data into their cards to add a wide range of security features to their ID cards including electronic signatures and holographic images.

4. Do you want to be able to print on both sides of the ID card?

Dual-side ID card printers extend the amount of information you are able to include on an individual ID card. By printing on the backside of ID cards you will be able to include information about the card holder that is important to their identification, but not necessary to include on the front of the card (i.e. personal information or a magnetic stripe).

However, if the ID printing capabilities you are currently looking for don’t include dual-sided printing consider going with a single-side ID card printer with dual-side upgrade options, so that you don’t have to buy a completely new ID printer when you’re looking to extend your security features.

5. How many ID cards do you plan on printing? And how often?

It is important to not only consider what you want to include on your ID cards but also, how many of these ID cards you will be producing. If you are printing a large number of ID cards you may want to consider choosing a mid-range ID card system that is capable of producing high-quality cards in bulk. Mid-range ID card systems are also better for instant issuance of ID cards (for example: school IDs that can be handed to student seconds after the ID photo was taken).

If you’re not making that many cards, but would like to have a printer so that you are able to produce a new one whenever necessary, consider purchasing an entry level ID card printer, easy on the budget, and simple to store. Once you figure out how many cards you plan to produce each year, you can budget your ID card solutions accordingly.

Learn more about the new maintenance and repair services Evergreen ID Systems offers for ID card printers.