Pre-Printing Card Options

Pre-Printing Card Options:
There are numerous types of ways to print onto a plastic identification card. The three most popular pre-printing options are:

1. Lithographic
2. High Definition, Digital Press
3. Dye Sublimation

Lithographic printing: Lithographic printing is ideal for large quantity runs of over 5,000 cards. The printing is extremely high quality and it offers a 3,000 DPI resolution. The cards are manufactured from large plastic sheets (28, 56, 70 cards per sheet - figure 1) and then are cut down into individual cards. The cards get built up through different layers of materials including: Clear Plastic, PVC and PET (see figure 2). Lithographic presses have the ability to print a large number of colors, including specific spot colors (often called PMS or Pantone colors). Some lithographic presses still use hard copy proofing methods; however most have been updated to be fully digital proofs.

Figure 1 - Example of manufactured 28-up card sheets

High Definition/Digital Press: High Definition or Digital Press printing is ideal for low to mid-level quantities from 500 up to 10,000 cards. This process offers up to 3,000 DPI print resolution. The main difference from Lithographic is digital press plastic sheets are usually only 21 cards per sheet. End users can utilize multiple colors for their cards and incorporate PMS (Pantone) colors for their unique and custom branding. The proofing process has always been digital with high definition digital presses.

Figure 2 - Example of a composite cardstock layer. Layers are combined together to create a 30 mil thick ID card.

Dye Sublimation: Dye sublimation printing is done one card at a time on pre-assembled ID cardstock. This printing method is generally used for low volume printing. The dye sublimation process will apply color to the cardstock one color at a time: Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and then Black. Since this process only uses a four color process it is not able to match PMS (Pantone) colors. This process is excellent for quick turn projects, low quantities and variable printing jobs.

Figure 3 - Example of dye sublimation printing process. One color at a time is applied to the cardstock to match your four color process color.

ColorID Pre-Printing
 If you call ColorID we can help you decide what process is best for your project. We will ask several questions that we help us determine what is the best trade-off of cost, speed and the details of the final product. ColorID has many years of experience managing large and small projects and can help you identify what printing process is best for your carding project.

About ColorID, LLC
Every year, ColorID assists more than 1000 colleges and universities and their project managers personally oversee 700 custom projects each year, including many small and large recarding projects.  ColorID offers best-in-class products and solutions, including:  contactless, smart and financial cards from every major manufacturer, multiple ID printer platforms; transaction and point-of-sale software and hardware, a variety of handheld devices for identification and tracking applications and biometrics solutions, including fingerprint and iris readers. The company’s manufacturing partners include: Iris ID, HID, Fargo, Datacard, CardSmith, Gemalto, Zebra, NiSCA, Evolis, Allegion, Aptiq, Magicard, Brady People ID, Integrated Biometrics, Oberthur, NBS, Vision Database Systems and many others.

Contact ColorID at 704-987-2238 or toll free in Canada and the US at 888-682-6567. Visit ColorID on the web at: www.colorid.com or email ColorID at [email protected].

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