Digital Card Printing
Advantages
Image Quality
The image quality of plastic cards produced with digital printing
technology is far superior to those produced through the traditional
manual method described above. The cards look better because digitized
photo images are sharper and can be edited for color quality. Placement
of various graphical elements of the card is more consistent and text is
clearer and more readable.
Flexibility
Plastic card printers can print text, line art, and photographic images.
They can also encode magnetic stripes and provide smart card chip
programming contact stations. All in a single step process. Card design
software used to produce the cards provides users the flexibility to
change designs, store and access multiple designs, create variable text
fields, and implement data base programs to store images and track
information.
Security
Plastic card printers can also apply various types of card protection
materials to make cards resistant to tampering and alteration. These
protection materials including hologram overlays, make cards more secure
because they cannot be easily reproduced or counterfeited.
Durability
Card protection materials such as overlay varnishes, overlaminate
patches, and secure card media each provide various levels of card
durability by making the cards resistant to abrasion, UV light exposure,
water damage, and exposure to liquid chemicals.
Economy
In-house printing of plastic cards using an Eltron card printer
eliminates both the need for, and costs associated with, producing cards
using the time consuming, old-fashioned photographic cut/paste/laminate
method. A plastic card printer is also more economical than jobbing out
your card requirements to a lithographic printer or service bureau.
Outside suppliers must mark up card production costs significantly in
order to cover overhead and servicing costs, making them an economical
alternative only for large volume applications.
Convenience
Printing your own plastic cards give you the convenience of being able
to produce cards when you need them, where you need them, letting you
issue new cards on demand. Having your own card printer capability also
makes it easy to make changes to card content or design quickly.