ID Card Printers - What Do You Use?

[ICT-Joe]

Hi Everyone!

 

I was just wondering how other schools print ID cards? Previously, we have been printing a label and attaching it to a swipe card but our HR department would now like to print directly onto the card. We have been using an Evolis Primacy printer but we have found the quality and general use a bit hit and miss - we can print several cards at once and the quality will vary. Ideally, we could create something in Word or a similar program and print duplex.

 

With thanks

ICT-Joe

[rossibIT]

Morning,

 

We use Trust ID using a Magicard 300 printer. You can create numerous templates (Staff, Students) then just fire them off as and when needed.

 

For the start of the year for new year 7's we do send these off to get printed via Civica.

 

Regards

Ross

[localzuk]

We've got 3 Evolis Primacy printers and find them excellent. Print quality is nearly always great. The only issues we've ever found were where the cards weren't particularly great quality and there was some inconsistency on the printed surface. We have the lamination module on one of them as well (2 are in schools, for use printing pupil dinner cards, 1 printer is central and used only for staff cards - this is the one with the lamination module, as we found our nursery/EYFS staff cards were getting dissolved due to the high amounts of cleaning products they use all the time, the lamination stopped this).

 

How old is your printer and have you been running cleaning cycles as needed?

Edited November 29, 2023 by localzuk

[6Foot2]

We were using a Zebra card printer (model forgotten) to print cards one-sided and encode the embedded chip. However, this was installed some time ago (> 10 years?) and when I left it was cantankerous and misbehaving.

[howartp]

We also have two Evolis Primacy printers with mifare readers in them.

 

Biggest problem we have with the Evolis is having both on one server as the mifare driver can't differentiate between devices - randomly during use we'll have to swap reader in the config otherwise it loads a card in printer 1, tries to read the card on printer 2, then spits it out on printer 1 saying it can't read the card. (They're also connected to a virtual server (vSphere) using a USB IP print server so that may be adding an issue into the mix)

 

I don't know if that's any better on a physical server or any other brand of printer (with mifare readers in) but the physical printers themselves are fine.

[ICT-Joe]

Thank you for your reply @localzuk! The printer was purchased a couple of years ago by a previous technician who has since left. We did have it working for a while and I've tried a new ribbon and a few cleans but our HR department still don't like the quality. Edited November 29, 2023 by ICT-Joe
Replied in Wrong Area - D'oh!

[jthompson]

We use a Javelin DNA Pro. Does duplex: colour on the front, but black only on the back, which is fine for what we need.

 

Software is good enough for what we need. We're not printing off large batches from merged data or anything, just staff IDs as and when.

 

https://www.nbstech.com/javelin-dna

[Simcfc73]

EasyBadge

 

Had a sunlight K3 for 10 years which gave up the ghost so went with this as it used my old database. its very good.

[localzuk]

I think there's a limit to the quality you can get with thermal printers like ID Card printers. We used to have a Magicard machine about 10 years ago and the quality was terrible. The Primacy is a big step up from that. One thing that's important is selecting your design carefully. We use gradients of colour for backgrounds on our cards rather than solid colour - it hides any oddities really well. If you have a large block of the same colour, any inconsistencies are really obvious.

 

The other part to take into consideration is the card software you use. If you're using a system that generates a flat image to print, you can end up with really poor quality text. If the design is a vector, layered, output then the text will be much better (we used to print our cards with Illustrator, and the difference between that and a flat image was pretty significant).

 

What software do you use to generate your cards?

[Aprice]

Always been very happy with the IDP smart machines, have experience with a few units (50 & newer 51) both models have always worked well.

 

Did have a bunch of issues with the Primacy in the past, could have just been a dodgy unit though.

 

Currently have a Magicard Pronto 100 sat next to me, which is always a nightmare if someone unplugs it to get it back up and running. Usually involves re-installing drivers and about 10 reboots.

[ICT-Joe]

Nothing fancy for the software - it's just Word with a custom paper size for printing. And I will suggest to HR to see if they can change their design - it is long blocks of solid colour. I'll see if Illustrator works better as well!

[PotNoodleTech]

Evolis Primacy here but it's not overly reliable and the software's a bit of a pain to use.

 

Wouldnt buy another Evolis Primacy let's put it that way!

 

No idea if any of the other makes are any better! Hope so!

[localzuk]

Nothing fancy for the software - it's just Word with a custom paper size for printing. And I will suggest to HR to see if they can change their design - it is long blocks of solid colour. I'll see if Illustrator works better as well!

You're always going to get poor output from Word, try mocking something up in Illustrator and my guess is you'll see a huge improvement in quality.

[ICT-Joe]

Thank you all for your suggestions - it is greatly appreciated! Looks like I have some further reading to look into now!

[drutt]

We have been using Evolis Primacy since about 2014, the printer had to be replaced in 2019 after 5 long years of consistent use due to a fault with one of the internal rollers constantly jamming.

 

Luckily it's part of the FM maintenance contract so they ponied up the money for it.

 

I have the printer connected directly to my workstation as I print the cards for students and staff, all the design work is done in the cashless software iDStore and honestly have no real complaints, far better than the EasyTrace system we had before 2014.

[Mixed]

Using IDP Smart 31 - Good quality and no issues as of yet, paired with eMedia CS to generate the images for printing.

 

Would recommend if not trying to blow the budget on one.

[Jobos]

EasyBadge

 

Had a sunlight K3 for 10 years which gave up the ghost so went with this as it used my old database. its very good.

 

We use Easybadge too and it's great but be careful if buying the lite version as it has a 100 record limit. We found out it is an accumulative limit because as when we got near the 100 record mark we had a cull on old records but Easybadge refused to add anymore even though the database only contained 85 records.

 

We contacted Easybadge and was told this was by design. The Easybadge pro version costs £395 which would be fine for a large school as the software is great but not such good value for a primary. We ended up remaking the cards and saving multiple copies of the database.

[3s-gtech]

IDP smart 30, with the free ImageBase it cane with. Despite its limitations I find the software okay.

 

The printer has been a trooper. They’ve now made the ribbons EoL so I bought two, when they’re gone it’ll be sadly retired but it has some wear inside now.

[Simcfc73]

We use Easybadge too and it's great but be careful if buying the lite version as it has a 100 record limit. We found out it is an accumulative limit because as when we got near the 100 record mark we had a cull on old records but Easybadge refused to add anymore even though the database only contained 85 records.

 

We contacted Easybadge and was told this was by design. The Easybadge pro version costs £395 which would be fine for a large school as the software is great but not such good value for a primary. We ended up remaking the cards and saving multiple copies of the database.

 

Yeah I found that too but I liked the software and found the money to pay it.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yeah I found that too but I liked the software and found the money to pay it.

 

Hmm any idea if you can use the Easybadge software with other third party card printers? That software does look good.

[howartp]

Hmm any idea if you can use the Easybadge software with other third party card printers? That software does look good.

 

https://support.easybadge.com/en/support/solutions/47000425075

 

It would appear so.

[PotNoodleTech]

https://support.easybadge.com/en/support/solutions/47000425075

 

It would appear so.

 

Nice! Thanks!!