Software to manage ID card photos

[mikkydoos]

Hi all,

 

Hope I can get some advice on this one....  

 

School currently has a hugely shonky and time-wasting method of taking photos and printing to ID cards.

E.g. Manually renaming .jpg file to an admission number, manually cropping pics etc etc etc

 

I'm advising they change their methods... silly me 🤬

 

 

I think I'm looking for some camera tethering software that will:

 

1. Allow importing a spreadsheet of names and admission numbers from our MIS.

2. Rename the files from the camera to the admission number/UPN of the student.

3. Allow exporting the updated spreadsheet to import into CardPresso (Primacy Card printer software) - Or bypass Cardpresso altogether and print direct from said software to the card printer.

4. Batch print a year group / form group at a time.

 

 

Looking at Canon EOS utility (free) but I don't think that will do the job.

Also they haven't even got an SLR camera to take the pics (using some cr@ppy handheld digital)..  so one of those is needed.

 

Basically admin are wasting days/weeks doing this so a slicker solution is needed.

 

 

Any advice hugely appreciated  👍👍👍

 

 

 

Cheers in advance     

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2025 by mikkydoos

[Chris_Cook]

I have a google sheet + Apps script I can share with you. It might take a bit of fiddling to get it up and running.

 

It takes a photo with a web-cam (or something that appears as such in windows), and then uploads it to a folder on google drive using the name specified in the sheet. You can also specify sub-folder names on the sheet as well for tutor or year groups if you have lots to do. See the screenshot below - its just a photo of a post-it note. The sheet is pre-populated with names from the MIS.

 

We use this sometimes to get the photos and upload to arbor. Salamander then syncs this to net2 and we use that to print the cards.

 

Or my preferred option is to get school photographers in and let them do the donkey work of naming the files. Again, this can be put into Arbor and Synced to Net2.

 

Previous failed options included students holding up a small whiteboard with their name on it - somehow the students managed to mess up the bit about their name and ended up with someone elses!

 

If you can get whoever takes the photos to do it consistently then Irfanview can bulk crop. Or ask them to do a passport style photo that doesn't need cropping.

 

I'd be careful fixing systems like this, or you might become responsible for doing the task as well.

 

The built in camera and photos apps in windows can be quite effective for taking, naming and cropping photos. Not quick, but unless you have a pre-populated list of names probably not much slower either. 

 

I generally find a good webcam is ok for ID card/MIS photos. They are normally quite small images. I would recommend a good light and backdrop though.

 

[mikkydoos]

Thanks @Chris_Cook

 

I've been away otherwise I would have replied sooner.... not ignoring you

 

 

Any chance of having a look at the script ?

 

 

 

"I'd be careful fixing systems like this, or you might become responsible for doing the task as well."... Too flippin' right !  🤨🤨🤨