Print Your Own Plastic Cards vs Custom Printing Service

We get asked this question all the time: Is it better to buy my own plastic card printer and print my own or to have a plastic card printing service custom print them for me. The answer is: It depends. Here are some guidelines to help you decide which option is better for you.

Having Your Own Plastic Card ID Printer Is Best When…

You need the ability to:

Personalize your cards on a day-to-day basis.

Print a few cards at a time.  (Less than 500 cards at a time.)

Print cards on-demand, without the need to know the names and numbers ahead of time.

If so, then having your own plastic card printer makes more sense for you.

The reason for a card printer is to allow you to make plastic cards that you can personalize on a day to day basis.

In order to place a plastic card order with a manufacturer, you must order at least 500 cards. To do so, you must provide an Excel file with all the names and numbers you want on all 500 cards. In other words, if you are not going to know what names and numbers are going to be added to the cards, you must purchase a card printer. A card printer allows you to print and personalize a few cards at a time, whenever you need to. So, if you want to print membership cards and will be adding new members each day, then you can use the card printer to print the entire card and personalize it, whenever your client needs the cards.

Another option, if you will be printing 2500 cards or more, is for Plastic Card ID to print the color portion of the card, and you can use the card printer to simply add the members name and number on an as-needed basis.

Having a Custom Printing Service Print Your Plastic ID Cards For You Makes Sense When…

You need to print in bulk and have all the information available prior to ordering the printing.

Plastic Card ID can print your cards for you. Simply provide us an Excel file with a complete list of names, numbers, bar codes, or information on what you want encoded on a magnetic stripe, along with the artwork you want us to print on each card. You can use artwork in a .pdf, .eps, or ai file format. In some cases you may not need to personalize your cards at all. In this case just submit your artwork and we can print your cards. Our minimum card order is 500 cards.

For art work guidelines, contact sales@plasticcardid.com

Ready to get started? Place your order for plastic cards online or call Russ now at 949-951-3023 PT for a custom quote or free samples.