Table of Contents
- 1. Fargo DTC1250e ID Card Printer
- 2. Badgy100 Color Plastic ID Card Printer
- 3. Magicard Enduro 3e Dual Sided ID Card Printer
- 4. Zebra ZC100 LT ID Card Printer
- 5. ID Zone Badge Express IDZ-31S ID Card Printer
- 6. Complete AlphaCard ID Card Printer
- ID Card Printer Buying Guide
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
The use of identity cards is usual in almost all organizations and also uses widely to mark attendance. The availability of ID card printers makes it easy for organizations to fulfill their requirements within the entity.
However, it is somehow tricky to find the right printer that meets your requirements. Many brands are available in the market with different price tags and various features. Every brand tries to ensure the customers that they are the best one among the others.
Therefore, in this article, we select the top six ID card printers for our readers based on the reviews of current and past customers. We discuss different features and functions and help you to find the right one. Let’s take a look at them.
1. Fargo DTC1250e ID Card Printer
Bodno is a popular manufacturer of various types of professional printers and printing devices. All these products are used in the printing of various types of ID cards in the professional field. The Fargo DTC1250e is specifically designed to print a single-sided ID card and comes with all the accessories that are required to start the printing. But you can flip the card over for printing on the other side.
It is supported with Bodno ID software that let the users make in house photo, ID cards, and membership cards. You can either use your own photo or use an ID card camera for taking photos easily that comes within the packing. Also, you can use your own designs and graphics to print the ID card.
Furthermore, the bodno software comes with a wide range of templates to help the users in designing the card. It is an excellent option to print ID cards for small businesses, local governments, and schools.
Key Features:
- Compact Design: It comes in the dimensions of 16.3 x 14 x 11.5 inches that make it perfect to use in different office formats.
- Huge Printing Capacity: This printer is capable of printing up to 10,000 cards that make it an ideal choice for schools, universities, and small businesses.
- Easy To Install Ribbons: It comes with cassette-style ribbons that let the users to easily load into the printer. Also, the printer automatically detects the new ribbon as it loads in the printer.
- Fast printing speed, i.e., 16 seconds per card
- 250 PVC cards included in the packing
- Easy to use
- Tricky to use software
2. Badgy100 Color Plastic ID Card Printer
Badgy100 Color Plastic ID Card Printer is another printer from the product line of Bodno. This ID card printer is equally beneficial to use for beginners to advanced level users. It is easy to use this printer with plug and play features. Users just need to put it out of the box and connect with the computer, laptop, or any other portable device through the USB port to start the printing process.
It comes with MAC certified plug & plays drivers as well as built-in drivers for all windows versions. This simple to use printer is capable of printing the full-color photo ID with a printing speed of 45 seconds per card. However, it is relatively slow as compared to the Fargo DTC1250e ID Card Printer that is also manufactured by Bodno.
Key Features:
- Notification System: The notification system sends an alert as the printer needs the new ribbon and helps to complete the printing without any interruption.
- Barcodes Printing: The bodno software that comes in the packing lets the users print the ID card with a 1D barcode on it that is used in most of the organizations to scan the employee ID.
- Image Editing: It is easy for the users to edit the image during printing with the help of bodno software and improve the look of the ID card.
- Small size
- Durable printing
- Easy to use
- Little expensive as compared to features
3. Magicard Enduro 3e Dual Sided ID Card Printer
Bodno introduces the Magicard Enduro 3e model to print the ID card from both sides without flipping the card side. This printer comes with all the important features and functions that are required to print the professional level ID cards.
The packing comes with all the necessary accessories that are required to complete the printing process. It includes a printer, ribbon, blank PVC cards, photo ID camera, and software disc. Also, the manual helps the users to easily set up the printer and start printing.
Users can either print black & white or color cards. The printing speed of the color card is 35 seconds per second, while the black card printing speed is 7 seconds.
Key Features:
- Dual-Side Printing: It prints the ID card from both sides within the printer without losing the printing quality on both sides.
- Easy To Use: It comes with a user-friendly interface along with a small screen on the top of the printer that helps the users to connect the printer with the computer and monitor the printing process.
- Bodno Bronze Software: Users can enjoy the bunch of premade templates or can create their own template and can use drag & drop feature to insert the photos in the design along with text and other designing elements.
- 300 PVC cards included in the packing
- 100 card input hopper
- Compatible with MAC and various other operating systems
- Sometimes print includes black dots
4. Zebra ZC100 LT ID Card Printer
Zebra is famous for the manufacturing of small printing devices to standard size printers. Most of the products from this manufacturer are widely used in industries. Zebra introduces its ZC100 LT printer that is designed to print the various types of ID cards, including a membership card, security card, university card, etc.
It is easy to place this small size printer on the computer table or any other narrow space. It comes with dimensions of 22 x 12 x 8 inches and weighs only 14 pounds.
The packing includes all the related accessories that are required to make its operation. It includes power cable, USB cable, driver disc, and user manual.
Key Features:
- YMCKO Color Ribbon: The packing also includes a color ribbon that is enough to print up to 200 cards. Also, 200 blank PVC cards are included in the packing.
- Cloudbadging Software: It comes with a 30 days free subscription of cloudbadging software that is one of the most popular software used to create, design, and print ID cards.
- Advanced Security System: It is equipped with a printer to a host-authentication system that denies unauthorized printing and helps to protect sensitive data.
- Plug-and-play deployment
- Instant card feeder adjustment
- Fits everywhere design
- Low capacity ribbon
5. ID Zone Badge Express IDZ-31S ID Card Printer
ID Zone is famous for providing industry-leading products to its customers from around the world. IDZ-31S is designed to print the single-sided ID card and perfect for users at a beginner’s level and want to print the cards at the lowest cost.
This printer provides exceptional printing results because it automatically adjusts the settings for colors, and edge to edge printing and print high-quality ID cards. It is suitable to use in small to medium size organizations, and it fulfills the industry demands very well with the help of vital technology.
Additionally, this printer offers some very useful features like CloudBadging subscription for 30 days. This cloud-based software is useful for creating, designing, and printing attractive ID cards.
Key Features:
- Fast Printing Speed: It offers fast printing speed and capacity to print 2.6 color cards in a minute that is great to deal with the requirements of a medium-sized organization. However, the printing speed of monochrome cards is 12 cards per minute.
- 100-Print YMCKO Color Ribbon: It comes with a single-sided color ribbon in the packing that is enough to print up to 100 cards.
- Free PVC Cards: For testing the printing process, 100 PVC cards are included in the packing that you can use for printing various types of cards.
- Easy to use
- 80 card input
- 300 dpi (dots per inch) resolution
- Printing capacity of ribbon is low
6. Complete AlphaCard ID Card Printer
AlphaCard is a manufacturer of different types of printing devices and related accessories. They introduce its single-sided ID card printer to print the ID cards on a small scale. It has good printing speed and can print a full-color card in 35 seconds while a single color card takes only 7 seconds.
This printer is engineered as an on-demand printer; that’s why users have to feed the card one by one, just like the printing command. It comes with all the necessary accessories that users required to start the printing process.
Key Features:
- Printing Technology: It uses dye sublimation printing technology and can spread the AlphaGuard hologram-like watermarks to enhance card security.
- Rewritable Card Technology: The unique part of this printer is that users can print rewriteable cards with this printer. The rewriteable cards are manufactured at a sensitive temperature, and you can rewrite the card up to 500 times. (rewriteable cards are available for black printing only, and you have to buy them separately)
- AlphaCard ID Suite v11 Basic software: This software is designed to tackle low volume printing and helps the users for easy printing as well as capable of encoding magnetic stripes.
- Premium card printing supplies
- Durable construction
- Suitable for beginners
- No hoppers
ID Card Printer Buying Guide
It is the priority of every organization to meet the printing requirements of ID cards within the organization. Therefore, many brands introduce ID card printers in the market with different features and functions.
But it is not so simple to select the printer; you have to consider various things to ensure that it meets your requirements. In this section, you can know about some important functions that a good printer must-have.
Printing Speed & Volume
These are the most important thing that you have to consider. First of all, you have to figure out the number of cards you have to print in a day. Usually, ID card printers can take 30 to 40 seconds to print a color card. If you have to print the cards in bulk, then you can consider buying a printer with a fast speed to meet the printing volume requirements.
Single-Sided Or Dual-Sided Printing
Many printers are available in the market that offers dual-sided printing, while some offer to print the card on a single side only. The selection of this feature depends on the design of the ID card.
Usually, dual-sided printers offer color printing on the front side while the backside is printed with black only. You can also use a single-sided printer for printing the card on both sides. For example, you can print the single side and flip the card over to print on the other side. But it can reduce the printing speed as well as also increase the printing cost.
Barcodes
Many organizations use unique bar codes on cards of every employee that is used to mark the attendance by scanning it with a scanner. For this purpose, no additional feature is required in the printer; instead make sure that the software comes with the printer is capable of inserting the bar code in the card.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question # 1,
Is it possible to rewrite the ID card?
Answer:
Yes, you can rewrite the ID card, but you have to use special PVC cards for this purpose that are designed on a sensitive temperature. You can rewrite on that cards up to 500 times but for black printing only.
Question # 2,
How to find that ribbon needs replacement?
Answer:
Usually, printers are loaded with an automatic notification system that informs the users when the printer requires ribbon replacement.
Conclusion
It is important to select the right printer that meets your needs and requirements. Therefore, you have to figure out the requirements before selecting the printer.
Hopefully, the above discussions help you to find the right printer that gives the real return of your hard-earned money.
er your needs and requirements.
Last update on 2022-08-19 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API