3. Digital Card Printing - The Advantages

Image Quality
The image quality of plastic cards produced with digital printing technology is far superior to those produced through the old-fashionedl manual method described above. Plastic 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.