Custom Plastic Cards

Custom plastic cards are cards printed with your artwork in volume: membership and loyalty cards, gift cards, hotel keys, POS employee cards, event passes, and branded NFC cards. Every card in the run carries the same design, with optional numbering, a barcode, a magnetic stripe or a chip. Runs start at 500 cards. If instead each card needs a different name and photo, such as staff or student IDs, that is our ID card printing service, where you send a spreadsheet and we print each card from it.

What goes into a custom run

Every custom card starts from the same base: a CR-80 card, which is credit card size, in PVC at 30 mil. That is the size every wallet, badge holder and card reader is built around. From there, a run is built from a few choices.

• Printing. Full color on the front, and on the back if you need it. The back usually carries instructions, terms, a return address or a website.
• Numbering. Sequential numbers, so each card is unique even though the design is shared. Most loyalty, membership and gift programs need this.
• Barcode. Printed to match the numbering, so a scanner at the counter can read the card.
• Magnetic stripe. HiCo for almost everything, LoCo for hotel keys. Our magnetic stripe cards page explains the difference.
• Chip. MIFARE Classic 1K for tap cards and hotel locks, with other chips quoted on request. See NFC cards.
• Signature panel. A writable strip on the back for cards that need a signature.

Each option adds to the price, so the cheapest card is the one with only what the program actually uses. Tell us how the card will be used and we will tell you what it needs.

The cards we print most

• Membership and loyalty cards for gyms, clubs, non-profits and retailers. Usually numbered, often barcoded, sometimes with a stripe. See gym member cards and member cards for clubs and non-profits.
• Hotel key cards with the property's own artwork, on MIFARE Classic 1K or LoCo magnetic stripe. See hotel key cards.
• POS employee and manager cards for restaurant groups, POS resellers and the service companies that support national restaurant brands. HiCo, printed and encoded to the system's format.
• Gift cards. HiCo stripe or barcode, numbered. Check first that your POS accepts cards printed outside its own program; some only take cards from their own partner.
• Student ID cards printed for schools and for the school photographers who shoot them. See ID card printing for school photographers.

How ordering works

• Tell us the card. Quantity, what it has to do, and anything it must work with, such as a POS system, a lock or a scanner.
• Send the artwork. You supply finished, print-ready artwork for each side. We do not design cards, but we will tell you if a file is not going to print well before anything is made.
• Send the data. If the cards are numbered, send the number range. If they carry a magnetic stripe, send the data for each card, laid out the way your system reads it, and we encode the stripes.
• Get a quote and a lead time. Both depend on the quantity, the options and the technology, so we confirm them on the quote rather than guess here.
• Approve and produce. We confirm the layout with you before the run goes into production.

Reorders are simpler. Once a design has run, the next order only needs the quantity and the next number range.

Artwork that prints well

A card is a small canvas with rounded corners and, often, a stripe or a chip taking up part of it. A few things save a reprint:

• Keep text and logos away from the edges. Anything too close to the edge can be trimmed or lost in the rounded corners.
• Leave the stripe area on the back clear of important text. The stripe sits across the top of the back on standard cards.
• Use high-resolution artwork. A logo copied from a website will look soft on a printed card.
• If the card has a barcode, make sure the background behind it is light and plain, or scanners will struggle.

Custom run or printing your own

A custom run is the right answer when every card shares a design and you need hundreds or thousands of them. It costs less per card at volume, and the finish is consistent across the whole run.

Printing your own on a card printer is the right answer when every card is different, such as staff badges with photos, or when you need a card today and cannot wait for a run. Many programs do both: a custom run of pre-printed cards, then names or photos added in house as people join. Our guide to choosing an ID card printer covers that side, and our blank ID cards page covers the stock.

Why order from a card shop

We have supplied ID cards, printers and card technology since 1984, and we service the printers too. That matters on a custom run because most problems with a card program are not about the printing. They are about a stripe that will not read, a chip the lock does not accept, or a barcode the scanner cannot see. We ask about those before the run, not after it.