Student ID Cards for School Photographers

Picture day produces exactly what a student ID needs: a clean photo of every student, matched to a name and an ID number. For school photographers, adding the ID card to the package is the obvious next step, and it is one we handle every season. You send the roster and the photos; we print the cards and ship them. You keep the school relationship. For schools running their own program instead, see our page on student ID cards for schools and universities.

How it works

• Send the roster. A spreadsheet, Excel or CSV, with one row per student: name, ID number, grade or homeroom, and the file name of each photo. Whatever columns the card needs.
• Send the photos. The image files named to match the roster, in one folder per school if you are sending several schools at once.
• Send the card design. The school's ID layout as finished artwork, or the template you already use for that school. We set up the data on it and do not change the design.
• Proof, print and ship. We check the layout and data with you before the batch runs, print and encode the cards, and ship them the way you have set up with your sales rep.

Next year's order for the same school only needs the new roster and photos. We keep the layout on file.

Built around the back-to-school rush

Most ID work lands in the same few weeks every fall, right after picture day, and schools want cards in students' hands as early in the year as possible. The earlier we know your picture day schedule, the easier it is to plan around it.

Tell us roughly how many schools and students to expect, and when each school's photos will be ready. We confirm turnaround for each batch on the quote, and we would rather tell you a date we can meet than one we cannot.

Retakes, new enrollments and lost cards keep coming all year. Small follow-up batches run the same way as the main one.

What the cards can carry

• Photo, name and ID number, printed full color on CR-80 PVC, the size every badge holder and lanyard fits.
• A barcode of the student ID number, for library checkout, lunch lines and attendance scanners.
• A magnetic stripe, HiCo, for schools whose lunch or library systems swipe rather than scan.
• Door access. If the school uses HID prox or iCLASS for doors, we program those cards through our access card programming service. We program HID credentials only.
• Accessories such as lanyards, badge holders and slot punching, quoted with the cards. See badge accessories.

Pricing and shipping

We know ID cards are one line in a photography package and the margin matters. Pricing, where the cards ship and how they are packed are all worked out with your Card Imaging sales rep, so the terms fit the way your studio runs its schools.

The fastest way to start is to send an estimate of schools, students per school and the card options. Your sales rep takes it from there.

If a school wants to print in house

Some schools want a printer of their own for replacements and new students after the main batch. That works well alongside a picture day order: you supply the main run, and the school prints the stragglers. We sell and service the printers, ribbons and blank cards for that, and our guide on how to make student ID cards walks a school through it.

Why photographers work with us

We have printed ID cards since 1984 and we are a card printer repair shop as well as a printing service, so a batch is not held up by a printer we cannot fix. We work from your data and your schools' designs, and we print what you send.