ID Card Printers

What to look for in an ID card printer

Start with volume and with what has to end up on the card. A badge machine that prints forty cards a year and one that prints four hundred a month are not the same purchase, and a card that only carries a photo and a name is a much simpler job than a card that also has to open a door. Cards that open doors need an encoder inside the printer, which is an option on most of these models and has to be ordered with the machine.

Every printer listed here ships as a bundle: the printer, a starter ribbon, blank cards and card design software, so you can print the day it arrives instead of ordering three more things.

Single-sided or dual-sided

A single-sided printer prints one face of the card. A dual-sided printer flips the card and prints the back in the same run, which is what you want when policy text, a signature panel, a barcode or a return address has to go on the reverse. If the back of your current badge is blank, single-sided will do; if you are already printing labels and sticking them on, buy dual-sided and stop.

Direct-to-card or retransfer

Direct-to-card printing puts the image straight onto the card and leaves a thin unprinted margin at the edge. It is faster, it costs less to run, and it is what most badge programs use. Retransfer printing prints the image onto a clear film first and then bonds that film to the card, so the artwork runs past the edge and prints cleanly over an uneven surface, which is what a contactless smart card with a chip under the surface needs. The retransfer machines on this page are the Fargo HDP5000 and HDP5000e, the Fargo HDP6600 and the Evolis Agilia. Filter the grid above by Print Format to see them on their own.

What an ID card printer costs

The printers on this page run from $1,099.00 to $7,862.00. Single-sided desktop machines sit at the bottom of that range, dual-sided full-color models sit in the middle, and retransfer and lamination systems sit at the top. Ribbons, blank cards and cleaning kits are the ongoing cost after that, and they are all listed here so you can price a year of printing before you commit.

Printers by brand

We are an authorized dealer and service center for HID Fargo, Magicard and Evolis, which means the warranty is real and the repair bench is ours. Not sure which one fits? The printer finder asks four questions and narrows it down.