A Guide to Event and Oversize Badge Printing

Event and oversize badge printing can be an overwhelming process if you don’t know how to go about it. Companies needing this service may hire a designer to design the cards. However, using do-it-yourself online solutions is cheaper and more convenient. You simply use a drag-and-drop feature to design your card before printing.

There are also heavy costs associated with the actual printing of the cards. You need to choose the right kind of printer for printing the event and ID cards. Printers vary in terms of their technical capabilities. For example, some large format printers are designed to print on one side of a card at a time.

This guide will help you understand the processes of designing and printing event ID cards. The guide contains technical information about a few most common large-format printers available. We also advise on reducing your company’s card printing costs.

Why are Event Badges Necessary?

Badges are nowadays a necessity in any corporate event. Participants in exhibitions, corporate parties, and other events often wear badges as the norm. The ID cards contain the most important and relevant details of the wearer.

For example, the official name, employer, and position are displayed on the badges. The badges may also contain additional details like the name and logo of the company organizing the event. Here are some of the benefits of using badges in corporate events.

Facilitating networking

Event badges contain all the essential information strangers need to start a conversation. It is easy to talk to a fellow attendee when you already know their names, positions, and employers. Therefore, IDs act as the perfect icebreaker during corporate events and facilitate networking among the attendees.

Performance metrics

Organizers of events in the past depended on the attendees filling out survey forms to determine the success of the meetings. However, things have changed rapidly, with the emergence of advanced technologies for tracking participation in such events. You can now include a barcode on your event badges. The codes help the organizers to track the attendance rates for every session. They can use the data to determine the overall success of the corporate event and improve on the future ones.

Ease of identification

It is important to distinguish categories of attendees of large corporate events. ID card printing offers the perfect solution to this problem. Event organizers can use different color codes to distinguish attendees with different pass types. Some of them may be the staff facilitating people who attend the event. Using color codes for badges helps people attending the sessions to find help from staff if they need it.

Common Printers

ID badge printers vary in technical capabilities, acquisition costs and level of sophistication. The most advanced printers have great capabilities in terms of the quality of the printing, Moreover, some of these printers are excellent because they are easy to operate and maintain. You can complete a bulk printing process in a single step on them. Such a feature helps to save time and minimize the wastage of materials during bulk printing.

Zebra ZC10L Single-Sided ID card Printer

The Zebra ZC10L large-format printer is perfect for handling large-scale printing projects. This is a direct-to-card printer with the unique capability of printing full edge-to-edge color cards in a single printing process. This unique feature of the Zebra ZC10L printer helps to minimize waste and delays associated with ordering partially printed card designs.

Moreover, this printer produces large cards measuring 5.5” by 3.46”. Such cards are large enough for people to read their contents from a distance. The large cards this printer produces make it easy for attendees of corporate events to identify one another and the staff. People can get the help they need by identifying badgers worn by staff from a distance.

Key features of Zebra ZC10L

• It is ideal for printing large and lightweight cards measuring up to 5.5’’ x 3.46” and 24 mil thick.
• It has excellent maximum printing speeds: 200 copies per hour on full-color mode and between 350 and 425 copies per hour when operating on the monochrome single-sided printing mode.
• Easy to operate because of the multi-status LED operator display feature
• It provides fast printing solutions because of the 400-card capacity feeder and 100-card capacity output hopper.

SwiftColor Oversized Credential Printer

The SCC4000D Oversized Credential Printer has numerous features making it one of the best on-demand printing solutions. This printer has an amazing printing speed; it can complete one full-color 5.5” by 3.5”-sized card in only two seconds. Thus, you can rely on it for printing large numbers of oversized badges for any event, including seminars, tradeshows, industry summits, and corporate events.

SwiftColor Oversized Credential Printer is also ideal for producing high-quality badges, IDs and other materials on-demand. The printer uses inkjet single-pass printing technology to produce high-quality printouts with a resolution of up to 1200x1200 dpi.

The huge deck capacity also makes this printer a good solution for large-scale on-demand printing projects like creating cards for educational or entertainment events. The deck capacity varies with the specific material used for printing. For example, you can fill the feeder with up to 500 sheets of postcards or business cards. However, the deck accommodates only 100 sheets of envelope at a time.

Key features of the SCC4000D

• It has four color codes: BK/C/M/Y with each cartridge holding 100ml of color.
• The printer prints perfectly on the following types of media: postcard, envelope, and exclusive business card. It works well on PVC cards or SwitfColor paper.

2XL+ Accreditation Printer for Large-Sized Plastic Badges

Oversize XXL plastic cards are much better than conventional ones for creating badges for people attending events. Conventional cards, ISO 1D-1, are not large enough to display the names and photos of people attending events. People will strain to read the names and other details of fellow attendees wearing ISO ID-1 badges.

An XXL oversized plastic badge solves this problem. Such cards allow event organizers to print one large photo and include the main details of the participants. Attendees can quickly read information about their counterparts on such large cards.

The XXL sizes of event cards vary greatly. You can specify the dimensions of the plastic cards you would wish people attending your event to wear. For example, many organizers order XXL cards for their visitors measuring 86 x 124mm. ID 3 is the largest in the XXL card variety. The card measures 125 x 88 mm. The cards can come with two punched holes to ensure they don’t get twisted on the lanyard.

Key takeaways

• All XXL card sizes available, up to 210 x 297mm or A4 size available.
• Additional security printing features like UV prints available

XCR100 High-Security Printer for Large-Sized Plastic Badges

An effective on-demand high-security printer has outstanding speed, security, and quality features. The XCR100 High Security printer is ideal for managing mid-sized to large-scale on-demand plastic badge printing projects. This printer has a superb speed of up to 180 cards per hour when operating in the full-color mode. The speed increases dramatically to more than 1,400 cards per hour when printing in the black-and-white mode. You can also out up to 100 cards in the feeder and or hopper at a time.

The XCR100 High Security printer for large sized plastic badges also has features for personalizing the cards. For example, the duplex module lets a user complete two-sided printing processes in a single operation.

It is also possible to personalize the cards using preprinted frames. This approach is necessary for creating large, high-quality cards that can be used in different settings, including hospitals, events, meetings, seminars, etc.

Key takeaways

• The printer uses two encoding options: contactless RFID Mifare encoder and contactless RFID UHF encoder for enhanced security printing operations.
• It produces high-quality printouts with a printing resolution of 300dpi. It also has two ribbons: the full color one produces printouts in the following color combinations, YMCKO. The monochrome produces up to 1,400 cards per hour.
• This printer is ideal for producing large ID cards measuring up to 98 x 67mm.

How to Choose the Best Printer for Oversize Badges

It may be difficult to settle on the right printer for oversize event badges because of the high number of products available on the market. You must understand your needs and try to find a device that matches them perfectly. Here are a few important factors to consider when selecting a security printer for IDs.

Security features

Oversize badge printers come with preinstalled security features. Most security features use the RFID/Mifare encoder as the primary security feature. Some printers use two forms of encoders.

Quality of printouts

High-quality cards are visible and legible from a distance. A person can see the image and details printed on the card from a distance. This is an important consideration because cards play the main task of helping people identify one another quickly at events.

The best printers have high printing resolutions of even more than 3000 dpi. Furthermore, the best printer can operate in two modes: full color and monochrome. You can decide whether to print the cards in full-color mode or monochrome mode.

Warranty

It is important to check the details of warranty plans for these printers. For example, some manufacturers give general warranty plans to their customers. Such plans include toll-free technical support for the printers and free supply of some components of the printer.

Designing Event Badges: Important Things to Consider

Designing event badges is a seemingly simple process. However, you can miss the most important things about the process and end up with badges that do not serve the intended purpose. Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing event badges before printing them.

• Include all the essential details of participants on the cards. These details may include their names, official positions, and their employers. Attendees need these details to interact with one another quickly during events.
• You can improvise the material used to print the cards. It is possible to go for biodegradable or fully recycled paper when selecting the material for printing your event cards. Such a move can help you stand out from the crowd.
• Customize badges to the requirements and details of employees. You can use the back side of the badge to include details that match the pass type of the individuals.

Conclusion

Onsite card printing can be an effective way of producing customized cards for attendees of your events. The operation's success depends on the kind of printer you select for the job. Go for printers with high-performance features like speed, the volume of feeder and hopper, and color printing options.