Shop & Compare Single-Sided ID Card Printers

Technically, yes, you can print one side of your cards with a single-sided ID card printer, load them back into your card hopper and send them through your printer again to print the other side. However, this is not only time consuming, it's also not recommended by any of the card printer manufacturers as this practice tends to damage the sensitive printheads in card printers.

When you handle your cards after printing them, the cards will collect dust and debris from the air and oils from your hands. Putting cards that have been handled in this way back into your single-sided card printer brings these contaminates into contact with your printer's printhead. This practice commonly causes printhead pixel damage which will not only affect the quality of your printed card output, it will also be expensive to fix. Once a printhead is damaged, the only way to fix it is to replace it with a new one. Plus, damage to a printhead from this type of non-standard use may even void printer warranty coverage.

There are many single-sided printers that offer easy upgrades to dual-sided printing as your needs change. Shop for a dual-sided printer if you need to print to both sides of your cards now.

Direct-to-card and retransfer are the two choices available in card printing technology. Direct-to-card is the most common type of card printing, with images being printed directly onto the surface of cards. In retransfer printing, images are printed to a clear film that is then heat-sealed to the surface of cards. Both types of printing create good quality images, but there are some important differences:

Direct-to-card printers are sensitive to card imperfections. The effects of this sensitivity include: (1) Card printing that doesn't cover the entire surface of the card. Since your printhead should not come in contact with the edge of cards, a thin white border will be left around the edge of your printed cards. (2) Difficulty printing on technology cards. If you're printing too close to the raised areas of a technology card, such as a contact chip, your printhead is at risk for damage. You may also get inconsistent print quality on technology cards because of the uneven card surface.

Retransfer printers are not sensitive to card imperfections. With this technology, the printhead does not come in direct contact with the card, therefore the potential for printhead damage is limited. Images can cover the entire card surface and you can safely print on proximity cards, smart cards, pre-punched cards, key tags, etc.

Choose a single-sided direct-to-card printer if you if you will be printing on one side of a basic PVC card and don't mind having an unprinted, white edge on cards.

Choose a single-sided retransfer card printer if you will be printing on one side of a technology card (smart cards, prox cards, etc.) or if you prefer "over-the-edge" prints.

Rewritable single-sided IDP card printers are a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly card printing solution when the data printed on cards needs to be updated frequently, such as visitor ID cards.

Rewrite printing doesn't require a ribbon, but does require the use of special rewritable cards. In rewrite printing, heat is used to ‘print' information onto the heat-sensitive material contained in rewritable cards. This technology allows you to erase and reprint cards hundreds of times! Rewritable cards may be printed with a permanent full-color image on one part of the card, and the rewritable portion on the other. The rewritable portion of cards is generally offered with blue or black one-color printing.

Choose a single-sided ID card printer with rewrite capability if the data on your cards will be shared by many people or the data printed on them needs to be updated frequently.

If you recall the old days of cutting and pasting an ID card together, lamination may confuse you a bit. You might wonder why you would need lamination when printing directly to plastic.

In plastic card printing, lamination is a clear protective layer that is applied over the top of your printed cards by a printer with lamination capability. It offers three primary benefits to a plastic ID card:

- Lamination extends the life of your card by protecting it from wear, such as being swiped in a magnetic stripe reader.

- Lamination protects your cards from fading and dye migration when exposed to the sun.

- Holographic lamination increases the security of your cards by making them difficult to copy.

Choose a single-sided laminating card printer if your cards will be swiped in a mag stripe reader or will be worn in harsher environments, such as in the sun. Lamination will protect your cards from fading and extend their life so you'll need to reprint cards less frequently, saving you time and supplies costs!