When it comes to choosing the right ID printer, a plethora of factors needs to be considered. Plenty of buyers find it hard to narrow down the exact combination of features that best suit their needs, especially since ID printing technology has come such a long way since its inception.

Despite, the fundamental questions remain pretty much the same, such as whether a dual-sided printer like the IDP Smart51 is a better fit than a single-sided one. This single choice can affect how much your daily operations get to benefit from the product, and for years to come. Following are some things you should remember.

The Essentials

Double-sided ID card printers are able to print on each side of the card in a single go. Single-sided printers, as the name suggests, cannot do the same. This does not mean, however, that you cannot print both sides of a card; only that you would need to take it out and feed it turned over. That way, the other side gets printed on, with the same quality of print as the first.

This is inconvenient though, which is why a buyer needs to also consider the following.

• Customization
• Volume
• Speed
• Budget
• Lamination

Do Both Sides of Each Card Need to Be Customized?

When it comes to printing on both sides of a card, you are faced with deciding whether both sides need to be customized as well. Many organizations require this, and a machine that eliminates the need for extra steps can prove highly beneficial in the long run. Some companies do print the exact same information on the back of each ID card, as you would have seen at hotels and resorts. In most cases, this comprises disclaimers or usage instructions. If that is the kind of printing you are looking to get, a single-sided printer would suffice. All you need to do is run all the cards through it and get the backs printed on.

How Many Cards Need to Be Printed?

The daily number of cards you get to print would depend on how quickly the card printer is able to put a single one out. For a dozen cards each day, a single-sided printer is plenty to cover double-sided requirements. However, adding customized data to each side of the card can get frustrating really fast. This normally gets the person doing it tense, and prone to make mistakes.

How Fast Does Printing Need to Be?

In many settings, it is vital to be able to quickly print ID cards. Assuming you do not need dual-side customization done, and that the backside information cannot be simply reprinted, cutting a few minutes off the processing time for each card can make a huge difference on the whole. At venues and resorts, for example, this could mean the difference between quick and appreciated service, and angry guests. No one likes waiting in a line without good reason, and slow card printing is definitely not one of them.

In other settings, fast printing is not much of an essential, such as when getting new employees through an on-boarding process. Waiting a couple minutes extra on each card to come out dual-printed is acceptable, unless the person doing this has other duties to perform. If their other work affects a good number of employees on a daily basis, then standing in front a card printer flipping cards over may not be the best use of their time.

How Much Can you Spend?

No purchase can be gauged for value without first checking the price it comes at. Taken overall, single-sided ID card printers cost less on average than dual-sided ones. Functionality is what decides how much you should be ready to pay for any particular model. Moreover, if the designs a printer can render are highly intricate, then its price tag would be that much higher.

Do you Need Lamination on Both Sides?

Lots of people forget to check whether the ID card printer they are looking at can laminate not one but both sides of a card. It is easy to overlook the aspect of lamination printing usually being the main concern. That said, it is a very important consideration to make.

Lamination can protect a card from both exposure and physical wear. By going with a well-picked laminate, it is possible to extend the functionality of your card by up to 10 years. This considerably cuts long-term cost. A dual-sided laminating ID card printer such as the IDP Smart51 can protect the data printed on each side of the card, as well as allowing you to put out a high volume of cards on a daily basis.