Badge Thermal printers, how to choose the right one?

The plastic card printers, despite being all thermographic printers and having the prerogative to print only on laminated plastic cards, actually distinguish themselves in two large families: direct and indirect. So how to chose the one that best suits your needs?

Both direct and indirect printers use the heat of the print head (hence the termographic definition) to transmit the heat from the ribbon to the card and while the passage of color takes place through sublimation in monochrome printing instead is direct. The most significant difference occurs between the direct printers, where the passage takes place directly from the colored ribbon to the card and the indirect or retransfer printers where the passage of the color takes place from the ribbon to a film which is then applied automatically on the card.

Indirect technology is the only one that allows you to really print from edge to edge of the card without leaving any small white border as is the case with direct and more importantly it allows you to print even on cards that are not perfectly planar such as those with contact chips or RFID.

Furthermore, the retransfer printers are the only ones capable of printing at a resolution of 600 DPI giving greater emphasis to the graphics of our cards.

So if the image quality is important for the company that requires it, if the graphics have a solid background and therefore the white border would ruin the final result or if the card is technological, the right solution is a retransfer printer!

Some models of retransfer printers, such as those produced by DNP, HID Fargo or Evolis, provide some high durability films that guarantee greater protection for the badges and also greater durability.

Below is a video explaining how the retransfer printers work: