Plastic cards have now become part of almost every person's life, from driver's licenses to credit cards, from employee identification badges to access control cards, from gift and affinity cards for retail purchases to club memberships.  Their standard credit-card size, convenience, durability, cost effectiveness and customizability have made their use commonplace and the preferred choice for a large number of these applications.

At Nissetowa (2007) Inc, we offer a complete line of photo ID cards, badges, proximity and smart chip cards.

Historically, photo identification cards were made using instant film through a multi-step process of adding type-written information to a paper card, cutting out the photo, and then laminating inside a pouch to form a composite card.  Although direct-to-card PVC printer systems are now becoming the most common method for making credit card-sized (CR-80) identification badges, composite technology still offer an versatile, inexpensive option for oversized badges, keytags, and for smaller organizations who wish to produce badges in-house with existing hardware (webcam, inkjet printers, etc).  This option is still commonly used for producing very inexpensive credential cards from pre-printed, perforated forms and then tearing off a card-sized portion to be pouch laminated for durability.  The disadvantage of this method is that these cards are not very difficult to counterfeit or change, and their production is often labour intensive and time consuming.  With the popularity of digital cameras, instant film (ie: Polaroid) has become increasingly difficult to acquire.

Printing directly onto plastic (PVC) cards with digital card printers offer the ability to create personalized or custom-designed cards on demand which can be tailored to specific applications at the point of issuance.  The resulting high quality and professional-looking cards or badges are durable, smooth-surfaced, and can be printed with full-bleed from edge-to-edge.   Of additional benefit is that these cards can provide numerous technological and security features because they are not easily duplicated and can incorporate advanced features such as security hologram overlaminates, or machine-readable information such as bar codes, magnetic stripes, smart chips and prox card technology.  The end user can order blank plastic cards or cards that are pre-printed with a design that remains constant for all cards (ie: logo, organizational contact information) and add additional information which may contain any combination of artwork, graphics, text, digital photographs, bar codes, logos, etc.  The design and information which you can print on a card is virtually limited only by your imagination, and they can be printed on either one or both sides, in monochrome or full colour depending on the options and capability of your card printer.

Printing directly onto plastic cards has largely replaced the previous methods of card production because of the above listed features, and also because it allows for very tight integration between card issuance and the electronic environment that manages and tracks other key functions of a business or agency.  PVC card printers and computer database systems can be directly integrated with image capture systems (digital cameras, etc.) at point of delivery.  The printing process is very efficient (as fast as a few seconds per card) so that cards can be generated and personalized while the customer, employee, member or cardholder waits, quickly connecting them to your organization or program.