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Fine Dining Internet Technologies' web design and development teams constantly seek out new Internet innovations and then develops systems to integrate them into web sites designed for the restaurant industry.

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David Geyra at david@geyra.com or tel: 845-641-0325
 

Plastic Card Printing

All our cards are manufactured in the USA. Dedicated staff to ensure quality and on time scheduling. Our art department offers free card design. Program specialist can taylor a custom program for gift cards, loyalty cards or rewards cards.

The most familiar plastic cards we know are credit cards, the credit card size is a standard we call a CR80 card and it has a fixed size of 3 3/8” x 2 1/8”.  Other products in the plastic card printing industry are based on this standard size. For example if we divide the card into three sections we can create a 3 up key tag set up yielding three key tags on each card. There is in addition an option to add key tags outside the basic card and in doing so we create a card plus key tag configuration. You can view the different configurations on the Products Page.

What’s size or configuration is best for your plastic card project?

Selection will vary according to the usage. If you are running a loyalty program and you want to give a the same key tag to more than one person a 2 up or three up could be the best solution. If you want your customer to have a card in their wallet as well maybe a combination of a CR80 card and key tag or key tags would do better. If you are offering a gift card or a promotional card then a wallet card would be enough, so you just need a CR80 card alone.
Another consideration is the price, typically a key tags alone are the most economical followed by the CR80 card alone and then come the card combinations.

Plastic Card Printing - Material

Two mail elements are to be considered when deciding on the card material, material and thickness.
The most popular and durable material is called Teslin, it is a synthetic substrate that is laminated with a thick plastic laminate to create beautiful high gloss cards with vivid colors. The cards can be 30 mil in thickness (same as a standard credit card) or 24 mil. You might not see or feel the difference but when placing large orders (order in the hundred thousands and more) the narrower card will cost less to ship and will take up less space. Another material is PVC, it comes in several types and colors. Your typical credit card is a PVC card, it comes in variable thick ness’s from 12 mil up to 30 mil. PVC can have different coatings that will create a matte semi gloss or gloss look. In the past you could get cards made from styrene but this substrate is not durable and tend to warp and tear so we do not use it anymore and it is slowly disappearing from the market.

Plastic Card Printing - Options

There are various options that you can add to a plastic card, some are very popular and necessary for proper use of the cards and some are for esthetics and marketing hype only. If the cards need to be tracked like gift cards or loyalty cards there are several methods available. The most durable method the barcode it is printed under the lamination of the card and is not exposed to scratching the card could suffer when used. The simplest method is numbering, but tracking a numbered card must be done manually. This is OK for small businesses and is recommended when a cost effective system needs to be established. The most popular system is the magnetic strip as on your standard credit card. The magnetic strip is called a Mag Stripe, it requires a two part process when it is added to a card, one to affix the strip and two to encode it with unique information for each card. This makes the card cost more than bar-coded cards but if the cards are to be tracked using a POS system you will in most cases need a mag stripe because that is the requirement.
Other options on cards are a signature panel or write able side, this is accomplished by coating the card or an area on the card with a special varnish that enables writing on the card. The same varnish is applied if the intended cards are to be used in a desktop card printer, mostly used for identification purposes.
PVC cards can have embossing, there is no practical use for embossing but some people consider the embossing a quality indicator and want the embossing for shoe and marketing hype.
A scratch-off can be added to the cards when there is a need for a unique code that should not be visible at the point of purchase.

Variable Data

Variable data is a wonderful way to personalize cards, high level personalization can include text, numbers and images in almost any color and any font. The options are almost limitless and the results are impressive and very functional. Variable data jobs are done almost exclusively on Teslin cards. The complexity of these jobs require the assistance of top level designers to implement (as you will find at Plastic Card City) but the printing cost are relatively low compared to other printing options.