Each printer has a unique cleaning procedure and supplies. It’s best to contact an E-CARD Client Care or your
Solutions Specialist for a set of complete instructions and manuals or to set up a service visit.
Your E-CARD account representative can make sure you get the correct drivers for your system. It is important that the driver version and the printer firmware match, and we make sure they match. When you call, please have your printer serial number ready. This is necessary for accurate driver/firmware matching.
Image defects are often caused by dirty cards or poorly manufactured card stock. Check your cards for obvious imperfections and visible debris. Lines, blotches and wrinkles are also caused by an overheating print head. If your design is very dark or has large areas of solid colours, you may experience these issues.
There are several options including turning down your print head intensity, or changing the artwork on your card design.
First of all, make sure your card printer can actually print “edge to edge”. Many older card printer models do not print to the edge of a plastic card and must leave a 1/8″ white area all the way around the card.
Even most “Direct to Card” printers whose manufacturers claim will print edge to edge, still will leave a tiny pixel-width white line around the edge because the printing technology does not allow the print head to go all the way over the edge.
If you need to print full-bleed quality prints, then only a Re-Transfer card printer will work for you. In the card printer industry this is referred to as “over-the-edge” printing. E-CARD can help you select the right type of printer for your project.
The most common cause of card jams is dirt. The rollers inside the printer can get coated with so much dust and debris that they can no longer grip the card securely. As a result, the card will slip and jam, resulting in a printer error. Make sure you have a cleaning kit and supplies always available. A clean printer will eliminate most jamming issues.
Most printers have the ability to manually eject the card from the print path. When you open the printer, look for a coloured handle or coloured roller that you can turn. After you remove the card, ensure the ribbon is not broken, and then close the printer lid. The printer will re-initialize to a ready mode, and then print the card again.
Card Printer speeds are limited by the dye-sublimation technology used to print the image to the plastic card. There is heat, speed and pressure involved in this process. The fasted card printers can only print about 180 cards per hour. If your printer is substantially slower, you may want to talk to your E-CARD account rep about upgrading to something more durable and quicker.
The most common problem affecting artwork is the resolution of the image you are sending to the printer. The print head can print a resolution of 300 pixels per inch (ppi). If you are using web graphics, the resolution (72 ppi) is not adequate to
support quality imaging onto a plastic card.
Maybe not… Card printers are noisy! With all those moving parts, something is bound to squeak and groan. Once you’ve used a Card Printer for a while, you will become accustomed to what are “normal” noises, and which sounds need further investigation. If in doubt, call E-CARD Customer Care, and hold up the phone to the printer so we can hear it.
In all seriousness, please check that your printer power cord is correctly connected to a live power source, and that the lights on the printer are on. Once that is done, check the connection to the PC and try to print a test card out of the driver. If everything seems to be connected properly, and still no image comes out, contact our Customer Care line for more assistance, either by phone of via our web chat.
First off, check your barcode reader. Can it read other codes fine? If so, then let’s check the barcode printing settings in your ID software and printer driver. For ideal results, always print the barcode using the K panel portion of the ribbon. A barcode created by combining yellow, read and blue may not read correctly in many barcode readers.
For best results, purchase a Card Printer with an on-board Ethernet interface. Speak with your E-CARD account representative about upgrading your current hardware.
An alternative is to install the printer on a specific PC, and share the driver. Other computers on the network can use this shared printer. However, as soon as you shut off the PC the other network users cannot see the printer, so this may not be the ideal solution to printer sharing.
It might! Check with your account rep on whether your printer has a new driver available.
A couple of things to remember:
- Always use a standard and consistent background to avoid confusion between the subject and the surroundings. Remember, you want the photo to stand out, and also look consistent with the rest of the branding and colours on the card. We have various coloured backdrops available.
- With a digital camera, stand about 6 feet away from the subject, and use flash if possible.
- If you use a webcam, the resolution is quite poor and there is usually bad lighting. Try to use a digital camera instead.
- Don’t crop the image before you send it to us for printing, or before you import into your photo ID software program. If you crop the image too small, it will be unusable.
