Best ID Card Printer: Which One to Buy

The best ID card printer for most UK organisations is a mid-range direct-to-card model with an input hopper, such as the FARGO DTC1250e or the Magicard 300. Which one is right for you comes down to how many cards you print, whether they carry a chip and how hard they need to be to forge.

Here is how we would choose, job by job, using printers we sell and support.

Best budget ID card printer: IDP Smart 21S or Magicard Pronto

For a club, school office or small business printing a handful of cards a week, a hand-fed single-sided printer does the job. The IDP Smart 21S prints a full-colour card in 24 seconds and a black one in 6. The Magicard Pronto takes 35 seconds for colour and can add Magicard's HoloKote watermark to every card, a quick visual check that a badge is genuine. Both include EasyBadge Lite design software, limited to 100 records on Windows. The Smart 21S cannot encode, so it is a poor fit for access cards with a chip. More low-cost options are on our cheap ID card printers page.

Best all-round ID card printer: FARGO DTC1250e or Magicard 300

Once you are issuing cards every week, an input hopper saves real time. The FARGO DTC1250e prints a colour card in 16 seconds from a 100-card hopper. It ships single-sided, with dual-sided printing and encoding available as field upgrades when you need them. The Magicard 300 is built in the UK, holds 100 cards and includes a free upgrade to dual-sided printing. We include a four-year warranty when you buy it from us. It suits schools, colleges and offices printing up to 10,000 cards a year.

Best for access control cards: IDP Smart 31 or Zebra ZC350

If your cards also open doors, the printer has to handle a chip or magnetic stripe. The IDP Smart 31 is the step up from the Smart 21S for exactly this. It also has PC authentication, which locks the printer to one computer so a stolen printer is no use to anyone. The Zebra ZC350 offers magnetic stripe and MIFARE encoding options and prints up to 225 colour cards an hour. Tell us which readers your doors use and we will confirm the right encoder before you order.

Best dual-sided ID card printer: IDP Smart 51D

When the back of the card needs terms of use, a barcode or emergency contacts, a printer with a built-in flipper prints both sides in one pass. The IDP Smart 51D does this at up to 164 dual-sided colour cards an hour, with a 100-card hopper that opens to 200. The Evolis Primacy 2 is the alternative worth a look. It includes rewrite technology as standard, handy for visitor badges you want to erase and reuse.

Best retransfer ID card printer for high security and chip cards

A retransfer printer prints onto a clear film and then bonds that film to the card. The image runs right over the edge of the card, wears well and copes with the slightly uneven surface of a contactless card. Two good starting points are the IDP Smart-81 and the FARGO HDP5000e. For the sharpest finish the FARGO HDP6600 prints at 600 dpi. The Magicard Prima 8 adds UV printing, so a hidden image appears only under a UV lamp.

Only need cards for one event?

Hire one. Our ID card printer hire service supplies a Magicard 300 for a minimum of one week, with ribbons and CardPresso software available as a package.

Still deciding?

Every printer above is listed with full specifications on our ID card printers page. Tell us how many cards you print, what they are for and whether they carry a chip. The Plastic ID team will recommend a model and the ribbons to go with it.