Cards

A wide variety of plastic cards are available. A brief explanation of the basic types is given below. For further information take a look at Zebra's white paper 'About Plastic Card printing'

Cards are usually the same size as a standard credit card and are made from PVC. They can be printed with full colour 'edge to edge' images, text and bar codes. To make them more durable and secure, cards can be overlaid with laminates or holograms.

In addition, they can feature a magnetic stripe on the back or an embedded smart chip. These can then be programmed by direct contact, such as modern credit cards, or 'contactless' where wireless RFID communication is used. Proximity cards are a type of RFID smart card, but are read only so no data can be written back to the card.