There are numerous materials, colors, sizes and thicknesses which are part of the family of standard Photo ID cards. Later we will discuss specialty cards such as HID, MIFARE, DESFire and smart cards. However for this section we will focus on plain card stocks.

Plan cards come in three basic sizes CR80 (3.37”x2.125”), CR90 (3.63”x2.37”) CR100 (3.88”x2.63”). Card thicknesses run from 10mils to 30mils and all are readily available throughout the industry. If you really want to dig into cards and card specifications The International Standards Organization (ISO) in their specification documents will supply you with additional information, a good starting point is ISO 7810 identification cards-physical characteristics.

ID Card Sizes available:

The most common card in the photo ID industry is the CR80 30mil thickness. Typical uses are financial institutions, large corporations, small to mid sized companies, retailers, restaurants, healthcare, hotels, airlines, schools, governments, libraries, organizations, etc. The CR80 has become the work horse of the industry.

The Plastic cards themselves can have a numbers of functions they perform on a daily bases so choosing the right card is important for your ID card longevity. The basic card stock is plastic, PVC (poly vinyl chloride), and composite (a blend of P.V.C. and polyester). Many of the ID card printer manufactures associate these names with their own branding, however these are the basic card stocks. The difference in these cards is the actual durability of the card itself, one of the industry measurements for plastic card stock is Flex Cycles. Flex Cycles is the number of times a card can be flexed before it breaks. The following numbers for Flex Cycles are generic and you will see a slight differences from manufacture to manufacture. In general the numbers are as follows:

• Plastic approximately 1,000 Flex Cycles, good for Student ID’s or cards that have a short usage period (approximately one year)
• P.V.C. approximately 2,500 Flex Cycles, this is a good mid-range card for Employee ID’s (approximately two years)
• Composite approximately 15,000 Flex Cycles, used in applications that require constant usage of the ID card (approximately three years)

As you could imagine the card costs move higher based on the card stock. It is good idea to consider how the cards will be used in your specific application prior to selecting your card stock.

All the card printer manufactures printers will print on any of these basic stocks. One thing to keep in mind is the card size all printer manufactures will print on a CR80 card stock; however, many printers will not accept a CR90 or CR100 card so your card printer selection will become limited and more expensive.

TIP in determining numbers of cards you have.

The standard ID card is 30 mil or 30/1000ths of an inch in thickness, you can calculate that 33 cards packed tightly together will equal approximately 1 inch thick (1000 divided by 30 = 33.3). To determine how many cards you have if you have lost count; simply measure the number of inches you have when your cards are stacked and multiply by 33. The actual number will vary slightly due to minute spaces between each card in your stack. However you will be close and a modified formula will work for other ID card thicknesses.

TIP in handling ID cards:

ID cards because they are plastic have a tendency to build up static when they are stacked together. When opening a new set of blank cards which are usually shrink wrapped discharge static build up before handling. Once the shrink wrap is removed from the cards ground the cards before loading into the ID card printer. This will eliminate any static build up which may attract dust particles onto the surface of your blank card. If you ever notice dust particles on you finished ID cards it is from static build-up of the plastic ID cards rubbing on one another. Keeping a clean ID card printer will also help.