Full Color (CYMK)
Most Card printers use thermal printing as their preferred technology. There are some ID card printers which use Ink Jet to print identification cards, when an Ink Jet cartage is used the same basic principles of CYMK Ribbon inks are used.
CYMK is the best for color correction of images. The RGB colors that you may be familiar with are used for monitors and projection systems but are never used for ID cards or plastic card printing. So why CYMK color? It is based on the principles of subtractive primaries, interesting but not important unless you are planning to produce your own printer ribbons or design an ID card Printer.
Here is how this CYMK color works. In nature, our eyes perceive pigments (in this case ribbon panels) according to the subtraction color mode. When light strikes an object (such as an ID card surface), it absorbs (subtracts) some of the light and reflects the rest. The reflected light is the color (or image) you see. Thus; in the example above, 1) Is the pigment 2) Is the actual ID card surface, and 3) is the reflective light you see.
Pigments on a PVC card, Composite card, or Plastic cards work the same way. You can mix pigments to create different colors providing the colors are cyan, yellow, and magenta. If you apply cyan ink (pigment) it will absorb red and reflect green and blue. If you apply yellow ink (pigment) it will absorb blue and reflect red and green. If you apply magenta ink (pigment) it will absorb green and reflect red and blue.
In theory, equal amounts of cyan, yellow, and magenta absorb all colors leaving black. The truth of the matter is it leaves a dark muddy gray. This composite color blackish in appearance is not detectable by barcode readers, so if your have a need for barcodes you need to add a K panel. The addition of a fourth color (k) black solves this problem and is used to increase the depth of the image. The (k) black panel is required for applications which use Infer-red barcode scanners to read barcodes.
Reference the Resin (single color) section to gain information on the (F) fluorescent panel which is becoming readily available from Card printer manufactures.
Resin (single color)
Standard Resin Black (K) ribbon provides high resin durability that is ideal for most general purpose monochrome card applications. Standard resin black barcodes are readable by both infra-red and visible-light bar code scanners.
Premium Resin Black (K) ribbon provides maximum resin durability that is ideal for applications such as access control where cards are repeatedly swiped through a magnetic stripe reader. Premium resin black bar codes are readable by both infra-red and visible-light bar code scanners.
Resin ribbons are available in red, blue, green and white. These ribbons can be used in the same types of applications as Resin Black Ribbons. However, barcodes are "seen" differently by scanners: Blue and green resin bar codes can only be read by visible light scanners, not infra-red. Barcodes printed with red and white resin cannot be read by either type of scanner.
Resin — silver and gold — printing is ideal for quick customization of preprinted cards. Barcodes printed with this ribbon can only be read by visible light scanners, not infra-red.
Resin is required for specialty applications such as gift card, phone card and other applications and is used to conceal PIN codes or other proprietary information available only to the purchaser. Our software products are perfect for this type of application and can be set-up with a simple mouse point and click.
Ultra Violet (UV) or the (F) panel which is the designation for a fluorescent panel is becoming popular for applications which need an additional level of security. This fluorescent panel is almost invisible until it is viewed or exposed to black lighting. The F panel is becoming popular with card printer manufactures over the last year. When thinking about an application requiring a F panel keep in mind that our software products are designed to support the F panel within your printer ribbon.
Dye-Sublimation Only
Ribbon — Blends up to 16.7 million colors to produce photo-quality images.
Ribbon — Ideal for money-saving monochrome applications such as printing smooth black-and-white photos, text and visible-light-readable bar codes (direct-to-card printer/encoders).
Dye-Sublimation/Resin Combination
Ribbons — Perfect for printing full-color cards with resin black text and visible-light and infrared-readable bar codes. Laminating printers and HDP printers do not require the use of an overlay (O) panel. Dual-sided printers utilize ribbons with two black resin (K) panels .
Dye-Sublimation/Resin/Heat Seal Ribbon
a full-color, wide ribbon with a heat seal (H) panel that provides flexibility in printing onto difficult-to-print surfaces such as matte finish cards or bumpy proximity cards. This ribbon is required for printing over-the-edge on CR-100 cards.
