The team at ID Edge has decades of experience helping customers choose the right ID printer. During the last 30 years we’ve helped thousands of customers find the best solutions for their needs, especially as the ID printing technology has evolved so much over the years.
However, although the technology changes at an ever-increasing pace, one of the most fundamental questions of ID printer selection is whether you should get a single-sided or a dual-sided printer. It’s one of the most important factors because it will directly impact your daily operations in a very profound way.
To help you work through this process, let’s take a look at some of the most important considerations about these printers.
The Basics
Double-sided ID card printers have the capability to print on both sides of the card in a single pass, whereas single-sided printers can only do one side at a time.
Now, single-sided printers can certainly be used to print on both sides of the card as well. The card will simply need to be turned over and reinserted into the printer and, voila, both sides can have high quality images and text for a beautiful, customized ID card.
However, because of the inherent inconvenience of trying to print on both sides with a single-sided printer, here are some of the main questions we ask our customers when helping them to make the single vs. dual-sided decision.
- Customization (one side or both sides)
- Speed
- Volume
- Lamination (one side or both)
- Budget
Do You Need Both Sides Customized?
If you only need to print on one side of the card, then you of course don’t need a dual-sided printer. But if both sides are a necessity, then a very important question is if you need both sides of the card to be customized.
For example, many organizations and agencies often need to have both sides to have information that is customized to the ID card holder. In such situations, a dual-sided printer will inevitably save you time in having to take extra steps.
However, for some organizations, the back side of the ID card contains the same exact information for every card holder. This is typical of hotels and resorts, where the back of the card may contain usage instructions or disclaimers.
In the latter case, you can still easily use a single-sided ID printer by having the back side of the card pre-printed. We can do this for you, or you can simply run a few hundred cards through the printer yourself, and print all the required information on the back side at once. When patrons start coming in, the cards will be ready to receive personalized information on the front side!
Speed – How Fast do You Need to Print?
This is another important consideration, because in many settings, being able to print fast is vital. Now, let’s assume that both sides of the card do need to be customized and that you can’t simply pre-print the back side information.
For settings like venues and resorts, being able to print customized information on both sides at once can significantly improve customer processing times. Shaving just a few minutes off each patron’s experience can significantly ease frustration and ease tension. People don’t like to wait in lines, they’ll do it if they have to, but it really undermines your ability to deliver an excellent customer experience.
In other settings, printing speed is not a big priority. For example, during the on-boarding process for new employees, an extra few minutes to print on both sides with a single-sided printer may not be a very big deal.
Of course, there’s still the consideration of how many duties are assigned to the individual responsible for printing the cards. If they’re wearing many hats and have to onboard several employees per day, the extra time of printing both sides on a single-sided printer can become a frustration. Further, flipping the card over will inevitably result in errors from time to time, which eats additional time and resources.
Volume – How many cards do you Need to Print?
The daily volume of cards is closely related to the speed of printing question. If you only need to print a few cards per day, a single sided printer should be able to accommodate your double-sided requirements quite easily.
On the other hand, adding customized information to both sides of the card for dozens or hundreds of ID cards per day can become a frustrating experience with a single-sided printer. As frustration increases, so does tension and so does the number of mistakes during the process.
Lamination
One question that gets surprisingly little attention is whether you need to laminate one or both sides of the card. It’s so easy to become focused on the idea of printing that considerations of lamination fly right out the window. But this is actually a very big deal.
Lamination is essential for ensuring the durability of the card from physical wear and UV exposure. With a well-selected laminate, your card’s functionality can be extended to a full 8-10 years! This reduces costs in the long term, both material and wage-related.
If you need to protect information on both sides of the card and need to process a relatively high volume every day, then a dual-sided laminating printer is a much better choice in the long term.
Price – What’s your Budget?
Of course, we also can’t forget about a very fundamental consideration of budgetary constraints. Generally speaking, a single-sided printer will almost always cost less than a dual-sided device. It’s a basic question of functionality; the more functionality the device has, the more intricate the design will need to be, the more it will cost.
Professional Advice is FREE!
If you have any questions about single-sided or dual-sided ID card printers, please feel free to give us a call or send us an email. It’s always free to talk to us, and we’ll go above and beyond to get your questions answered, even if you don’t end up making a purchase. We have a lot of expertise about the industry and we love to share it 🙂
You can get in touch with us by calling 800-798-3343, or use the Contact Form (below) to send us a message!