Card Printer Jargon Revealed

Hey guys. 
As were making the transition to this new blog we're looking to bring over a couple posts that seemed helpful.

Plastic card printers can be confusing. There are countless options of everything and twenty different printers to choose from. Add to that strange combinations of letters and numbers and it can seem impossible to make any sense of it. So to help you out, here are some of the more common acronyms and terms we see and hear. We are trying to explain what they mean and what you need to know about them.

YMCK – Yellow, Magenta, Cyan, Black; refers to printer ribbon

YMCK(O/T ) – a single sided color ribbon that often includes a clean overlay/topcoat. The ribbon has at least 4 panels, the same as ink jet printers. The panels are Yellow, Magenta, Cyan, Black, and an Overlay/Topcoat.

YMCKOK(O) – A dual sided printer ribbon that prints full color on one side of the card and just black text and elements on the other side.

K – Black

PVC – Polyvinyl Chloride; The plastic used for most ID cards/ Gift cards.

Composite Cards – a PET/PVC mix aims to increase the life of the card and make it more         durable. Also these cards work better in retransfer printing.

DTC – Direct to Card; a method of printing that uses heat to adhere pigment from the ribbon onto the card.

Retransfer Printing (Reverse Transfer) – A printing process that transfers pigment from the ribbon to a clear film. Heat is then used to bind the film to the card. Gives true edge-to-edge printing

CR-80 – a standard size card, such as gift cards or credit cards; 3.375” x 2.125” (85.5 mm      x 54 mm)

30mil – a measure of thickness of the card. This is standard thickness. (0.75 mm)
Other available thicknesses 10mil, 15mil, 20mil, and50  mil

We hope you found these helpful. If there are more terms that keep throwing you for a loop, just let us know and we will do our best to answer it!