Printing Procedure

Introduction

Our smart cards are available for custom branding and promotional purposes. We welcome OEM enquiry for design printing at a reasonable cost. Furthermore, you can buy white cards from us to do their own personalized printing. Please contact us info@smartcardzone.com to understand the price details for customized printing.

Step-by-step Procedure

The following procedure illustrates the steps for requesting customized artwork printing.

1. Please name the card you need (e.g. SLE5542, Mifare1k) or the chip you want. In addition, please submit the artwork and enclose a proof with printing instructions. All revisions are handled in this phase.


• Please inform us if:
  
  
  • It is in silk-screen printing for special colors, such as gold, silver, or other metallic color.
    
    
  • The card needs other special features, such as signatory panel, magnetic strip, sequential serial number.
    
    
    • Some applications may require a magnetic stripe on your card. Please inform us which type of track and the cohesive encoding (HI-CO or LO-CO) you prefer.
    • Some applications may require signatory panel or barcode. Please specify the location and sufficient information.
    • If you need a sequential serial number, please provide us the range of numbers.
      
      
• We will then check the received files and see if it meets the artwork requirement.


2. The samples are then printed and sent to customer together with a Sample Approval Form.


3. Customer signs the Sample Approval Form to accept the artwork proof.


4. Ready for production

Artwork Requirements - Requirement Definition

1. Print resolution - The measurement of quality (pixel per inch in file or dots per inch in output)
   
   
   • All images must be at least 300 dpi
   • Resolution of a scanned line image should be 1200 dpi
     
     
2. Size - All art files must be sized to 100% or larger than the actual imprint size. All images must meet or exceed the minimum resolution (pixels-per-inch) when rendered at the actual imprint size.
   
   
   • The cards conform to ISO 7816-1, size: 85.7 (+/- 0.125mm) x 54mm (+/- 0.05mm)
   • Artwork dimension must be at least 90mm x 58mm (including bleed area)
     
     
3. Artwork Format
   
   
   • Accept vector based files created using Adobe Illustrator 10(.ai), Macromedia Freehand (.eps), and Corel Draw 10 (.cdr) ONLY.
   • Supply all linked graphics such as Tiff or EPS files.
   • If screen <5% the dots will not be accurately printed on the card.
   • Please do NOT indicate the area reserved for the smart card chip on your artwork; this could lead to alignment problems.
   • Please indicate your desired module location on printing instruction.
   • In order to ensure printing quality of the cards, we may fine-tune the artwork.
     
     
4. Color - defined as a combination of three colors red, green and blue to produce millions of other colors. We accept :
   
   
   • CMYK Color
   • Pantone color
   • RGB files will not be accepted
     
     
5. Proof
   • No matter what the format or transfer method, artwork should NEVER be submitted without either a hard copy proof or the electronic equivalent. Properly prepared PDF files are often suitable as proofs.
     
     
6. Fonts
   • Any fonts used in the production should be converted to curves (outlines) prior to submission.
   • If you texts are not outlined, make sure to include all fonts used in the design.

Check List

1. Do you choose the suitable kind of chips?
2. Is the card a printed card or a white card (without printing)?
3. Do you provide the suitable kind of file format for the artwork?
4. Does the resolution of the artwork good enough for printing?
5. Do you provide artwork files with CMYK, Pantone colour or special colours?
6. Does the artwork provide sufficient bleeding area around the edges?
7. Do you convert the fonts to curves or create outlines?
8. Do you require the card with specific features, such as magnetic stripes, signature panels, personalization, serial numbers and barcodes?