User guide

21
Margins
Any unprinted area at the edge of the card is called the margin. Some card
printers can print edge to edge, which is the same as a margin of zero (0) or no
margin.
• The card printer supports edge-to-edge printing, or printing without margins.
The card on the left, below, shows a margin of white space at the outer edge of
the card. The card on the right shows edge-to-edge printing.
• Some contactless cards also support edge-to-edge printing. Contact your card
manufacturer to learn whether the cards you will use support edge-to-edge
printing.
• Edge-to-edge printing can require fine-tuning the printer and the card design.
Include this task as part of setup.
Maintain a margin between printing and card features, such as a signature panel,
magnetic stripe, or smart card chip. For best results, do not print closer than 0.1
inch (2.5 mm) from such a feature. (The background of the card shown above is
litho-printed before the smart card chip is embedded; therefore no margin
appears around the chip. The photo, bar code, name and other text are printed by
the card printer.)
Bar Code Printing
When an application prints bar codes the data is often sent to the printer as an
image. The format in which the application sends the image determines how the
driver will render the image. If the data sent is a one-bit-per-pixel image, such as
pure black text on a white background, the driver processes it using the K panel
of the print ribbon. If the data contains a pixel of color other than pure black or
pure white, such as the various colors in a JPEG image, it processes the image
using the YMC panels of the print ribbon.
The XPS Card Printer driver can be set to detect bar code data before printing and
if discovered, proceess the data using the K panel of the print ribbon. For more
information on the type of bar codes the driver can detect, see “Types of Bar
Codes Detected”