Specifications

ID Works Standard and Enterprise Version 5 Administrator’s Guide
9 Working with
Printer Options
ID Works applications work with two kinds of
printers. You print reports using the same kind of
paper printer you would use to print a word processing document or
spreadsheet. The ID Works Reporting application uses standard
Windows Print dialogs; no additional software is necessary to print ID
Works reports.
Printing ID cards is more complex because card printers offer
features, such as topcoating and encoding, that are not available on
paper printers. In addition, each card printer has a different set of
available features.
Introducing Printer Plug-ins
ID Works applications rely on software modules called plug-ins to
provide the interfaces between the main ID Works applications and
the various card printers and encoders for magnetic stripes. This
design allows support of a wide variety of printers without changing
the ID Works software.
The printer plug-in simply “plugs in” to the ID Works application.
Similarly, a magnetic stripe encoder plug-in plugs in to the printer
plug-in, extending the capability of the printer.
Specifying Plug-ins
If the driver for your card printer is installed on your computer when
you install the ID Works software, the ID Works installation program
automatically associates the correct printer plug-in with your card
printer. If you add a card printer to your system after installing ID
Works software, you must specify the association by using the
Assign Printer Plug-ins utility in the ID Works Administrator
ID Works
Application
Printer
Plug-in
Encoder
Plug-in