How does the printing of customised cards take place? The printing process consists of several steps, from checking the graphics to quality control. Continuous interaction with our customer service and graphic designers enables us to provide customers with fully personalised cards.
The cards customisation process consists of the following steps:
- graphics checks and approvals;
- preparation of graphics;
- printing;
- quality control;
- customization;
- quality check.
The size of the graphics must be consistent with the ISO size of the card. We assess quality in the pre-printing phase by preparing a PDF document containing the technical specifications in terms of both colour and customisation (how to insert variable data). In the meantime, we print a Cromalin, a colour proof, to see the final printed result of custom cards.
Customised card printing: graphics verification
Verification is the first phase and is the most delicate.
It involves continuous interaction between customer service, our graphic designers and customers. This activity is regulated by our quality manual. Our technical department prepares a PDF print, that is, a document summarising all the requirements for production of the card.
This activity, which is similar for all custom card printing processes carried out at Partitalia’s production facilities, requires graphics files with the following characteristics for the different types of printing:
Thermographic printing |
Re-transfer printing |
Offset printing (thermography) |
|---|---|---|
| • 300 dpi graphic file • Rasterized format (.jpg) • For gold and silver colors a separate file with black color only is preferable • CMYK or RGB color scale (the closest match is used for Pantone requests) |
• 600 dpi graphic file • Raster format (.jpg) • CMYK or RGB color scale (he closest match is used for Pantone requests) |
• 600–800 dpi graphics file Vector format .ai, .pdf, or .eps (.jpg is only accepted in some cases) • With vector files, the use of Pantone colours is ideal, but all colours must be communicated before production is confirmed |
On request, we can convert from different formats. If the file cannot be processed, the graphics must be redrawn, which we can do at Partitalia.
As far as fonts are concerned, we require editable text in vector format for conversion into graphical curves; otherwise the printing would not match. By converting the characters into curves, we avoid purchasing the characters needed to maintain the graphical layout.
From PDF document to colour test
We will include all customisations in the PDF document:
- addition of sequential numbering
- insertion of barcodes
- magnetic stripe programming
- contact chip programming
- transponder programming
- individual customisation
And also:
- ID photos must be in passport format
- the photo filename must match the database field
Colours are proofed when the PDF document is ready: the Cromalin is of paramount importance, since colours often tend to change on the computer monitor. The digital Cromalin yields actual proof of the printed colour. It will then be used in the production phase or sent to the customer on request.
Once approval is complete, the process moves on to the printing stage.
