Card finishes & customisation options

Hot foil stamping consistently delivers the strongest visual impact — particularly when applied on a dark or matte laminated background. Edge painting on triplex paper comes second for paper-only projects, with the discreet but immediately recognised premium signal. For PVC, the combination of frosted or transparent stock with foil stamping creates the most distinctive luxury card on the market. Spot UV is a quieter alternative that signals refinement without metallic statement.

Available on both: hot foil stamping, spot UV varnish, gloss/matte lamination, scratch-off ink, Pantone colour matching, rounded corners. Paper only: soft-touch lamination, embossing and debossing (relief requires paper fibres), edge painting (requires triplex multi-layer stock above 600 gsm), stamp zones for loyalty programmes. PVC only: writable signature panel, opaque white underlay (for transparent stocks), magnetic stripe encoding, contact and contactless chip embedding.

Yes — and most premium cards do. The key is the correct application order: lamination first (protective base), then foil stamping, then spot UV, then embossing or edge painting last. Each finish is provided as a separate layer in the artwork file (foil zones and spot UV areas as 100 % black on dedicated layers). Combinations are validated on the proof and corrected if a finish risks chipping or registering poorly on another. There is no hard limit on combinations — only the budget and the visual coherence of the design.

Yes, slightly. Standard production runs 4 to 6 working days for paper, 6 to 10 for PVC. Adding premium finishes (foil, embossing, edge painting, scratch-off) on paper extends the cycle to 6 to 10 working days. Embossing has minimal additional impact when applied without ink. Express lead times of 2 to 4 working days are available on standard configurations without complex finishing — mention your deadline upfront and we confirm feasibility.

Depends on your reader infrastructure. Modern secure access: Mifare DESFire EV2 or EV3 (3DES/AES encryption, mutual authentication). Established mid-security: Mifare Classic 1K/4K (most widely deployed but cryptographically dated). Legacy 125 kHz infrastructure: EM Marin 4102/4200 or TK4100 (read-only IDs). Smartphone tap interactions: NTAG 213/215/216 (NFC Forum Type 2). For new deployments where security matters, DESFire EV3 is the modern default. For pure card replacement on existing readers, share your reader model or an existing working card and we replicate the exact technology.

Coercivity (in Oersted, Oe) determines how easily the magnetic data can be erased or rewritten. Hi-Co (2750 or 4000 Oe) is permanent encoding resistant to accidental demagnetisation by phones, magnetic clasps and bag covers — used for hotel keys, transport cards, banking and access cards. Lo-Co (300 Oe) is rewritable, used where the same card is re-encoded between users (gym day passes, library cards, short-cycle hotel rooms). The right choice depends on whether the data on the card is permanent or session-based.

Standard PVC 0.76 mm gives the best photo rendering with edge-to-edge full-colour printing — the reference for membership, student and ID cards. Paper alternatives work too: coated 350 or 400 gsm delivers sharp colour, uncoated natural softens the image with a more artisan feel. For very high photo quality requirements (passport-grade ID cards), PVC is the recommended choice. Photo files should be supplied as JPEG or PNG at 300 dpi minimum (around 400 × 500 px at printed size for a standard photo zone).

Yes — this is a hybrid technology card. Magnetic stripe on the back, contact chip or contactless antenna on the front, on a single card body. Common during phased reader-migration projects where both legacy and modern infrastructure must be supported in parallel. Dual interface cards (contact chip + contactless antenna sharing one secure element) are also available — the standard for e-government, banking and modern corporate badges.

Each finish requires its own dedicated layer in the working file. Foil zones, spot UV areas and embossing positions must be provided as separate 100 % black layers sitting over the CMYK base — so the finishing plates can be isolated cleanly at production. A 300 dpi print-ready PDF or AI file with 3 mm bleed covers the baseline. We share template files on request, or our in-house designers can prepare the artwork from a brief — quoted alongside the print order.