Custom smart card printing & chip personalisation

The chip is determined by the reader — not the other way around. Three questions lead to the answer: which reader model or brand is installed, which chip does the current card use (if a legacy card exists), and what security level does the application require. If you can share an existing working card or the reader model reference, we identify the exact chip family and programming parameters needed. For new deployments, DESFire EV2 or EV3 is the safe modern default when security matters; Mifare Classic 1K remains acceptable for simple closed-loop access.

They represent three generations of the same NXP Mifare family with growing security. Mifare Classic (1994, Crypto-1 algorithm) is widely deployed but considered cryptographically broken — it is not suitable for new secure deployments. Mifare Plus is a drop-in upgrade that adds AES-128 encryption while remaining backward-compatible with Classic infrastructure during migration. Mifare DESFire EV2/EV3 is a fundamentally more secure chip with 3DES/AES, mutual authentication and multi-application support — the correct choice for any secure system deployed today.

Both options are available. We can perform full chip personalisation at production — UID programming, sector key loading, memory initialisation, applet installation and certificate injection — following your exact specification document. Alternatively, cards can be delivered with factory default settings for you to personalise in-house with your own encoder and workflow. The right split depends on your security policy, specifically whether sensitive keys can leave your environment.

Sensitive keys are transmitted through separate secure channels — never in plain text over email or in the physical shipment. Depending on the project scope, we support encrypted key files, HSM-based key ceremonies, derived key schemes from a master key you hold, and secure vendor-to-vendor key exchange protocols. For high-security deployments, we can also sign a bespoke data processing agreement detailing exact handling, storage and destruction procedures.

Yes — this is a dual-interface card and it is the standard configuration for modern e-government ID, banking and secure corporate badges. A single secure element is embedded in the card body and is accessible both through the visible contact pad (ISO 7816 reader) and through the integrated antenna (ISO 14443 contactless reader). The logical chip state is shared across both interfaces, so a certificate loaded via contact is immediately available via contactless.

NTAG chips (NTAG 213, 215, 216) are NFC Forum Type 2 tags designed specifically to be read by standard consumer smartphones over NFC. Their primary use cases are marketing applications (tap-to-URL, tap-to-app, product authenticity), digital business cards, event access tokens and simple tap-to-action workflows. They are not designed for high-security applications. For anything involving authenticated access or financial logic, a Mifare DESFire or contact chip is the right technology instead.

Compatibility is confirmed before production via two methods. If you can share your reader model reference, we verify from the datasheet which chip families and protocols it supports. If you have an existing working card, we read its chip to extract the exact technology signature (chip family, UID length, protocol) and replicate it on the new cards. In ambiguous cases, a small pilot batch is produced and tested on your actual reader before the full production run is launched — this eliminates any compatibility risk.

Yes. A smart card can carry a magnetic stripe on the back of the same card body, creating a hybrid technology card that works across both modern chip-based readers and legacy magnetic stripe infrastructure. This configuration is common during phased reader-migration projects where both generations of equipment must be supported in parallel. See our magnetic stripe cards page for technical details on stripe encoding.

Standard production runs 6 to 10 working days from proof approval, depending on the chip standard and the volume of pre-encoding required. Express lead times of 2 to 4 working days can be arranged on stock chip references (Mifare Classic, NTAG, EM4100) without complex personalisation. Delivery covers Europe and the UK with tracked shipping; international dispatch is arranged on request.

Yes. Two design routes alongside print-ready file orders. Template adaptation — share your corporate identity, staff data structure and any access or photo zone requirements, and we adapt a smart card template to your brand, taking into account chip module placement constraints. Full custom design — our in-house designers create the card from scratch with chip module, antenna zone and dual-interface considerations correctly handled. Both routes are quoted alongside the print order in a single quotation.