xxxCards - Technical & Manufacturing Details

Sparkle Effects - Base Variants

For an enhanced card design, you can choose from various metallic or pearlescent glitter effects, applied using screen printing:

• Pearl (38001): Ideal with CMYK overprint
• Silver Metallization (3458): Works with CMYK
• Gold Metallization (4320/3522): Note: Significantly affects color reproduction when overprinted

Partial Metallic/Pearl Coatings

Metallic (or pearlescent) finishes can also be applied to cards only partially.

• However, we strongly advise against using them in areas intended for subsequent personalization, such as barcodes, as this could compromise readability.

Offset-Printed Sparkle Effects

• Base layers: Silver/gold metallization or pearl
• CMYK/Pantone overprinting creates:
  • Gold effects (yellow-brown tones on silver/pearl)
  • Custom sparkle colors (bronze, platinum, orange, green, purple, etc.)

Hot Stamping

"Stamp" technology for transferring glossy metallic designs (logos, effects, text) onto cards using heat.

• Requires custom dies (increases cost for small batches)
• High-quality, durable results
• Standard foils: Gold/Silver
• Specialty options:
  • Bronze/Red/Green
  • Iridescent (color-shifting)
  • Holographic

Hot Laser

Laser technology for metallic design transfer without dies.

• No die needed (cost-effective for prototypes)
• Precision detailing (fine line capability)
• Foil options match hot stamping

Metallic Thermal Print

Lower-cost alternative with trade-offs:

• Reduced durability/precision vs. hot methods
• Ideal for:
  • Serial numbers
  • Text strings
• Same foil color options available

UV Varnishing

Wire-Drawing Effect

Premium metallic surface mimicking brushed metal:

• Best paired with:
  • Screen printing
  • Laser engraving
  • Hot stamping
• Color options: Gold/Silver

Suede Effect

This effect incorporates multi-colored microfibers applied to the card surface, creating a luxurious suede-like texture.

• Limitations:
  • Non-laminatable
  • Restricted personalization

Lamination Options

• Gloss (standard, most commonly used variant)
• Matte (highly elegant for black, pearlescent, or metallic backgrounds, as well as transparent plastic cards)
• Frosted (a premium matte lamination with a coarser texture resembling frost on glass. When combined with thoughtful card design and other elements, this effect can appear highly sophisticated)
• Combined (e.g., matte front / gloss back, etc.)

Flat Personalization & Photography

We implement numeric, text, or alphanumeric data using:

• Thermal Transfer Printing
  Base colors: Black, White, Metallic Gold/Silver
  Fig.1: Examples on white card (gold, silver, black, red)
  Fig.2: Examples on gold metallized surface
  Fig.3: Standard ID card with photo & black text
• UV Printing
  Primary color: Black (other shades available)
• Digital Printing
  Any color except white

Embossed (Raised) Personalization

We emboss both small and large characters in the following colors: metallic glossy gold and silver, plus black and white.

• Large characters: Height 4.5 mm, OCR-7A character set, including only digits 0–9 and a hyphen (Fig. 2 and 3).
• Small characters: Height 3 mm, SIMPLEX 2 character set, including digits 0–9, complete uppercase alphabet (without Czech diacritics), and the following symbols: ()-.,/&# (partially shown in Fig. 2 and 3).
• Design considerations: Account for the visible, mirror-reversed embossing indentation on the card’s opposite side, and ensure proper placement of the RFID antenna chip to avoid potential damage.

1D & 2D Barcodes

We recommend using barcodes in black on a white background. However, some readers can reliably decode reversed (white on black) or color-on-color barcodes, provided sufficient contrast is maintained (pre-testing is essential). Supported barcode types:

• EAN8 – Encodes 7 digits (0-9); the 8th character is an auto-calculated checksum.
• EAN13 – Encodes 12 digits (0-9); the 13th character is an auto-calculated checksum.
• Interleaved 2/5 (ITF) – Encodes digits 0-9 only. Automatically prefixes a "0" for odd-digit counts.
  • With Mod10, the last digit is a checksum.
  • Warning: Increasing character count raises bar density and reduces readability.
• CODABAR – Encodes 0-9, letters A/B/C/D, and 6 symbols: -+.:/$.
  • Warning: Increasing character count raises bar density and reduces readability.
• CODE128 – Encodes alphanumeric characters (including lowercase).
  • Warning: Increasing character count raises bar density and reduces readability.
• CODE39 – Encodes 0-9, uppercase A-Z, space, and 7 symbols: *–$%./+.
  • Warning: Increasing character count raises bar density and reduces readability.
• QR Code – Most widely used 2D code. Encodes all alphanumeric/special characters (case-sensitive).
  • Max capacity: 7,089 digits or 4,296 alphanumeric characters.

Signature & Scratch-Off Fields

Signature panel – A special print of any shape/size with a writable surface compatible with standard ballpoint pens.

• Data is extremely difficult to alter (attempts at modification are easily detectable)
• Available in transparent, white, or custom color variants

Scratch-off panel – A specialized opaque overlay that effectively conceals personalized data beneath it.

• Hidden information becomes legible after scratching/removal
• Ideal for temporarily covering PINs, passwords, prize codes, etc.
• Available in two formulations:
  • Soft (easy to scratch off)
  • Hard (more durable)

Magnetic Stripe

Special programmable magnetic stripe for data encoding/reading. We offer two primary variants with different resistance levels to data corruption or erasure from accidental magnetic field exposure (e.g., magnets, computer hard drives, electric motors, powered transformer coils, etc.).

• LoCo stripe
  ◦ Lower resistance to magnetic fields
  ◦ Compatible with HiCo stripe encoders/readers for both writing and reading
  ◦ Typically brown to dark brown (but black variants exist)
• HiCo stripe
  ◦ Significantly higher resistance to magnetic fields
  ◦ Warning! NOT compatible with LoCo-specific encoders (read-only with LoCo devices)
  ◦ Standard black color

Additional options:

• Custom stripe programming service
• Special-order colors available (e.g., silver, gold, or other hues)
• Narrow (2-track) magnetic stripes also offered

Contact & Contactless (RFID/NFC) Chips

The most sophisticated card personalization media are, of course, contact or contactless (RFID/NFC) chips.

• Beyond embedding a single chip, we also provide multi-chip combinations with other elements, such as:
  ◦ Contact chip + RFID/NFC chip
  ◦ Contact chip + 2 different RFID/NFC chips (up to three distinct RFID chips possible)
  ◦ RFID chip + magnetic stripe (LoCo or HiCo)
  ◦ Contact chip + 2 different RFID/NFC chips + magnetic stripe (LoCo or HiCo)

[More information HERE]

Holograms

Holograms represent a standard yet highly effective security feature for cards (and other items/printed materials) against counterfeiting and misuse.

• We produce holograms in these variants:
  ◦ Standard non-personalized - Mass-produced, cost-effective but easier to replicate (lower security functionality)
  ◦ Standard personalized - Customized via thermal print; more expensive than non-personalized but harder to replicate. Personalization options include gold/silver logos, numeric sequences, etc.
  ◦ Custom-designed - Tailored to your specifications for superior anti-fraud protection, though relatively costly (especially for small batches under 2,000 cards)
• Application methods:
  ◦ Hot stamping
  ◦ Single-use adhesive labels (destructive upon removal attempt)
• Base foil colors: Silver, gold, copper, or transparent