ID cards are an essential for almost any business bigger than a festival hotdog stand.
They help you keep track of your employees, help your employees keep track of each other, and help the public know who is an employee.
They also foster a spirit of teamship and encourage the idea of 'belonging'.
What kind of ID card you want and how many fancy features it needs is dependent on your business type and security needs.
For a small business, the essentials may be simply a mug shot, employee name, title, and your company name.
Larger businesses may need barcodes or magnetic strips that can be scanned.
ID card software can be used to design your ID cards in your own office.
Most ID card software will offer a variety of templates and options to choose from, and you'll be able to customize to your heart's content.
ID card software enables you to insert either 1D or 2D barcodes, as well as images, logos, texts, and vector shapes.
You can use a variety of databases to help you churn out your ID cards quickly: Access, Excel, and SQL- based databases should all be supported by professional ID card software.
Your ID card software should also be able to create magnetic strips, and to print both on regular ink jet or laser printers as well as on special ID card printers.
Good ID card software will also let you put in your own custom scripts, so that if you need to upgrade permissions or types on a portion of your cards later, it can be done semi-automatically.
Being able to fully customize your ID cards means that you will be able to make sure your ID cards really reflect the spirit of your company.
This is why using professional ID card software is recommended over outsourcing your cards.
If you outsource your cards you will be able to give basic guidelines to an ID card company but you will not be able to control every aspect of the design.
If you use ID card software, on the other hand, you will be in almost complete control of the finished product.
Your ID cards will reflect your company.
As to anything, there is of course a downside.
If you are sloppy in your work, your finished project may look sloppy and unprofessional.
It may look cluttered and poorly designed.
However, ID card software is made to be used by people who are not necessarily design specialists, and it should offer a variety of templates from which you can choose for simple fill-in-the-blanks cards.
If design is not your strong point, you may want to limit your experimentation and use a template that is more or less ready to go.
That is the strength of good ID card software.
It offers an extensive customization and experimentation arena for those that are able to use it, and also offers a simple, straightforward way to make ID cards in the home office for those who may not be adventurously inclined.