Providing a secure and attractive way to prove your identity
by Ray Coles

Drivers license, National ID, Voter Registration, Gun license, Proof-of-Age card, and Employee ID are all examples of real world ID card applications, and they all have one thing in common: They must be completely protected against forgery.

An ID card that can be forged is worse than no ID card at all, because anyone with the basic skills, or the cash, can rapidly obtain a counterfeit version. The number of web sites offering fake US drivers' licenses is a testament to that problem.

The Magicard printer family contains everything you need to create colorful, practical, ID cards and badges for every application, plus it offers complete protection against counterfeiting through the use of either a hologram laminate, or by the use of Ultra's unique, low cost, HoloKoteTM technology.

Card Design
For any ID application, getting the initial card design right is essential, and one of the most important factors is ensuring that the portrait is large enough to be identified clearly in the circumstances in which the card is to be used.

For "hand held" identification applications like a drivers license, portraits of around one inch square are likely to be adequate, but if viewing at a distance, or in poor light is required, as with airport ID badges for example, then portraits should be as large as practicable : 2 inches square will work reliably at viewing distances of up to fifteen feet, for example.

The Magicard Rio Grande prints onto large format CR-100 cards and is particularly suited to applications requiring large portraits. Another design issue is whether to use a "portrait" or "landscape" format, with "portrait" orientation offering advantages for badging applications, and "landscape" being preferred for cards, which are carried in a purse or pocket.

The design of content is very dependent on the individual application, and any kind of background design, corporate logo, and textual information can of course be accommodated. For clear crisp text and Barcodes, the use of the black resin, or K panel, is advisable, although many card designs use a mixture of large "color" text with smaller "black resin" data.

If there is more data than can conveniently fit on one side of a CR-80 card, or which is not normally required for public display, then this can be printed on the reverse of the card using the Magicard Tango duplex printer. The most economic dual sided card would use full color and black resin on the front, with black resin only on the reverse. Our LC8 six panel dye ribbon has an YMCKOK arrangement for exactly this application, printing 300 dual-sided cards per roll.

It is also possible to put full color and black resin on both sides of the card, using the Tango printer and two sets of LC1 YMCKO dye ribbon panels. This approach is more costly however, giving 175 double sided cards per roll of dye ribbon.

Card Security & Protection
With the card layout and usage determined, the subject of physical protection and the prevention of counterfeiting becomes the next priority.

Questions such as:

• How will the card be carried/used?
• Will the card suffer wear through being physically "swiped" through a reader?
• What card lifetime do we require?
• What level of security protection do we need?
• All need to be answered.

For long life cards (at least 5 years) which will be carried everyday in a purse or pocket, and which must also offer the highest level of tamper-proofing and counterfeit protection (e.g. drivers licenses) the only solution is to use the SicuraTM Laminator to apply a 1mil thick polyester laminate which contains a custom "hologram-like" optical security device. Cards produced in this way are very well protected against physical wear and tampering, and the optical security device will be very effective in preventing attempts to produce realistic copies.

This is a costly solution however, both in initial capital and in consumable costs, and it will be necessary to secure and account for every single overcoat panel (not just the rolls) to ensure that this vital authentication media cannot fall into the wrong hands and be used as part of a counterfeiting activity.

If the card is mainly going to be worn as a badge, or if a shorter lifetime is acceptable then Ultra's patented HoloKoteTM technology will provide adequate physical protection, together with complete protection against forgery, at zero cost in consumables.

The capital cost is also zero if the built-in "Ultra Secure" logo included in the Rio and the Tango printers can provide adequate security protection, although the use of a unique,"custom" logo is recommended.

The use of a Custom Key security logo actually increases the security protection to better than that provided by a custom laminate, yet it still maintains the zero consumable cost and entails only the very low start-up cost and turn around time of Ultra's unique Custom Key solution.

HoloKote with Custom Key is more secure than an laminate solution because of the ease of safeguarding the authentication device. Even a few panels of hologram laminate left on a roll for disposal could be retrieved from the garbage and used to produce fully authenticated fake cards. With HoloKote however, the authentication device is a single encrypted electronic key which cannot be duplicated and which is easily accounted for and safeguarded by locking it in the office safe when not in use. HoloKoteTM puts a daylight visible frosted security logo over the entire face of the card, which makes it ideal for cards which are carried or worn as badges.

To make the security logo more obvious at distances of up to 15 feet, the HoloKote™ system can be used with Ultra's HoloPatchTM card stock which highlights one of the security logos with a gold, superdiffuser patch.

Whatever your ID card needs, Ultra's Magicard range has the solution!