Printer to print individual business cards

[spartacus321]

Looking for a printer capable of printing on individual business cards.

Basically I've got a customer with alot of pre-printed cards, which they'd like to put into a printer and have info. such as name, address, etc. printed onto the already pre-printed card.

I saw Canon has a few but only on their UK website... models such as the CX320 and CX350

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[bruceb]

This one is sold in the US by Canon: P-660C Color Card Printing Machine

http://www.usa.canon.com/opd/controller...etailAct&fcategoryid=2339&modelid=8821

Not sure how much it costs or who has it or if it will work with XP or not

 

[Zepper]

That wasn't very bright - I love it when people think things can be done practically and take action before scoping the project out. It'll cost more for a specialty printer than those cards. Perhaps you could tack them to a carrier sheet laid out like a standard sheet of laser cut bus. card stock. And overprint a sheet of 8 or 10 at a time in a normal printer. You can get tape or liquid or roll-on stuff that will make anything peel-and-stick like post-it notes - stick it down to the carrier sheet. You should be able to print several batches of cards before you'd have to renew the sticky or make another carrier sheet. Much more sense than buying a specialty printer. The P-660C weighs 91 pounds and takes $80. each color ink tanks definitely not gonna be cost-effective unless you're going into the card printing biz!!! I think that the pro printing biz has tacky layout sheets just for such purposes so you wouldn't have to mess with making your own, but it may be more expensive, so we know where your customer will go on it..

Or scan in the image off the preprinted card and print whole sheets at a time on the laser cut, blank biz card stock of the image with the added text.

I'd think about not accepting jobs from customers who turn over employees like cookie cutters. They may have other bad habits like acting before thinking.

.bh.

 

[bruceb]

You will notice that I said I did not know the price. I only suggested a unit that would do
what the OP wanted. The final decision on wether to buy or use it is up to him or his
customer. As to using your method with sticky back, that would likely work except in
certain printers, such as HP where the paper goes in the bottom, then around and
out the top. HP itself does not even recommend using CD Labels in their printers as
the label May come off while printing.

 

[Zepper]

I wasn't commenting on your printer idea - it is in the line of what the OP was asking for. But I don't think his customer could handle the truth of the cost of that printer... Most of my comments were aimed directly at the OP's customer. Particularly the "not a bright idea" meaning the purchase of mass quantities of partially pre-printed biz cards. Lighten up my man - don't assume that the majority of feces being flung off the fan is always coming in your direction.

.bh.

 

[spartacus321]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

The purpose for the cards isn't due to staff turnover though. It's a small private hospital who wants to print out cards for patients with stuff like their blood type, etc.

They've got about 2000 of the pre-printed cards at the moment with their logo etc. on it but I think my best bet may be to actually ditch those cards and offer them something in the line of maybe a Dymo label printer.

I was checking Dymo out and they can print labels on business card sized paper, so that may be a neat alternative. The hospital also wanted to have the cards laminated after the info is printed onto the card/label, and they've already acquired the laminating machine, so I think the Dymo will fit well into the mix.

I'm thinking I'll just scan their current card and put it into a word doc as a background, so they can enter the patient info in word, print, then laminate.

How is that sounding for an alternative?

 

[Zepper]

I think Dymo and the Seiko label printer both use a variant of thermal paper so it had better be cold lamination and their label paper is expensive. Perhaps they could stick the label with the patient info on the back of the pre-printed cards so they won't be wasted and laminate the two together. OTOH, you can get inkjet printers that can do tractor feed paper with one-up labels so you can print onesies as needed. Don't have to worry about hot lamination then...

.bh.

 

[spartacus321]

Hey thanks alot for mentioning that note about the cold lamination. I think the Dymo uses thermal paper so yup, laminating that would cause problems! I'll speak to the staff on Monday to find out what sort of lamination device they have.

The tractor feed with one up labels sounds good too and might be cheaper since they won't have to purchase a new printer and would get a clearer print, especially with their logo vs. a print on thermal paper.

Again, the information provided has been quite useful, thanks!

 

[bruceb]

Zepper ... no offense taken

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: spartacus321
Looking for a printer capable of printing on individual business cards.

Basically I've got a customer with alot of pre-printed cards, which they'd like to put into a printer and have info. such as name, address, etc. printed onto the already pre-printed card.

I saw Canon has a few but only on their UK website... models such as the CX320 and CX350

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks.

How big are these Business cards ?