xxxCards - Technical & Manufacturing Details

Sparkle Effects - Base Variants

For card design enhancement, you can choose from various metallic or pearlescent glitter effects applied by screen printing:

• Pearlescent (38001) - suitable when combined with offset full-color overprint
• Silver metallization (3458) - suitable when combined with offset full-color overprint
• Gold metallization (4320) - note: strongly affects color rendering when combined with offset overprint
• Gold metallization (3522) - note: strongly affects color rendering when combined with offset overprint

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

The basic substrate layers are silver metallization, gold metallization, or pearlescent finish.

• By overprinting with CMYK or Pantone colors, a sparkling effect of the given color or its shade is created.
• For example, printing certain shades of yellow to yellow-brown CMYK or Pantone colors on a pearlescent or silver metallized substrate will create a sparkling gold effect in those areas of the card.
• Similarly, any other sparkling color effects can be achieved on the card (bronze, platinum, orange, green, purple, etc.).

Hot Stamping

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

• For each motif, an application matrix must be produced, which increases the product cost, especially for small quantities. However, the result is high-quality and quite durable.
• The most commonly used foils are gold and silver shades.
• Other colors and shades can also be supplied (bronze, red, green...) or iridescent foils (with rainbow color shift) or holographic foils.

Hot Laser

Laser technology for transferring glossy metallic motifs (logos, effects, texts) onto cards using heat.

• Does not require production of an application matrix. The result is again very high-quality and allows application of even thin lines across the entire card surface.
• The most commonly used foils are gold and silver shades.
• However, other colors and shades can be supplied (bronze, red, green...) or iridescent foils (with rainbow color shift) or holographic foils.

Metallic Thermal Print

Thermal transfer printing of glossy metallic motifs (logos, effects, texts) onto cards.

• The applied effects are typically less durable and less precise compared to hot-stamping or hot-laser methods. The advantage is lower cost.
• Most commonly used for gold or silver glossy personalization of cards (number sequences, text strings, etc.).
• The most frequently used foils are gold and silver shades.
• However, other colors and shades can be supplied (bronze, red, green...) or iridescent foils (with rainbow color shift) or holographic foils.

UV Varnishing

With proper card and UV varnish motif design, a very luxurious final appearance can be achieved.

Suitable combinations:

• Matte or frosted lamination + glossy UV varnish
• Glossy lamination + matte UV varnish

The varnish can be applied partially (any motifs across the entire card surface) or fully (additional protection against mechanical damage).

Wire-Drawing Effect

Luxurious card surface imitating metal plating with a "wire-drawn" texture.

• Ideal especially when combined with simple motifs, best applied through: Screen printing, Laser engraving, Hot foil stamping method, Partial varnishes
• Available in silver and gold effects.

Suede Effect

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

• Limitations: Non-laminatable and 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

Numeric, text, or alphanumeric data are most commonly implemented using:

• Thermal transfer printing (base colors are black, white, and glossy metallic gold/silver)
• UV printing (base color is black, but other shades are possible)
• Digital printing (any color except white)
• Fig. 1: Examples of thermal transfer colors on a white card (gold, silver, black, red).
• Fig. 2: Examples of thermal transfer colors on gold metallization (gold, silver, black, white).
• Fig. 3: Example of a classic personal card (corporate, student, club,...) with a photograph and black personalization.

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 are among standard yet highly effective forms of card protection (and other items/printed materials) against counterfeiting and misuse.

• We produce holograms:
  • Standard - non-personalized - mass-produced (more affordable but easier to replicate, offering lower protection)
  • Standard - additionally personalized via thermal transfer (more expensive than non-personalized but harder to replicate). Can be personalized with gold/silver logos, numeric sequences, etc.
  • Custom - designed per your specifications (highly effective against misuse but relatively costly, especially for small batches under 2,000 cards)
• Hologram application methods:
  • Hot stamping
  • Single-use adhesive labels (damaged upon removal attempt)
• Base hologram foils available in: silver, gold, copper, or transparent.