Why would I want to laminate my cards?

Lamination is the process of applying a 1mil thick clear plastic patch to the surface of the card after the printing has occurred. Lamination is most commonly used where the card will be swiped through a bar code or magnetic stripe reader for time and attendance or access control applications. Lamination makes the card considerably stronger and last longer under extreme swiping conditions. Due to the nature of lamination, the laminate patch is slightly smaller than the actual size of the card, about 1/16th of an inch. For this reason, we recommend designing a card that is NOT edge to edge, so that all the print area is protected. You will not want to choose the lamination option on the back side if the card has a magnetic stripe. This will make it difficult to read the magnetic stripe. If you are not swiping your cards through a reader, it is not necessary to laminate them. Here are some card laminating scenarios:

Card Layout	Laminate	Side
1 or 2-sided with no bar code or magnetic stripe	No
1 or 2-sided with a bar code on the front OR a magnetic stripe on the back	Yes	front
2-sided with a bar code on the back and NO magnetic stripe on the back	Yes	both
2-sided with a bar code on the back and magnetic stripe on the back	Yes	front*

*Recommend placing the bar code on the front