An employee ID badge is essential to today’s organizations, whether small or big enterprises. Its primary purpose is to make employee identification easy and quick.
Organizations have always used ID cards or ID badges for employee identification. However, with technological developments and increased security threats, ID badges have become more important and contain far more information than simple basic details with a photo—a feature of old and simple ID cards.
Nowadays, ID badges have become more like technological chips rather than simply pieces of plastic. They store a lot of information, such as fingerprints, bar codes, etc.
ID badges are used in schools, hospitals, government institutions, corporations, etc. These badges are issued to anyone belonging to the institution to confirm their identity.
For instance, students have been issued student ID badges, which they may use to enter or leave schools, enter laboratories, issue books from the library, etc. Likewise, employee ID badges can be used by employees to enter or leave organizations/offices, unlock protected systems, enter doors allowed to specific persons such as server rooms, use photocopier machines, etc.
Organizations use different formats for the physical design of ID badges—sometimes templates, sometimes customized designs. However, regarding the size of the ID badges, some standards and limitations are available.
Organizations cannot print in any size they want, as printers have limited size availability. In addition, if a company is ISO certified, it may have to follow ISO’s instructions for the size of ID badges.
International Organization for Standards (ISO), in its document related to the physical features of identification cards, stated that the official size for the ID card should be 3.375 inches (width) and 2.125 inches (height).
Generally, the typical thickness of a standard card is 0.030 inches. This is the standard size of a PVC ID badge, also called CR80 (ID-1 format); however, other sizes are also present and used by different organizations (such as CR79 and C100). Nevertheless, the standard size of CR80 is the most common size used for student ID cards, employee ID cards, etc.
First, the maximum printable area (printer’s dots per inch (DPI)) is considered when calculating the size in pixels. Usually, card printers have a maximum resolution of 300 DPI. This 300 DPI is multiplied by the card’s dimensions to get the pixel measurements. For instance, for the standard size, the pixel measurements are 1012.5 (3.375 * 300) * 637.5 (2.125* 300).
The ID badge size should also be comfortable for its holder (student, employee, etc.). Therefore, a company has to carefully choose the design and size of the ID badges or cards and the information to be stored in and shown on them to make their use more effective.