Smart Cards are around us and play an important role in our daily life. Each of us may have manifold smart cards with different functions, design patterns. For example, membership cards, bank cards, credit cards, access cards, etc.

How to customize smart cards to make your cards different from the rest? Gialer specializes in card-making manufacturer for 12 years, professional and reliable. We will share the experience without reservation and provide you a perfect solution.

RFID smart card, that is, chip card, is a card composed of RFID chip, printed material, and film. So how to choose the materials, chips? What’s the difference between each process? Before customizing smart cards, we must figure out these questions.

Card Material Custom

If you think smart cards are just made of Paper or PVC, then you need to change your mind now. Yes, of course, Paper cards and PVC cards are the most common ones. Yet, as the increasing requirements of consumers, smart cards are becoming more diverse. For example, Eco-friendly RFID wooden card, high-end leather card, epoxy card, and so on.

In terms of materials, paper and PVC is cheaper than wood, epoxy, and leather. But Epoxy cards are more delicate and exquisite; RFID Wooden Cards are more environmentally friendly; PU cards are soft and high-end. You can choose according to your cost and applications.

Gialer has a variety of materials that you can choose, whatever PVC or PET, even Wood or PU. And we absolutely guarantee the quality.

Card Size Selection

In our impression, the size of a smart card is the same as that of a bank card, 85.5 * 54 * 0.76 mm, that is, CR80. In fact, smart cards can come in many sizes in addition to standard sizes. And with the progress of RFID technology, the size of RFID smart cards is getting smaller and smaller. For example, RFID PVC keyfob, the small card on the RFID wristband.

There is a vast choice of the size of the cards in Gialer.  Besides the standard cards, there are all kinds of non-standard cards. Such as non-standard key chain, triple card, baggage tag.

 Here is the Common Available Sizes of smart cards. If you want to know the details about the sizes, you can download it. Besides, you can contact us directly, which is a faster way.

Card Process Personalization

There are many kinds of smart card technology, and the common ones are as follows.

1. Magnetic Stripe: The width of the magnetic stripe has two choices: wide magnetic stripe (12.5mm) and narrow magnetic stripe (8mm). Besides, the magnetic strips are available in black, gold, silver, and brown.
2. Bar Code: The common barcode types are Code 39, Code 128, EAN 8, EAN 13.
3. Convex Code: There are two kinds of convex codes, big convex( 18pt ), and small convex( 14pt ). The color of Convex codes is changeable, usually gold and silver.
4. Laser Code: The laser code is usually gold on the card and gray on the key chain.
5. UV Spray Code: use the UV inkjet printer to print the data ( the text or photo and other) on the card , the data can come from a database so every card have different data. 
6. Flat Code: The flat code can be white or black. Generally, the black flat code is common, yet the white flat code is less
7. Signature Strip: A white signature strip is easier to write than a transparent signature strip.
8. Hot-stamping：Gilding and silver stamping looks good, but it is easy to fall off and is not wear-resistant.
9. QR Code: If you want to change the QR code, you need to provide 1% more data, because the complement is more troublesome.
10. Hologram-stamping: Use Hot stamp to trasfer the hologram photo to the card surface or use the hologram sticker to adhere it on the card

Card Chip Options

For RFID smart cards, the chip is crucial and determines the performance and function. RFID chips are diverse and a little complicated for you to understand. Usually, RFID chips are divided into three frequencies: 125 kHz LF, 13.56MHz HF, 860~960 MHz UHF. 

LF chips are the cheapest and not vulnerable to interference, but not security.  They are better suited for applications with low-security requirements, such as access control.

High-frequency chips have many memory choices, high-security performance, and are widely used. Our common bank cards, credit cards, and membership cards are generally high-frequency cards.

Ultra-high frequency chip features long reading distance, high security, but easy to be disturbed. They are widely used in warehouse management, logistics management, traffic management, etc.

Besides, you can also choose contact chips, that is, contact chip cards. With the development of technology, contactless cards come to replace contact chip cards. But contact chip cards are still popular for applications with budget constraints.