Choosing an ID Card Printer – Evolis or Magicard

Both Evolis and Magicard are well known manufacturers of ID card printers, but let’s take a more in depth at two of their models to compare what you get from a Evolis Pebble compared to a Magicard Pronto.



*Only with Professional Software

On First glance you may think the features of the Evolis Pebble 4 Colour ID Printer far outweigh the features of the Magicard Pronto but although these two card printers are close in the features they offer their speed and their connections. It is important to consider the difference in cost between the two printers.

The two printers both offer single side printing can be used to encode magnetic strips and smart cards with the right encoders. Print using Colour dye sublimation and monochrome thermal transfer. Produce Cards at a fairly high speed for a printer, allow for cards to be designed using free software.
The two card printers do have some differences. The Magicard Pronto is not quite as fast as the Evolis Pebble and doesn’t have the memory and feeder and hopper devices. It does offer Holokote Security Watermarking and allow for rewritable cards to be used.

If it comes down to cost then you do need to consider that the Magicard Pronto card printers are £995 each, but you will need to buy the professional software if you want to make cards with magnetic strips and smart cards you will need the extra software for £299, making a total of £1294

The Evolis Pebble is £1658.33 which is more expensive but all the software is included, the badges print in high definition at 300dpi, it’s faster and does have more add-ons to the actual machine.

It is always worth considering what you want out of an ID Card printer and making your selection based on what suits your organisation.