Plastic cards with signature strip

The signature strip allows you to place the owner’s signature on the card. It is possible to put on the card several signature strips of different sizes, allowing for more extensive personalization or the placement of various data depending on your needs.

Plastic cards with a signature strips – basics and applications

The signature strip is a special varnish that is applied to a designated area on the card. Thanks to this varnish, you can write on the card with a pen, pencil, or marker. If a laminated or varnished card lacks this dedicated strip layer, it is impossible to place a permanent signature on the card with a pen. Yes, you can still write text with a CD marker, but the marker ink may smudge after a short time.

The signature strip can have various shapes and sizes and be located anywhere on the card. It can even cover the entire surface of the card; in such a case, the card can be, for example, a coupon for marking already-used offers.

Most often, however, the place for entering data is in the form of a rectangle with straight or rounded corners.

Cards with signature strip – applications

Plastic cards with a signature strip can have a wide range of uses in business, e.g. as:

• gift cards with space to enter wishes or amount to be used
• membership cards or ID cards with fields for completing personal data and the card bearer’s signature
• luggage tags with fields for entering contact details
• “in case of an accident” cards, “SOS” cards, donor cards – cards featuring dedicated sections for writing personal medical information such as health conditions, medications, allergies, and emergency contact information
• bookmarks with space to write your favorite quotes
• pet IDs with a field for entering the pet’s owner’s contact details.

These are just a few of the many uses of such cards. A signature strip is a very common addition, and in many cases, it successfully replaces personalization performed by machine (e.g., thermal printing). If you need, for example, patient cards, club cards or ID badges but do not want to print them with personal data, signature strips are an excellent choice in this case.

A signature strip with a security option

If necessary, the signature strip can be additionally protected against forgery attempts. This protection involves applying a layer of special pigment to the signature strip, which is damaged upon contact, e.g., with an eraser or other agent or tool.
In other words, you can put a signature on a strip covered with such varnish, but any attempts to erase the signature will visibly damage the strip. This is a simple, popular, and quite effective method of securing cards with a signature strip.

Cards with signature strip for self-personalization

In the case of cards with a lot of personal data, such as business and student ID cards, you can use a solution that allows for self-personalization of the card, and permanent protection of the data.

Such a card may have several stripes for a signature and a place for a photo. This will allow you to manually enter the data and place the photo in the appropriate field. After writing down the data and placing the photo, a special foil is glued to the card, which constitutes a protective laminate and prevents tampering with the stored data.

This solution reduces the cost of card creation because it does not require machine personalization. It will also allow for any personalization of the card “on site”, which is very helpful when we do not know the details of all the people who will use these cards before the production process.

Preparing the project

When designing the project of a plastic card with a signature strip, remember that the signature strip is transparent. Therefore, you should put the color on the card where the final signature strip will be placed. We also have a white signature strip, but it is less frequently used due to its lower universality.

To order cards with a signature strip, in addition to the main card project, you must prepare a separate file in PDF format for all the elements that are to be covered with the signature strip. These elements must be 100% black (K only).

Cards with a signature strip are a great way to personalize cards yourself, provide additional card security, or create a unique card that fulfills specific functions. Please contact us to consult on the technical aspects of making cards with a space for a signature. Or use the quotation form to obtain the approximate cost of making such cards.