Technology

Magnetic / Swipe Cards

A magnetic stripe card is a type of PVC card with a band of magnetic material embedded into resin on the back of the card. The magnetic stripe is read by physical contact and swiping past a reading head. Magnetic stripe cards are commonly used in credit and identity cards. A magstripe encoder is available for all Magicard printers.

Printer Selector

About coercivity

There are two 2 types of magnetic cards : High coercivity (HiCo) and low coercivity (LoCo).

Usually low coercivity magnetic stripes are a light brown color, and high coercivity stripes are nearly black.

Encoding for the three tracks can use either the ISO 7811 format, or, for special application, a user specific custom format can be employed.
HiCo cards are more reliable than LoCo cards as the magnetic layer is denser and therefore much less susceptible to stray field erasure.

Other types of cards with magstripe:
Smart cards are a newer generation of card containing an integrated circuit chip. The card may have metal contacts connecting the card physically to the reader, while contactless cards use a magnetic field or radio frequency (RFID) for proximity reading.

Hybrid smart cards include a magnetic stripe in addition to the chip — this is most commonly found in a payment card, so that the cards are also compatible with payment terminals that do not include a smart card reader.

High coercivity magstripes are harder to erase, and therefore appropriate for cards that are frequently used or require a longer life. They are to be preferred for any new application, despite their slightly higher cost.

High coercivity

Low coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes.

Low Coercivity

Printer Recommendations for Magstripe cards

All Magicard printers can be supplied with a magnetic stripe encoding option.

Transform this single-sided printer into double-sided operation at any time. Find out more

Enduro

Double-sided color ID card printer for high throughput and high visual security.
Find out more

Tango 2E