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🎨 Card Design Guidelines

Guide for designers preparing badge artwork for printing physical access cards in Welcome Access.

Updated over a week ago

Card production in Welcome Access

In Welcome Access, we design a single template (HTML + background images) and print physical access badges directly from the same interface. Cards are produced on a card printer (for example HID FARGO DTC4500e, direct-to-card, 300 dpi). The standard size is CR80 (85.6 × 54 mm) — approximately 1012 × 638 px at 300 dpi.

Direct-to-card printers cover almost the entire surface (“edge-to-edge”), but a very thin white border may occur.

Who is this guide for?

This article is for designers creating card/badge artwork. You deliver clean background images (PNG/JPG) without variable text or images, in the correct size and resolution.

Variables such as name, title, company, and profile photo are injected by Welcome Workdays at print time.

✅ Do & ❌ Don’t

Do

  • Deliver CR80 layouts in 300 dpi, background as PNG/JPG without text/variables

  • Design in CMYK (not RGB) for predictable colors

  • Keep a safe area: at least 3 mm / 0.125" inside the edge for all text/logos

  • Add matching bleed where relevant

Don’t

  • Use thin borders or precise “hairline” lines near the edge (they often look uneven)

  • Expect 100% “over-the-edge” coverage from direct-to-card printers (a small border may remain)

  • Use very fine design elements, textures, or patterns (e.g. dots or “faded” backgrounds) — these rarely print well on card printers

📸 Profile photo – users in Welcome Workdays

Users upload their own profile photos. Important to know for card design:

  • Format: 4:3 (height 4, width 3)

  • The face should fit within a circle and fill the entire area

  • We do not remove backgrounds, so design should assume a plain/light background

Guidance given to users:

  • Must fit the 4:3 format

  • White/light background

  • Full face clearly visible, facing forward, eyes open, no sunglasses

🔧 Variables available in templates

When setting up an HTML template, the following data can be pulled from Welcome Workdays:

User:

  • {{userFirstName}}

  • {{userLastName}}

  • {{userFullName}}

  • {{employeeId}}

  • {{jobTitle}}

  • {{profilePhoto}}

Company:

  • {{companyName}}

  • {{companyLogo}}

Background:

  • {{backgroundImageFront}}

  • {{backgroundImageBack}}

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