Margriet Spriensma, auteur op Get BadgeMaker

BadgeMaker Design: How to add a passport photo, signature and a dynamic logo

Written by Margriet SpriensmaTuesday May 25th, 2021

Thank you for choosing the ID card maker BadgeMaker, this post shows you how to use placeholders for dynamic data like an ID photo, signature or a dynamic logo in your card design.

Step 1. Add an ID photo placeholder

To personalize a card, you can add a placeholder for an ID photo, that is automatically linked to the card holders’ ID photo’s in your BadgeMaker Identity project.

Click on the ID Photo tool in BadgeMaker Design and click on the front of the card. Resize the ID photo element to your liking. You can add a border to frame the photo. Go to Element Properties, click on the style tab and change the border thickness.

Step 2. Add a Signature placeholder

A signature placeholder can also be added to your card design. The signature placeholder is also linked to the cardholders’ signatures in your BadgeMaker Identity project. The placeholder shows a dummy signature. Click on the signature tool and then click on frontside of the card. Resize the placeholder to the needed size and drag it to the correct location for your card design.

Add Signature Placeholder in id card maker BadgeMaker

Step 3. Add a Dynamic logo

Click on the Dynamic logo tool in the BadgeMaker Design toolbar, click on the card in the canvas and go to the first tab of the “Element properties”. Select the dynamic field representing the needed data for the dynamic logo.

Keep the aspect ratio and keep the interpolation mode set to default. Now add the dynamic logos, the images need to represent four countries so add four images. Click on the “…” button to select the flag images.

To get the correct flag to appear with the correct card holders’ country, add the associated value. This value needs to be the exact value corresponding with the data in the project. We will add USA, CA, UK and NL.

Do not forget to save the card design. You are now ready to use your card design in BadgeMaker Identity and create a project with card holders.

Thank you for choosing id card maker: BadgeMaker

ID Card Designer Add Static & Dynamic text

BadgeMaker Design, ID Card Software

BadgeMaker Design: How to add static & dynamic text

Written by Margriet SpriensmaTuesday May 4th, 2021

Thank you for choosing the ID Card Designer BadgeMaker, this post explains more about using the text tool and dynamic fields when creating your card design.

After creating the first steps of a card design, like the background and adding a logo it is time to add text to your card design.

You can make use of static text and or dynamic text. When creating a card design that does not contain any personalized data, like for example a gift card, static text can be used. When creating an ID card for your employees, dynamic data is needed for your card design. Typically, Dynamic data will change for every card printed.

In this example we create a design for an employee card, that displays the employee name, function, number and the expiry date of the card. The card design needs to be printed for thirty different employees.

You do not have to design thirty card designs and type in every card holders’ data by hand, we create dynamic fields so we can connect these dynamic fields to a data column that contains thirty names for example.

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Step 1. Add {Dynamic Fields}

Go to the Card design view in BadgeMaker Design and click on the dynamic fields tab, click on the “+” button to add a dynamic field. In this example we create five dynamic fields. Next, we are naming the dynamic fields, so we know which data they represent.

The first dynamic field will represent the “Firstname”, the second the “Lastname”, the third the “Function”, the fourth the “Employee number” and the fifth the “Expiry date”.

ID Card Designer, BadgeMaker Design Dynamic Fields

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Step 2. Add Static Text to your design

Now that we created the dynamic fields, we will use the text tool to add text to the card design. Click on the text tool, then click on the card and go to “Element Properties” to edit the text.

First create the static text labels, in this case “Name:”, “Function:”, “Employee number:” and “Expiry date:”.

ID Card Designer, BadgeMaker Design: Add Static text

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Step 3. Add Dynamic text elements

We also use the text tool for the dynamic text. You can use one text element for static and dynamic text, but for this design we want to give the text labels a different look from the dynamic data. Changing the font size and making the text bold.

Add Dynamic text elements using the dynamic fields, first select firstname from the dynamic field drop down menu and click on the add button. Do the same for the lastname, function, employee number and expiry date. You can recognize a dynamic field by the {braces} on each side of the word.

A nice personalized Card Design using images, shapes, static text and dynamic text created with BadgeMaker Design, the ID Card Designer.

ID Card Designer, Add Dynamic Fields to text

BadgeMaker Premium Card Design Templates

ID Card Software

BadgeMaker Store: Card Design Templates

Written by Margriet SpriensmaFriday March 5th, 2021

BadgeMaker Store

The BadgeMaker Store offers free and premium card design templates for you to download in BadgeMaker Design. These card designs make it easy to adjust and create the perfect design with the identity of your organization.

You will find different types of card designs in the BadgeMaker Store. Card templates for Healthcare, Education, Corporate, Food signs, Retail, Transport or Weddings for example. The Store updates from time to time with new products. The card design bundles have templates for employee badges, invites, id cards, access badges, name badges, menus, table cards, foodsigns and more.

Browse all designs by clicking on the different preview images on the Store home page. Get inspired whether you’re an ID badge maker or looking for that professional touch to your food signs.

Find the card design you want and add or purchase that card design bundle to ‘My items‘. Select the free or purchased card design in ‘My items‘ and download it. Once you’ve downloaded the design, it will be automatically opened onto your BadgeMaker canvas. Use the template by changing the colors to fit your corporate identity, add your own images and link your data.

How to select a free or purchase a premium card design from the Store

To browse the store, go to ‘Store‘ in the main menu and click on ‘Browse store‘. In the Store you see an overview of all the card design bundles available to select and add or purchase to ‘My items‘.

Click on the bundle image to learn more about the bundle and its card designs.

Click on ‘Add to My items‘ to add a free card design bundle or click on ‘buy now‘ to purchase a premium card design bundel and make them available for download.

Store: My items

All the free selected or purchased card designs from the Store can be found in the ‘My items‘. These card designs will always be available for you to download.

Click on ‘Download‘ to download the selected card design, give the downloaded card design a name and start working with it in Badgemaker Design.

Card Design Templates in My Items ready for download

BadgeMaker Design, ID Card Software

BadgeMaker Design Toolbar: Shapes & Images

Written by Margriet SpriensmaTuesday February 16th, 2021

Thank you for choosing BadgeMaker, this post explains more about using the shape and image tool in BadgeMaker Design when creating your card design.

Step 1. First step of your card creation is to choose a background

Open BadgeMaker Design and start a new card design. The next step of creating a card design is to create a background. Choose a blank background or use the shape or image tool to create a background. For the card design in this blog we use an image as background.

Select the Image tool and then click on the card on the canvas. Resize the image-element to cover the card. Now go to the element properties and select an image. Click on the “Select Image” button, select the background image for your card design and click the “Open” button. When your image has the correct size and you do not want the image to stretch, check the aspect ratio box. This will keep the original ratio of the image intact. If you want the same background image on the backside of the card you can copy and paste the image.

BadgeMaker Design, add a background image with the image tool

BadgeMaker Design, select image in Image element properties

Step 2. Add your company logo to the card design

Add a logo image to the front of the card, so the card represents your companies identity. Click the image tool again, click on the card and select your logo image. Do not forget to select the aspect ratio box. Resize the logo to fit the card using the handlers at the corners of the image.

Step 3. Use the shape tool to create a shaped layer

Now use the shape tool to create a lighter area as part of the design. Click on the Shape tool, click on the card and resize the shape element to your liking.

To adjust the color and border go to Element properties and click on the Style tab. Set the border thickness to zero. Click on the background color to select another color or change the transparency of the shape.

We will make this shape slightly transparent and click on ok.

A great start of a card design using shapes and images.

BadgeMaker Design Shape element properties

BadgeMaker Design, ID Card Software

Get started with a new card design in BadgeMaker Design

Written by Margriet SpriensmaWednesday February 10th, 2021

Thank you for choosing BadgeMaker, this post helps you to get started and setup a new layout in BadgeMaker Design.

Step 1. Start BadgeMaker Design and a new card setup

First step is to click on the BadgeMaker design icon to start the software for card design. DesignStudio offers three menus, the main menu, the quick menu and the toolbar. Click on “File” in the main menu, followed by “New Card Design” or use the quick menu and click the New Design icon to start a new design.

Step 2. Set the configuration of the new design

Use this pop-up window to set the configuration of the new card. Name your card design. Select a size format from the dropdown or select “custom” to manually enter a size. The CR80 card is used for most card designs and the ZC10L is the large card format for the Zebra ZC10L printer. A new design is double-sided by default, check the single-sided box to create a single-sided card design. Check the Magstripe box to add a Magstripe to your design.

In this example we will setup a double-sided card with Magstripe, portrait mode for the front and back with a specialty layer on the front side. Be aware that you need a printer and ribbon that support the specialty layer to be able to print a card design with specialty layers. Now click on the create button to get started with this layout.

Step 3. Start designing this card

Ok, the card setup is done, we are now ready to start designing this card. You can work with the canvas in different views, showing for example only the front side or back side.
Click on this second tab in the top right corner to change the card settings if needed. You are now ready to use the toolbar and start a great design.