Operations
ID cards that print right the first time
An ID card reprint is a cost the office absorbs twice: once for the cards and once for the week of collecting and reissuing them. Almost every reprint comes from four causes — the wrong card size, no bleed, photographs at the wrong aspect ratio, and a name that overflowed its box. This guide covers how to avoid all four, what belongs on a learner card, and what should never go on one.
Get the physical specification right before the design
Card printers are unforgiving in a way that A4 printers are not: there is no margin to lose, so a design laid out without bleed produces a white edge on a proportion of every batch.
- CR80 — 85.6 x 54 mm — is the standard plastic card size, the same as a bank card. Confirm with your printer before designing.
- Design at 300 dpi minimum. A logo pulled off a website at 72 dpi looks acceptable on screen and visibly soft on plastic.
- Add 2 mm bleed on every edge, and keep nothing important within 3 mm of the trim.
- Decide single or double sided first: the back carries the rules, the emergency contact and the barcode, and retrofitting it means redesigning the front.
- Ask the printer for one physical proof before the batch. A proof costs one card.
Photographs are where batches actually fail
The photograph is the only field the school does not control the format of, and in a batch of 600 there will be portrait phone snaps, scanned passport photos and group-photo crops. Fix the rules at collection, because fixing them at print time means 600 manual crops.
- One aspect ratio, stated on the admission form, and enforced at upload
- A plain background, so a card does not carry somebody's living room
- A minimum pixel size that survives being printed at card scale
- Head-and-shoulders framing, consistent, or the cards look like a collage
- A visible placeholder for a missing photo, so the gap is caught before printing and not after
What belongs on the card, and what does not
The instinct is to put everything identifying on the card. That instinct is wrong: a learner ID card is carried by a child, left on buses, and photographed. Everything on it is effectively public, which rules out most identity data.
- On it: name, photograph, class or batch, roll or admission number, the institute's name and logo, validity, and an emergency contact number
- On the back: blood group if your institute policy calls for it, the return-if-found line, and a barcode or QR for your own systems
- NOT on it: Aadhaar number, APAAR ID, PEN, home address, date of birth, or a parent's full name
- Think about the found card: what does whoever picks it up now know about this child?
Batching 600 without a reprint
The difference between a smooth print run and a painful one is entirely in the checks you run before the file goes out.
- Generate the whole batch from the learner records, not from a re-typed spreadsheet
- Run a completeness check first: missing photo, missing roll number, missing class
- Check the longest name in the batch against the name box — that is your layout test
- Print one sheet, physically, and look at it before releasing the batch
- Keep the batch definition, so a mid-year joiner gets an identical card rather than an approximation
How Classfold does it
Classfold builds card batches from the learner and staff records already in the system, so the name, class, roll number and photograph come from one source rather than a re-keyed list. Fields are selected per batch, which is how the identity numbers stay off the card while remaining on the record, and the batch is paginated for printing so a mid-year joiner can be issued a card identical to the rest of their class.
- Batches drawn from learner and staff records, not a spreadsheet
- Per-batch field selection, so identity numbers stay on the record and off the card
- Student, faculty, staff and administrator card types
- A reusable batch definition for mid-year joiners
Everything in one place
What the platform covers
Built from the records
Names, classes, roll numbers and photographs come from the learner record, so a card cannot disagree with the register.
Fields chosen per batch
Identity numbers stay on the profile and off the plastic, by selection rather than by remembering.
Reissue without redesign
The batch definition is kept, so a joiner in November gets the same card as their class got in April.
Questions, answered
Frequently asked questions
What size is a standard school ID card?
CR80, 85.6 x 54 mm — the same as a debit card, which is why it fits a wallet and a lanyard holder. Confirm with your printer anyway, because some local printers work to a slightly different trim and that is exactly the mismatch that produces a white edge.
Should a student ID card show the Aadhaar number?
No. A card carried by a child is effectively a public document — it gets left behind and photographed. Aadhaar, APAAR ID, PEN, the home address and the date of birth all belong on the protected record, not on something that can be found on a bus seat.
Why do our printed cards look blurry?
Almost always a low-resolution source image: a logo or photograph that is fine at screen size and under 300 dpi at card size. Printing cannot add detail that is not in the file, so this is caught at upload or not at all.
How do we handle a lost card?
Decide the reissue fee and the turnaround before the first batch, and keep the batch definition so a replacement is generated rather than designed. A lost-card policy invented on the day is how reissues end up free and endless.
Do families need to install an app to receive this?
No. Classfold has no parent app and no parent login. Notices, fee dues, attendance alerts and results go to families over WhatsApp, SMS and email under your institute's own name, so there is nothing for them to download or remember a password for.
What does Classfold cost?
Plans are published in full and priced by learner count, starting at ₹180/month for up to 90 learners. There is no implementation fee and no quote-only tier except the custom one for very large networks. See the pricing page.