MagTek EC2000 99875631 - Manual (Page 2)

Technical Bulletin (Document Number 99875631)
ExpressCard 2000 Tipping and Emboss Areas
MagTek I 1710 Apollo Court I Seal Beach, CA 90740 I Phone: (562) 546-6400 I Technical Support: (888) 624-8350
www.magtek.com
Page 2
1 Introduction
The ExpressCard 2000 (EC2000) provides features for embossing characters on cards and for tipping
those embossed characters with foil. Introductions to embossing and foil tipping are provided in
99875600 ExpressCard 2000 User Installation and Operation Manual, and details for developing
custom card designs are provided in 99875611 ExpressCard 2000 Programming Reference Manual /
Windows XML Specification. This technical bulletin provides supplemental information pertaining to
the emboss and tipping areas of custom card XML designs created using that reference.
2 Tipping and Emboss Areas
2.1 Caution About Emboss and Tipping Areas
The emboss and tipping areas of the EC2000 are governed by ISO/IEC 7811. To allow customers
additional flexibility for custom applications, the EC2000 will allow embossing outside the area defined
by that standard, but MagTek Engineering strongly recommends only creating card designs that fall
within that area. Non-conformant designs can cause issuance and usage problems, including cards that
could prematurely wear out card feeding mechanisms, or jam in card slots and conveyors.
2.2 EC2000 Tipping Area
The outer boundaries where the EC2000’s foil tipper can cover a CR80 card are shown in Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1 - Tipping Area Defined by Character Edges
To make sure a design stays within the specified boundaries, developers must take into account font
dimensions and spacing, device calibration, string lengths, and so on. Some experimentation, testing, and
careful measurement are generally necessary during the design process to make sure the XML will
produce the desired results in all use cases.