Glossary
ABA: American Bankers Association; sometimes used to refer to the
ANSI/ISO Track #2 encoded at 75 BPI density.
ABS: Polystyrene compound, a less durable (and lower print quality) alter-
nate material for the common plastic credit card.
ANSI: American National Standards Institute.
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ATM: Automatic Teller Machine.
BarCode: A series of vertical or horizontal printed stripes are spaced in such a
manner as to represent coded data. The spaces between the stripes are read
optically by a photo detector cell.
Barium Ferrite:A magnetic pigment, BaFe, with high coercivity (700-4000
oersteds).
Bleed Edge: The printing of solid colors to the edge of the credit card.
BPI: Bits per inch; the encoding density of a magnetic stripe.
Butterfly Pouch:An unlaminated ID badge with a hinge running along one
edge into which the prepared ID card is inserted and laminated.
Card: Commonly used generic term for magnetic stripe media regardless of
shape,construction, and material; e.g., magnetic stripe cards, badges, tickets,
forms.
Card Pass:Acard pass or pass occurs when the Print Head is engaged and
making contact with the media (i.e. card). A card pass is used primarily to
gaugePrint Head life. A printer pass does not have to print for a pass to count
fora pass of printer life. Example: A four color print CMYK and Varnish would
count as five (5) card passes.
Carrier:A thick paper folder with a hard glossy inner surface into which an ID
badge is inserted for processing through a laminator.
Character: The specific binary number (a pattern) and its associated letter,
number,symbol, or function in a set of data transmission codes, e.g., the AS-
CII code.
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