Honestly, every time someone places an order for a Fargo ID card printer ribbon I’m reminded of alphabet soup. Yes, that orange/yellow soup you ate as a kid (maybe still eat, and I’m not judging if you do) filled with an assortment of letters and numbers. It isn’t hard to imagine why. The ribbons have names like YMCKK, YMCFK, YMCKI and YMCKH. Let’s be honest, that is a mouthful (okay, that was a pretty awful pun).

Ordering these Fargo ribbons might be a little easier if you learned what those letters actually mean. To help with that, these letters mean the following:

• Y – yellow panel
• M – magenta panel
• C – cyan panel
• K – black resin panel
• H – heat seal panel
• F – fluorescing panel
• I – inhibitor panel

Now depending on which of these letters is included in the ribbon name, those letters will tell you exactly what that particular ribbon does. For example, a YMCK ribbon is capable of printing full color cards while also possessing a resin black panel. This enables the YMCK ribbon to also print barcodes or text that requires a crisp black color. Another example is the YMCFK ribbon. This ribbon contains a fluorescing panel that enables you to produce images that are only visible with ultraviolet light. This provides an end user with a cost effective way to include an anti-counterfeiting security measure within each card produced.

Please give us a call at (317) 488-1030 to learn more about our Fargo brand ribbons, as well as about our Evolis, Zebra and Datacard ribbons. We are happy to walk you through the process, and if you decide to stop by our offices, we will give you a bowl of alphabet soup.