HID FARGO DTC1500 Dual-Sided ID Card Printer

The HID FARGO DTC1500 is a direct-to-card ID card printer built for schools, government agencies, healthcare facilities, and growing businesses that need secure credentials at a low cost per card. This is the dual-sided base model, part number 051405 (also listed as 51405): it automatically prints the front and back of each card, ideal for adding barcodes, data, or instructions to the reverse. USB 2.0, Ethernet, and an internal print server are all standard, so it can serve a single desk or be shared across your network from day one.

It prints at 300 dpi, combining dye-sublimation color with resin thermal transfer for sharp black text and barcodes. A full-color card takes about 16 seconds, a dual-sided color card about 24, and a monochrome card about 6. High-capacity consumables are the DTC1500's signature: the standard YMCKO cartridge yields 700 prints per roll and the dual-sided YMCKOK yields 600, so ribbon changes are less frequent and each card costs less. The cleaning roller is built into the ribbon cartridge and is replaced automatically with every ribbon change.

Security comes standard on every unit. The custom watermark feature embeds your logo or text permanently into the card's overlay panel, an inexpensive way to make counterfeiting extremely difficult without holographic overlaminates. AES-256 encryption protects card data in transit, resin scramble renders used ribbon panels unreadable, and password protection locks down printer operation. The DTC1500 is modular, too: a lamination module or magnetic stripe and smart card encoding can be added as your card program grows.