PVC Cards

PVC prox cards are made from durable white PVC. They are the same size and shape as a standard CR80 card.

Composite Cards

Composite prox cards are made from a more durable composite material of PVC and polyester, allowing them to withstand higher temperatures during the card lamination process. They are also the same size as a standard CR80 card.

Printable Cards

Not all prox cards are made from materials that can be printed on. If you need to print on your cards using an ID card printer, look for ones that are made specifically for printing. HID calls their printable cards ISOProx.

Clamshell Cards

Clamshell cards are thicker than a standard card, and use two pieces of rigid PVC to sandwich the proximity antenna. Clamshell cards cannot be printed using an ID card printer because of their size; instead, you can print on adhesive-backed CR79 cards and apply them to the clamshell card.

Magnetic Stripe Cards

These cards have a HiCo magnetic stripe, allowing you to store data on the card. This makes them useful as student ID cards, payment cards, and more. HID calls these DuoProx cards.

Key Fobs

These small prox cards are designed to fit on your key ring and come with a key ring slot. Although smaller than a traditional prox card, they still work the same.

Adhesive Tags

These adhesive-backed small disks work like a full sized prox card, but can be stuck onto another object to turn it into a proximity card. Most often used to convert existing employee ID cards into prox cards, these tags can also be stuck on phones, phone cases, and wallets.

Proximity Card Formats

The card format describes the way your prox card is encoded — it defines the way your card and the card reader will communicate. Not every card reader can read all the formats, so you need a reader and cards that use the same format.

When it comes to card formats there are several options to choose from, but 26-bit H10301 is the most popular format. There are also open formats, which any company can use, and proprietary formats that belong to a single business.

Facility Codes

The facility code, or site code, is a specific number that is used to identify your access control system. This number, usually between 0 and 255, is assigned to your system and programmed into the cards — if the facility code doesn’t match your system, the card will not work.

Your access control system can read more than one facility code, so it is not required that your new cards use the same facility code as the old ones (although you will need to update your system to allow the new code). This is used by many businesses and universities to assign different facility codes to different offices or campuses.

Card Range Numbers

The card range number, also called a sequence number, is the internal ID number for a card — along with the facility code, this is what identifies each card to your system. Depending on your card format, card ranges go from 0 to 65,535. It is essential that you do not repeat card numbers — this is what identifies each card, and duplicate cards will not work.

If you need more than 65,535 cards (or whatever the limit of your format is), you will need to use different facility codes; this allows you to have all the available card numbers in both ranges, because the facility code and card number will not match.

When ordering your next box of prox cards, start with the next number in your sequence. For example, if your last box had a card range of 400 — 550, your next box should start with card 551.