Free ID Badge Maker — Employee ID Cards, Name Badges and Visitor Passes
Need employee ID cards, visitor passes or conference name badges? Pick a layout, set the size, add text, a photo and your logo, then drag everything into place on the card. Add a barcode or QR code if you need one, and print everyone's badge at once from an Excel list. No sign-up, no watermark — nothing you enter, not even the photos, is sent to a server.
6. Bulk cards — list from Excel (optional)
Drawing, PDF and PNG are produced in your browser; photos never leave your device. Libraries are served from our own server; no request goes to a third-party CDN.
How do you make an ID badge?
- Choose the size: bank-card size (CR80), lanyard card, large badge, A6/A7 or your own size — in millimetres or inches.
- Pick one of five ready layouts (employee, vertical ID, event, visitor, minimal) or start from a blank card.
- Type the texts and choose the photo and logo; add more text, images, shapes or a background if you need them.
- Drag and resize the items on the card; they snap to the edges and to each other.
- Turn on the back side and add a barcode or QR code if you want.
- Download straight away for one person, or paste an Excel list and get everyone's card in a single PDF.
What size is a standard ID badge?
A standard ID badge is the size of a bank card: ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1, 85.60 × 53.98 mm (3.370 × 2.125 in). The card trade calls it CR80, and a PVC card is usually 0.76 mm (30 mil) thick. Event and conference badges have no single standard; the sizes below are the common ones. Measure your badge holder before you print.
| Size | mm | inches | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISO ID-1 / CR80 | 85.60 × 53.98 | 3.370 × 2.125 | Employee ID, access card, bank card |
| CR79 | ≈ 84 × 52 | 3.303 × 2.051 | Adhesive-backed cards (use the tool's "Custom size") |
| CR100 | ≈ 98.5 × 67 | 3.88 × 2.63 | Oversize card; few card printers handle it |
| Holder card | 90 × 54 | 3.54 × 2.13 | Common European holder size ("Custom size") |
| Lanyard card | 90 × 60 | 3.54 × 2.36 | Hangs upright on a lanyard |
| Large badge | 100 × 70 | 3.94 × 2.76 | Names readable from a distance, visitors |
| Event badge (US) | 101.6 × 76.2 | 4 × 3 | The most common event badge in the US |
| A7 | 105 × 74 | 4.13 × 2.91 | Name badges, meetings |
| A6 | 148 × 105 | 5.83 × 4.13 | Conference badge — a quarter of A4 |
| Conference badge (US) | 152.4 × 101.6 | 6 × 4 | Large conferences printing session tracks or sponsors |
The tool shows sizes in the convention of where you are — inches in the US, millimetres elsewhere — and you can switch with the units list. The paper starts the same way, as Letter or A4.
How do you print name badges from Excel?
Copy your list from Excel together with the heading row and paste it into the "Bulk cards" box. The first line becomes the column names; every column name you write into the card's texts, such as {First name} {Last name}, is replaced by that row's value, and each row becomes one card. Write {ID} into the barcode or QR value and every card gets its own code. For personal photos, add a file-name column and select the photos together. In the preview you can step through the cards with the arrows and check each one before printing.
How do you print and cut badges?
For an office printer choose "Print sheet PDF": cards are laid out on A4 or Letter in the orientation that fits the most — nine bank-card-size badges fit on A4, for example — with crop marks at every card's corners. Print at "actual size" or 100 % scale; "fit to page" shrinks the card. With a back side, every front sheet is followed by its mirrored back sheet: print double-sided with "flip on long edge" for portrait sheets and "flip on short edge" for landscape sheets, and check the alignment with one test sheet first.
For a card printer (PVC cards) or a print shop use "Card-size PDF": every page is exactly the card size and the back is on the next page. A paper badge can go into a holder or be laminated; in an oily, dusty workshop lamination makes the badge last much longer.
What resolution should an ID badge photo be?
Card printers print at 300 dpi. A 1 × 1.25 in head shot needs about 300 × 375 pixels, and a full CR80 card face is 1013 × 638 pixels. A bigger image does not print sharper, it only makes the file larger — which is why the tool scales your photo down as it reads it. For logos a PNG with a transparent background gives the cleanest result; use a white logo on a dark band.
Where does the slot punch go on an ID badge?
The common slot is 1/2 × 1/8 in (about 12.7 × 3.2 mm). No ISO standard fixes its position, but it is usually centred on the top edge, a few millimetres in. The grey oval in the editor marks that spot; keep text and photos out of that strip. The blue dashed line is the safe area 3 mm in from the edge: small shifts when cutting will not touch what is inside it.
What this tool does not do
The tool designs cards and prepares the file to print. It does not make official IDs, driver's licenses or passports; it does not encode RFID, NFC or magnetic stripes; it does not set up a card printer's ribbon or driver for you. It keeps no records: close the page and the design and list are gone, so tomorrow you build the card again. It does not track who carries which badge or which job a badge was scanned on.
Where do my data and photos go?
Nowhere. The names, list and photos you enter on this page are never sent to our server. Photos are read and scaled down on your device; drawing, PDF and PNG generation run entirely in your browser. There is no endpoint on the server that accepts form data or files; you can verify this in your browser's network tab.
The page uses no cookie and no local storage to remember your work either — reload it and the design starts over. Like any web server, ours keeps access logs (IP address and timestamp) for 14 days. When you put your employees' names and photos on a card, you are the controller of that data. Privacy Policy and KVKK Information Notice explain the detail.
Frequently asked questions
What should be on an employee ID badge?
Name, photo, company name or logo, role or department and an employee number. Keep sensitive data such as a Social Security number or a home address off the card.
Should a badge use a barcode or a QR code?
Let your scanner decide: a 1D laser scanner cannot read QR codes, a camera-based (2D imager) scanner reads both. This tool makes Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, UPC-A and QR codes.
How do I paste my list from Excel?
Select the columns including the heading row, copy, and paste them into the "Bulk cards" box. The first line becomes the column names; write them into the card's texts as {First name} and you get one card per row. Up to 500 rows.
Can I add everyone's photo at once?
Yes. Add a column with the file names to your list (for example jane.jpg), then select all the photos together; the tool matches each row to its file by name. The photos never leave your device.
Can I make an official ID or a driver's license with this?
No. The tool is for workplace, school, club and event cards; producing false identification documents is a federal crime (18 U.S.C. § 1028).
Is it free — any watermark?
Free, no sign-up and no watermark on the cards. The print sheet carries only a small "made in the browser at smartifie.com" line in its bottom margin; nothing is added to the card itself.
Do accented letters survive in the PDF?
Yes. The PDF embeds a Roboto font, so letters such as ñ, á, é, ş and ğ print correctly.
Our article on what goes on the card and which code to choose: what belongs on an employee badge. If you only need barcodes: barcode generator.
If the badge should be scanned at a terminal
This tool ends once the badge is printed. On a shop floor the badge's real job is to be scanned: the operator scans it at a terminal, starts the job, picks the reason for a stop and finishes the job. Smartifie Start Stop runs that flow: it produces every operator's barcode badge itself and reports who started which job when, how long they stopped and why. Operators are unlimited; you can try Smartifie Start Stop free for 15 days, no card needed.
Scan the badge at a terminal with Smartifie Start Stop — try it free for 15 days