Re: Printer which can copy driver's license on one side and car registration card on another

On 11/22/2020 11:29 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
> On 23/11/2020 2:09 pm, VanguardLH wrote:
>> s <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> A friend of mine is a small hotel owner in Florida and wants a printer
>>> which can copy driver's license on one side and car registration card on
>>> another and use only the required paper instead of 8.5 X 11 size paper.
>>> His business is down because of the pandemic
>>> so he is trying to save on paper, printer ink costs. For legal reasons,
>>> he has to make a paper copy of a customer's driving license and car
>>> registration card when a customer checks-in to his hotel.
>>>
>>> I searched and did not see any printer model used by hoteliers
>>>
>>> Is there any printer for such custom needs?
>>
>> You won't say any money on ink.  The scanner will bring in just the
>> driver license.  The rest will be white (the scanner's back/topside).
>> Many scan programs even let you select which region of the scan will get
>> saved.  No matter the size of paper (as long as it is larger than the
>> driver's license), the same amount of ink will get used to print the
>> front and back sides.
>>
>> A ream (500 sheets) of 24-lb inkjet paper costs about $15 (price taken
>> from OfficeMax).  That's 3 cents per sheet.  You might find a sale for
>> cheaper paper, but quality will also suffer, like ink bleeding, poor
>> opacity, etc.  Printers usually take a variety of paper sizes.
>> Postcards will cost $23 for 200, but the cost goes up to over 11 cents
>> per card.  Sheets of business cards, about the size of a driver's
>> license, will cost you about 7 cents per card.  You'll need some
>> software that not only prints on a per-card spacing, but also
>> double-side prints to the same card.  Hard to beat the price of a single
>> 8.5x11 sheet of paper which is easy to double-side print with most
>> printers (just by flipping the paper to print the next image on the
>> other side).
>>
>> Why do you even bother to print a copy of the driver's license.  Use
>> your smartphone to take a pic of both sides.  Then store the pic online
>> with free storage,
> 
> Storing on-line isn't the best idea in my opinion. These are copies of 
> documents that can be used to prove identification so should be kept 
> very securely.
> 
> For the same reason I don't think it's wise to take a pic "with your 
> smartphone" (a lot of which automatically back up to 'the cloud'). Not 
> just that but they're prone to damage or loss. If pics rather than scans 
> are to be used then I would suggest a dedicated camera for the job.

Thanks, the owner is not tech-savvy. I told him to be safe with online 
backups.
> 
>> on a USB flash drive, a USB HDD, burn onto optical
>> discs if they're needed for business purposes for 7 years, or otherwise
>> use some digital storage media or service.  If, and only, if, you
>> someday need a hardcopy then you can print the stored front/back pics,
>> but only when needed.  "For legal reasons" requiring a paper copy, just
>> print several of the images per sheet of paper: front side of a dozen
>> driver's licenses on one side, back of the same dozen driver's licenses
>> on the other side.  Cut up the paper if they must be stored separately.
>> I didn't bother to look since it's not a task I'm interested in, but
>> there is likely some software that will print multiple images per sheet.
>> After, despite the hardcopy requirement, it's all digital images before
>> printing onto paper, so just print more images per sheet.
>