You're unlikely to want to print on plastic cards at home, but for the small business it can be very handy; for example, to produce your own ID cards, visitor or conference badges. Some may even want to add magnetic stripes and smart code encoding. All of which can be done using the surprisingly affordable P100i plastic card printer from Zebra Technologies.

A compact thermal printer, the P100i takes up about the same amount of space as a small laser or inkjet device and can print in either monochrome or full colour at 300dpi. A pop-in ribbon is the only major consumable required, slotting into place under the lift-up cover together with a separate cleaning roller supplied with it. Replacement ribbons (from £57 + VAT ) can print up to 200 cards, supplier Zebra also selling a variety of compatible cards, starting at £34 + VAT for a pack of 500 plain PVC blanks.

An external AC adapter provides the power and there's a choice of either direct USB or network connectivity courtesy of a built-in Ethernet port and integrated Windows print server. It's easy to install, with the necessary interface cables and sample cards included in the box, plus, in case you forget them, a test button at the rear to print out the network settings. Very little day-to-day management is required, so the Web-based console is pretty basic with optional SNMP support and e-mail alerting when attention is required.

The Windows drivers supplied with the P100i can be installed on any PC running Windows 2000 or later. You can also install sample card layouts in Microsoft Word format, although apart from printing on plastic, the P100i is much like any other printer and can be used with any Windows application.

We used the Word templates for our tests and were impressed with the speed and quality of the results. Holders for up to 100 blanks are located on the top of the printer with cards inserted individually via a slot at the front. Even when printing in colour the process takes just a few second, with finished cards ejected through the same aperture. No drying is needed and, although resolution is limited, reproduction is good with clear text plus identifiable logos, photographs and other graphics.

The only manual control is a large, shiny button, located underneath a small LCD status panel and used to put the printer into cleaning mode, respond to errors and eject cards should a jam occur.

To take advantage of the magnetic encoding facilities, you can either use menus in the Windows driver or embed the necessary commands into documents to be printed. However, neither of these is particularly easy and Zebra recommends the use of third-party software such as the popular nfive card design and printing tools which can also handle smart card encoding.

One alternative to the P100i is to outsource card printing to a specialist supplier. That, though, can be expensive, especially for small runs, plus you may have to wait days for the order to be processed and the end results delivered. For small companies the Zebra printer is a much more flexible solution, added to which it's easy to operate and doesn't cost the Earth, either to buy or run.

A compact and easy-to-use thermal card printer, the Zebra P100i offers an affordable and more flexible in-house alternative to out-sourcing the production of photo ID badges, security passes and so on. Magnetic card and smart card encoding can also be supported, although additional software is required to fully exploit these options.