The Benefits of Blank Badges: Maximising Flexibility and Cost-Efficiency for Events

When planning an event, your badging and registration process sets the tone for your attendees' entire experience. A crucial part of this is the event badge. At Badge Wave, we offer both partially pre-printed badges and blank event badges ready to be printed on-site. Recently we’ve seen more event organisers are discovering the power and versatility of ordering blank badges and printing them fully on the day.

If you’re unsure of which route to take, here is a guide to the benefits of blank badges, the hardware you need, and the print quality you can expect.

A common concern for event organisers is whether a desktop printer can match the quality of a commercial printing press.

When you order pre-printed badges from us, we use industrial-grade presses like the Bobst Mouvent 702-UV. This high-end machinery delivers flawless, edge-to-edge UV printing with exact Pantone colour matching. This is perfect for long runs and large jobs where branding guidelines are incredibly strict.

That being said, the Epson CW-4000e is a powerhouse in its own right. It utilises advanced PrecisionCore technology to deliver exceptional print resolutions (1200 x 1200 dpi). The result is sharp text, highly detailed images, and rich, vibrant colours that are water, smudge, and fade-resistant. While it might not have the high-volume speed of an industrial scale, incredibly expensive, Bobst press, the Epson produces professional, photo-quality badges that will easily impress your attendees and sponsors.

Choosing blank badges and printing them on-site with a full-colour inkjet printer offers many advantages:

One of the greatest benefits of full-colour on-site printing is the ability to include attendee photos. Whether uploaded during pre-registration or taken at the check-in desk, you can print crisp, high-resolution headshots instantly onto a blank badge. This is fantastic for high-security corporate events where identity verification is crucial, and it serves as a brilliant icebreaker for networking!

Most events need to differentiate between categories—such as standard attendees, VIPs, speakers, press, and staff. If you use pre-printed badges, you must accurately guess how many of each design variation to order in advance. With blank badges and an Epson printer, you simply print a red banner for staff or a gold banner for VIPs as they check in. This means you never run out of a specific badge type, and reduce your waste.

While the benefits heavily outweigh the negatives, there are a few operational realities to keep in mind when choosing to print fully on the day:

• Colour Matching for Strict Brand Guidelines: While the Epson CW-4000e produces vibrant, high-quality images, it uses a standard CMYK ink process. If your event involves sponsors or corporate brands with extremely strict Pantone colour guidelines, a desktop printer may struggle to hit the precise shade required. In these cases, our industrial presses—which are calibrated for flawless colour matching—might be the safer bet for the branded elements.
• The Cost of Inks: Unlike the Zebra direct thermal printer which requires no ink, the Epson relies on four separate pigment ink cartridges. A full new set will cost you around £100. However, depending on your badge design, a set of inks will comfortably last you through thousands of badges. When you break it down, the ink cost per badge is just pennies, largely offsetting this initial expense.
• Slightly Slower Print Speeds: Full-colour inkjet printing takes slightly longer than firing out black text on a thermal printer. While the Epson is fast, printing complex, full-colour backgrounds on the spot takes a fair few seconds longer per badge. For large events with thousands of simultaneous walk-ups, you'll need to ensure you have enough printers stationed at registration to prevent bottlenecks.