Low Budget or Rush Printing Using Badge Sheets

Badge Sheets are a quick, cheap, and DIY way to print badges for your event on any old printer. More importantly, Badge Sheets don’t require the OnSite Check-In power up or PheedLoop’s custom badge and lanyards system to use, making them an affordable option for your event needs.

Generally, we see this system being used in the following cases:

Events with very basic badge requirements, standard 4" x 3" badges
Events with fewer than 200 or so attendees, though there's no actual lower or upper limit
Events in a rush to meet a deadline
Events needing to print some walk-in badges
Older and more traditional events that are used to pre-printing and stuffing their badges

Whatever your reason may be to go this route, the end result is something that still works great for countless events we power!

Step 1 - Test the Badge Sheet Export

Attendees can have their badge sheet printed as soon as they are uploaded into the Event Dashboard. For more information on uploading attendees into the event dashboard, please review our Importing Attendees into an Event article.

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Sheets
Select the checkboxes of the attendees you wish to print
Above the Badge Sheets table, select Actions > Export Badge Sheets

After a few seconds, you will see a PDF document pop up with badges and QR codes included. Please note, depending on the number of attendees selected, it can take up to a minute for the PDF document to generate.

Printing Badge Singles

In some cases, you may not want to print badge sheets and instead print them one by one. This is possible and can be done on an individual basis or all at once. For more information on uploading attendees into the event dashboard, please review our Importing Attendees into an Event article.

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Sheets
Select the checkboxes of the attendees you wish to print
Above the Badge Sheets table, select Actions > Export Badge Singles

Not all regular printers will be able to print something this small as their trays may not fit 4" x 3" stock, so you may need to check your printer for compatibility or acquire a printer that works. We've found the best printer for this job is the Epson PM-400. This printer is widely available and works great for printing individual badges. You can purchase the same badge sheets and tear away the blank single badges to create a stack of them to feed into the tray, or simply buy pre-cut 4" x 3" card stock from various online sources of stationery items or print supplies. The PM-400 is not the only printer that can work, of course. Any photo printer is a good bet as they are very well suited for the job of printing badges given how similar the size is to a photograph (plus the printers can be quite compact too!).

Step 2 - Print Your Badge Sheet

You need two things at this point, a printer and compatible badge paper stock. As you may have noticed, the badge sheets have 6 badges on them, 4 inches wide by 3 inches tall. The dimensions and number of badges per page will vary across different Avery templates., We've found the following options from Avery to work great: 5384, 5393, 74459, 74536, 74540, 74541, 78617, 78619, 5392. These are different products offered by Avery ( example of 5384) that are very similar with some minor differences in what they come bundled with and such. These products can be sourced from Avery directly, or more commonly from Amazon, Staples, OfficeMax, Grand and Toy, etc. We recommend trying this out yourself.

For printers, we recommend using color inkjet or laser printers. The better the quality of the printer, the nicer your badges will look. The Avery sheets are perforated, and many of the products come with lanyards and badge holders, so you simply tear away the individual badges from the sheets and you're ready to go!

Customizing Badge Sheets with the Badge Sheet Configurator

The design of Badge Sheets can be customized with the Badge Sheet Configurator. Here, you can customize the banner of the badge sheet as well as the Avery template you wish to print with.

The Badge Sheet Configurator does not require the OnSite Check-In Power Up and can be accessed at any time.

To access the Badge Sheet Configurator

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Sheet Configurator

You will now be taken to the Badge Sheet Configurator where you can customize your badge and preview the print in real time.

The following sections can be found in the Badge Sheet Configurator:

Layout

Event Badge Banner

The Event Badge Banner field is where you can upload an image to go along with your badge. Select Choose File to upload your image.

Badge Content

The Badge Content field is where you can include or exclude information within your badge sheet through HTML.

The following fields that can be impacted:

First Name
Last Name
Organization
Designations
Title
Tags
Banner Image
QR Code
City
State
Dietary Restrictions
Code Badge

We strongly recommend saving a copy of the code prior to editing as a backup.

Badge Style

The Badge Style field is where you can make edits to your badge via CSS.

The following fields that can be impacted:

Badge Container
Banner
Full Name
Tags
QR Code

We strongly recommend saving a copy of the code prior to editing as a backup.

Sheet Configuration

Sheet Configuration covers the stock the badge sheets will be printed on. Only the Label Stock field is editable and the other fields will change depending on what is chosen in the Label Stock field.

Label Stock

The Label Stock field provides a list of label stocks for you to choose from. As you select your stock, the other fields in this section will change.

The follow label stocks are available for selection:

Avery 5384
Avery 5395
Avery 5384
Avery 5393
Avery 74459
Avery 74536
Avery 74540
Avery 74541
Avery 78617
Avery 78619
Avery 5392

Rows

The Rows field will display the number of rows in each page of the badge sheet.

Columns

The Columns field will display the number of columns in each page of the badge sheet

Label Width (inches)

The Label Width will display the width of the badge in inches.

Label Height (inches)

The Label Height will display the height of the badge in inches.

Preview

The Preview section is where you can view a preview of the badge ahead of printing. The Preview is responsive and will refresh every time a change is saved.

Attendee

The Attendee field is used to select the Attendee for the preview. The selected Attendee will have their name and event information displayed on the badge.