How Badge and Lanyard Printing Works

Please note, files must be submitted as a vectorized pdf file.

When it comes to printing badges and lanyards for your event, there are a wide number of options to consider. At PheedLoop, we provide these options at affordable rates, while keeping the ordering process simple and requiring as little effort from your team as possible.

Here is a broad overview of our team's badge and lanyard printing process.

Designing your Badge

Please note, this article is written with the assumption that your team has a member capable of creating designs for the badges and/or lanyards.

When an OnSite agreement is included in your contract, a PheedLoop Representative will reach out to you approximately eight weeks before your Event’s Start Date. During this outreach, they’ll review your order details with you to ensure everything is accurate and aligned with your event needs.

Before ordering badges, your team should make the following key decisions:

Determine whether you are printing your badges on-site or before your event
Determine whether you would like to use Premium, Economy, or Direct Thermal badges
Determine whether you would like to use Premium or Economy Lanyards
The design for your badge and/or lanyard (If you're printing on-site, make sure your badge design includes whitespace to print attendee information during check-in)

Most badges are designed internally and require little input from PheedLoop beyond the specifications. When designing badges for lanyards, share the designs as a vectorized PDF file for the best print quality.

When designing your badge, please keep the following in mind:

Badges should have a front and back side included
1. If the back side is blank, please include that in the design
Our default size for badges are 100 mm (~4") x 140 mm (~5.5")
1. Please note, submitted files should be sized at 104 (~4.09”) x 144 mm (~5.6”) to accommodate the bleed area.
2. We also offer sizes for Direct Thermal Badges at 100 mm (~4”) x 75 mm (~3”). Please note that this option provides less space for design elements.
Our default size for lanyards are 900 mm (~35") x 20 mm (~0.75")
For lanyards, please note that small text (such as © or ™) will not print out well due to the size of the lanyard itself

Choosing between On-Site Printing or Pre-Printing

Deciding whether to pre-print badges, print them on-site, or use a mix of both depends on your event size and timeline. Regardless of your decision, we recommend renting at least two OnSite kiosks from PheedLoop to handle reprints or last-minute adjustments to your attendee information.

Smaller events often pre-print badges to lower costs and minimize the need for on-site equipment and staff. However, for larger events, pre-printing can be impractical due to logistical challenges, frequent updates, and late registrations.

Differences between Premium, Economy, and Direct Thermal Badges

PheedLoop offers three industry-standard badge options that differ only in material—each shares the same dimensions and layout:

Premium Badge: Hard plastic
Economy Badge: Thick card stock
Direct Thermal Badge: Paper with a thermal coating

All badges measure 100 mm (~4") x 140 mm (~5.5"), can be fully printed in color on both sides, and include two holes at the top for double-clip lanyards. The number of holes, size and placement of the holes can be customized. If your design requires unique hole placements, please mention your preferred hole punch style when submitting your order. You can also request a different claw for your lanyard to ensure a better grip as part of your order.

Direct Thermal Badges, our most affordable option, are made from chemically treated thermal paper that prints without label rolls. They fold from the bottom and are secured with lanyards (either from PheedLoop or provided by your team).

Submission & Order Requirements

Each badge or lanyard design requires a minimum order of 100 units.
You may submit a maximum of 2 unique badge designs as part of your order, ideal for differentiating stakeholders like Attendees and Speakers. Additional designs can be accommodated for a fee of $200 each.
Design files must be vector PDFs for the best print quality.
For pre-printed badges, instructions are provided in your intro email. Please include a .CSV file containing all printable fields from your Event Dashboard. A PheedLoop Representative will walk you through this process.
Different hole shapes can be accommodated upon request.

Note: All designs must be sent to us using the CMYK color model and not RGB.

Downloadable Template for Badge Designs

A PheedLoop representative will provide complimentary templates to help you get started with your design. To view them now, click here to download.

Customizing Attendee Information for Badge Layouts

If you're printing badges on-site, you'll need PheedLoop’s OnSite Badge Transparent Films—thin adhesive sheets used with our OnSite Check-In Kiosk printers. Attendee information is printed directly onto the film, which is then applied to the front of each badge by hand.

Direct Thermal Badges do not require films or label rolls. Their thermal coating allows the information to be printed directly onto the badge.

Badge layouts are fully customizable in the Event Dashboard, with support for multiple templates and fields like QR codes, names, organizations, titles, and tags. You can adjust the size and placement of each field to fit your design.

For more information, please refer to our Setting Up Your Badge Label Template for On-site Badge Printing article.

Differences between Premium and Economy Lanyards

PheedLoop offers two industry-standard lanyard options:

Premium Custom Lanyard – Full-color printing across the entire lanyard based on your custom design.
Economy Custom Lanyard – Choose from a selection of standard base colors and apply a repeating white graphic along the length.

Both options feature double clips to prevent badge rotation and measure 900 mm (~35") x 20 mm (~0.75"). Different lanyard claws can be supported upon request.

Design Requirements

Premium Custom Lanyards: Submit your design at exactly 900 x 20 mm, using the CMYK color model (not RGB). Designs must be provided as vector PDF files and can include any colors or branding.
Economy Custom Lanyards: Submit a single white graphic with a transparent background in high-resolution JPEG or PNG format along with the color of the lanyard. Colors can be selected when creating your order in the Event Dashboard.

Please note, economy lanyards only support a single white graphic and cannot accommodate multiple colours or design variations.

When submitting your lanyard designs to PheedLoop, you may submit a single design or multiple depending on your event requirements (e.g. if attendees receive different lanyards from sponsors). Please note that we require a minimum purchase of 100 lanyards for each design.

How Much Lead Time is Required?

For badges and/or lanyards, all designs, layouts, designs are due 5-6 weeks before your event start date. A member from PheedLoop will provide an exact deadline for your OnSite order.

For OnSite staffing and/or hardware, you must inform our team of your requirements at least 8 weeks prior to the date you would like staff or hardware on-site. PheedLoop will also reach out to you ahead of your event to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Pricing Information

For detailed pricing information, please visit our sales page.

Free Sample Kit

Sometimes it helps to touch and feel the different options, we totally get it! Submit a request to get a free OnSite materials kit from PheedLoop and we'll ship one to you!