Metal or plastic nametags: which should you order?

Both are printed the same way: the ink is turned into a gas and driven into the surface, so it cannot scratch off the way a sticker or an engraved fill can. What differs is what it is driven into.

Metal

Aluminium, in brushed gold, brushed silver or white. The brushed finish catches the light and shows through any part of the design with no ink on it, which is why a logo on brushed metal looks like it belongs on the tag instead of like it was stuck on top.

• Looks more formal. This is what you want at a bank, a funeral home, a law office or a front desk.
• Has some weight to it, which people read as quality.
• Takes a rounded corner: a quarter inch for a softer look, an eighth for a crisper one.
• Can be ordered in Sumo Style: metal half again as thick, for a tag with real heft.

Plastic

A matte white plastic badge. Colours land bright and flat on it, with no metal underneath to shift them, so a logo with strong colour reproduces most accurately here.

• Lighter, which some people prefer on a thin blouse.
• The most accurate colour of the four, because the background is neutral white.
• Two sizes rather than four.
• Slightly more forgiving if it is dropped on a hard floor.

Which to pick

If the tag is part of how the organization presents itself, at reception, in sales, anywhere a customer reads it while talking to the person wearing it, order metal and match it to your logo: gold for warm marks and traditional institutions, silver for most things, white metal when the logo has strong colour that needs to stay true.

If the tag is mainly practical, for a volunteer day, a school or a workshop where they get handled hard and replaced often, plastic does the job and does it well.

The quantity discount is worked out across your whole order, so a mixed order of metal and plastic still earns the price its total number of tags deserves.