Abstract: A printing process that reduces the amount of flash that occurs when printing to a surface of a plastic card. The printing can occur by a retransfer printing process. The printing process includes generating an image canvas that has rounded corners instead of the conventional right angle corners. The use of rounded corners on the image canvas reduces the amount of printing in the image canvas at the corners compared to an image canvas that has right angle corners, thereby reducing the amount of printing that is present that could form flash at the corners of the card surface.

Abstract: Systems and methods where a delay time between a first card processing mechanism, such as a drop-on-demand printer that prints with UV curable ink, and a second card processing mechanism, such as a UV curing station, can be altered to adjust the travel time of the card from the first card processing mechanism to the second card processing mechanism. First and second card buffers can be provided between the first card processing mechanism and the second card processing mechanism. Each of the first and second card buffers is independently logically controlled to permit independent control of the transport time of a card through each card buffer. Alternatively, a single card buffer or more than two card buffers can be provided between the first card processing mechanism and the second card processing mechanism.