BADGES & LANYARDS
28 SEPTEMBER 2026
Most badge decisions get made in a design file, at full zoom, on a screen that looks nothing like the conditions the badge will live in. Then the run arrives, and the name is unreadable from a metre away, or the holder covers the access level, or the badge spins all day so the printed side faces the wearer's chest.
Size and format are the two decisions that cause the most trouble at the door, and the two that are hardest to fix once a run is printed. Content is a separate question, and one we have covered elsewhere. This is about the physical object: how big, which way up, how many sides, and what that does to the queue.
The door decides the format, not the design
Before you pick a size, write down what the door has to do with the badge. Usually it is one of three things: a person reads a name, a person reads an access level, or a reader reads a chip. Sometimes all three, in about a second and a half, at arm's length, in bad lighting.
That list sets the format. If the access level has to be legible to a volunteer who started this morning, it needs a block of colour and a short word that survives being half covered by a holder. If a reader is involved, the chip has to sit in the same position on every badge in the run, not wherever the artwork left room.
Design inside the format, never the other way round. Choosing a size because the logo looks good in it is how you end up with a name line two thirds of the size it needed to be.
The sizes you will actually be choosing between
There are only a handful of formats in common use, and each carries consequences.
Card size (85.6 x 54 mm). The ISO ID-1 format, the same footprint as a bank card. Compact, rigid, easy to carry after the event. The limitation is the name line: long names wrap or shrink, and there is little room for both a name and a job title at a readable size.
A7 portrait (74 x 105 mm). A tidy compromise for smaller conferences. Vertical room for a name, an organisation and a level band, without the badge dominating the wearer.
A6 (105 x 148 mm). Generous. Room on the front for a name readable across a room, and room on the back for a session grid or a floor plan. It is also large enough to flap and curl if the material is thin.
Wide landscape (140 x 88 mm). The format of our own RFID Conference Badge. The extra width lets the name line run the whole badge, so a long first name still gets a big cap height, with a strip left for a logo and a level band. For badges that have to read at a distance and scan reliably, this is the easiest format to get right.
Whichever you pick, size it from the longest name on your list, not the average one. Names do not average out at the door, they queue up at it.
Portrait or landscape, and what the lanyard does to each
A badge hanging from a single point rotates. All day. This is the most common complaint about conference badges, and it is not a badge problem, it is a geometry problem.
Two attachment points fix it. A landscape badge with two slots, hung from a lanyard with two hooks, cannot pivot. A portrait badge on one central slot will turn, and once it turns, everything on the front stops existing as far as the door is concerned.
Worth saying plainly, because it gets muddled in briefs: the chip lives in the badge, never in the lanyard. The lanyard carries weight and brand, nothing else. For a slimmer profile at a high volume registration desk, the RFID Event Badge Slim is built for that; when the level band has to read from further away, the RFID Access Pass Wide buys you the real estate.
One side or two
Double sided printing solves the spin problem in the print file instead of in the hardware. If both faces carry the same information, it does not matter which way the badge lands.
The back is also the most underused space at any congress: a session grid, a floor plan, a wifi password, an on site number. Attendees look at their own badge far more often than at a printed programme, because it is already in their hand.
Two cautions. A second face doubles the artwork you have to proof, and late changes on a back face are the ones that slip through unchecked. And if you only mirror one element, mirror the access level. That is what the door reads, and what costs you time when it is missing.
Material and finish: what survives three days of handling
Format decides legibility. Material decides whether the badge still looks like your event on day three.
PVC is the default for multi day congresses. Rigid, holds full colour, takes a slot punch without tearing, survives being shoved in a pocket.
FSC wood reads as premium and matte, and the FSC claim is legitimate here because it applies to wood and bamboo. It does not transfer to any other material, so do not let it travel across your spec sheet.
rPET carries recycled content and a lighter, more paper like feel.
Our conference badge can be produced in all three, at 140 x 88 mm.
On finish, matte beats gloss at the door almost every time. Gloss picks up overhead lighting exactly where the name is, and a volunteer squinting at a reflection is a volunteer who waves people through without checking.
Writing the spec so you get what you pictured
A badge spec that leaves nothing to interpretation is short. Dimensions in millimetres. Orientation. One side or two. Material. Matte or gloss. Corner radius. Number of slots and where they sit. If there is a chip, the family and the frequency, and whether it arrives blank, pre encoded or with variable data. Quantity. The date it has to be in the room.
Then work backwards from that date. Production runs 10 to 12 days from artwork approval, and approval is the milestone that slips, not production. A physical sample before you approve is worth the days it costs: hold it at arm's length, under the worst light you can find, and read it out loud. That finds more problems than another pass over the PDF.
If you want a second opinion on a format before you commit a run, send the spec to hello@accesioid.com or book a call with Marco through the link in the footer. We have been making event credentials for over a decade, in more than forty countries.
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