Digital card printers make photo identification easy and are now something any computer literate person can use. Thanks to increasing popularity and use, supplies are more cost effective and will run you less than
the older Polaroid-style composite photo ID cameras. With a complex and increasingly dangerous world, a digital card printer is a necessity for both security and safety.

Polaroid cameras used to be the norm for photo ID. A picture was taken, removed from the camera and about 60 seconds to two minutes after the picture was developed it was cut to size. The photograph was then later attached to a pre-printed template, where it was later laminated and punched for use with a lanyard or badge holder. Although Polaroid photo ID systems are decreasing in popularity, they still have their place with low-volume photo ID production and small businesses.

The newer digital card printers use a process called die sublimation, where the color ribbon uses several different colored panels to create a full-color image. The quality of the image is as good and in many cases

better than the older Polaroid-style composite ID systems. Most of these ribbons can create around 100 ID cards before being changed. Although the digital printer may seem like a large investment up front, the cost to operate it, purchase blank PVC cards and ribbons actually saves you money over the long run in comparison to the composite systems. Software can be used to help create a basic template

A digital photograph can then be placed on the template, a logo can be added and text written. The full-color card can later be printed as easily as using your ink-jet printer. The saved card and template makes replacement cards easy. Once the card is printed, it can be placed in a badge holder or be punched for use with a lanyard or badge reel.

Digital ID cards are commonly used for businesses, colleges and for other IDs. They are also used for hotel keys, gift cards and more thanks to an optional magnetic stripe encoder. Magnetic stripes are the dark lines located on the back of your common credit card. Lines of data can be written to that stripe with the digital card printer. Digital cards can also be factory built with a smart card encoder. Smart cards are computer chips that store data such as a name, address, account information and more.

If you work for a business, university or would like to create gift or novelty cards, a digital card printer may be for you. They will provide you with added security, versatility and the ability to create an ID card for any situation or occasion. To see our entire line of digital photo ID card printers, you can find them here.

We are proud to announce the addition of chamber vacuum sealers to our line of packaging products. These new chamber vacuum sealers quickly and efficiently package food products in seconds. Vacuum sealers can be used to package a variety of food such as deli meat slices, salmon, green beans, pretzels, potato chips and more. Some people even use vacuum sealers to protect items such as baseball cards and photographs, by preventing water and contaminants from damaging the product.

It is not uncommon to find an inexpensive vacuum sealer at a department store for under $100. Although good for home use, commercial food packagers and grocers do not use these sealers because the take a long time to remove air from a bag and are not designed for high-volume use. High-volume vacuum sealers not only remove air from FDA-approved plastic vacuum bags, but they can also be connected to an optional nitrogen gas line for extended shelf life for potato chips and pretzels.

Vacuum sealers can be set to tightly wrap plastic around a product, or provide a secure and oxygen-free bag for long-term packaging. You can adjust the removed air to be anywhere from one to 99.9 percent. Potato chip manufacturers use a similar process. They will have about 50 to 60 percent of the air removed, and replace the oxygen with nitrogen for extended shelf life. Most of our vacuum sealers are available with a gas-line hookup. Replacing existing air with nitrogen that prevents bacteria, and other contaminants, from growing and keeps the food from spoiling. If you are removing 99.9 percent of the air, nitrogen is not needed. With 99.9 percent of the air removed, bacteria cannot easily grow.

The first step in using a vacuum sealer is to place your product in a bag. The bag is then placed inside the chamber. The top cover of the chamber is then pulled down. Once the air begins to be removed from the chamber, manual pressure on the lid can be removed, as it will stay in place by itself. The chamber then removes the designated amount of air (up to 99.9 percent) from the chamber. The machine then seals the bag shut and returns the chamber air pressure back to normal. The air in the bag is not returned to normal, because it has been sealed. The end result is a properly vacuum-sealed product.

We are continually trying to find products to help make our customers’ daily jobs easier. Our addition of chamber vacuum sealers will help do this. We have created a video demo on our new vacuum sealers. The demo is about 18 minutes long and can be easily viewed by going to this page . High-speed Internet will be required to properly view this video demo.

ABC Office, a local Kaysville, Utah, company has successfully reached 25 years in business. With simple beginnings, ABC Office is now one of the most successful online office equipment stores that specialize in high-end office equipment and accessories. The company ships hundreds of packages a day, and expects business to keep growing.

It all started in the home of William Barlow in 1980. During that time, Mr. Barlow was working out of his home in Bountiful, Utah, selling office equipment to businesses. During that time, the company focused primarily on print shops and copy centers. The company grew quickly and a new office had to be purchased. A structure in the Bountiful city business district was purchased, gutted and remodeled to fit the company’s needs. Over the next few years the business continued to grow and additional office space was built.

In the mid 1990s, the Internet was beginning to grow in popularity and the idea of an online storefront took hold. In 1996, ABC Office initiated its first online Web site where customers could browse products, with ease, from their own computer. “We saw the potential of the Internet,” said Calvin Barlow, current president of ABC Office.

As soon as the Web site was built, calls and orders started coming in from around the world. ABC Office used to sell primarily to customers in Utah, but with the introduction of the Web site, the company began to sell more and more outside the state. The business began to grow so fast that the existing warehouse and store were quickly outgrown.

The current owners and sons of founder William Barlow, Calvin and Brent Barlow, knew they needed to find a new location where they could continue grow. They purchased a plot of land in Kaysville, Utah, and started building a new structure that was completed in December of 1999. The current building, including warehouse space, totals 27,000 square feet.

The building has a display floor, where local customers test out products and purchase machines. The warehouse allows ABC Office to ship products directly to customers, which cuts down on shipping time and customer service. Hundreds of packages ship out of the new warehouse on a daily basis. The staff includes a sales department, Web department, purchasing department, accounting department and a fully functioning service department.

Products are shipped to countries in North America, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East on a regular basis. ABC Office has increased its product line, from the traditional binding machines and paper cutters, to now include security equipment, display racks and photo ID equipment. Paper shredders are currently one of the most popular products sold.

Customers are now able to securely order products via a toll-free phone line or by using the online shopping cart. One of the newest features available to customers is the ability to see a live and interactive video demo over the Internet with a sales associate. This allows customers to see a product live and in action while asking questions and receiving answers.

ABC Office is a true realization of the American Dream. In only 25 years, ABC Office has gone from a door-to-door, home-based business to an international leader in high-end office equipment, accessories
and supplies. To see the wide selection of products and services that ABC Office has to offer, please visit the Web site at here: ABC Office.

This coming June, a new law will go into effect that will require anyone who has one or more employees to properly destroy their personal information when being discarded. This new law is called the “Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act” (FACTA). Few people are aware of this new law and even fewer are aware of the penalties involved if it is not followed. This act is designed to protect private employee information. This is the biggest personal ID protection act issued since HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).

A failure of employers to shred or destroy private employee information could result in a class-action lawsuit or government fines. Civil and state laws warrant up to $1,000 in fines per employee violation and federal law warrants up to $2,500 per violation. This important law can be followed and fines avoided by properly destroying this information with a paper shredder. Employers cannot afford to ignore this new act.

Identity theft is an ever-growing and increasing problem in the United States. Garbage, by law, is considered unprotected and is vulnerable to dumpster divers and thieves. This means employers cannot throw employee information in the garbage and consider it properly discarded.

This new law applies to all employees, even if you have just one. This means that yard workers, cleaners and nannies apply to this new rule as well.

One of the best means of destroying personal information is by using a paper shredder.

Strip-cut shredders are still the preferred method of shredding, but cross-cut shredders are quickly growing in popularity. This is due, in part, to the fact that strip-cut shredders have been around longer. Strip cut shredders, especially over-the-can shredders, typically shred paper into ¼-inch strips. These strips, although hard to decipher, can still be reassembled. Cross-cut, or confetti-cut, shredders make it next to impossible to reassemble shredded documents.

ABC Office now sells a line of digital voice recorders that can easily capture sound, speeches and conversations. These digital voice recorders are the equivalent for sound as digital cameras are for images. These recorders store the audio, some up to 18 hours that can later be transferred to a computer for editing or later note taking.

These digital voice recorders are growing in popularity among doctors, lawyers, students, professors and more. Rather than having to worry about a tape, all the data is stored digitally in the recorder that can later be stored to a computer and burned to a CD. Tapes will break down over time. Digital data will retain its integrity for years. Tapes are also limited to a small amount of space, usually from 20 to 90 minutes, depending on the recorder. Digital voice recorders are available in models that will record as little as four hours or as many as 18 and more. Sound quality also increases with digital voice recorders.

Doctors often use these recorders for dictation with patients that can later be recalled or typed. Students will use these recorders for recording lessons in class, allowing them to interact and give their full attention and later replay discussions for note taking. These recorders are also very popular with private investigators and reporters. A voice recorder can be a lifesaver when trying to gather as much information as possible for a story or news article. A built-in speaker, or included headset, lets you listen to previous recordings on the spot.

Digital voice recorders are compact and can easily be fit in a purse, a pocket or other locations. For recording conversations, a voice recorder can easily be placed next to a podium or pulpit without creating an eyesore. A phone attachment allows phone conversations to be easily recorded.  This is ideal for recording conversations with loved ones or to gather evidence. In order to save battery life, a VOX/VOR feature is built in that will only record when sound is present.

The complete line of digital voice recorders can be viewed by going here. helpful digital voice recorder guide can be viewed by going here.

Digital voice recorders are a great way to help you stay organized, record speeches, conversations and more.

On February 14th, we sent a paper shredder survey to our customers to inquire about paper shredder use, identity theft and shredder trends. As a result of the survey, we received over 200 responses. The results of the survey are very interesting, showing what people think about identity theft and the importance of paper shredders.

Identity theft is an ever-increasing problem in the United States. The ability to create alternate identities, sign up for credit cards and abuse individuals’ identities is easier than ever for criminals. Receipts, mail and personal information are just some of the methods used to steal one’s identity. Out of 211 respondents,
22 people had been the victim of identity theft. That is over 10 percent of those interviewed.

This coming June, a new law will go into effect that will require anyone who has one or more employees to destroy their personal information. It surprised us to see that only 13 percent of those surveyed were aware of this new regulation.

Not surprising, over 70 percent of those surveyed feel that it is definitely important to destroy personal information. Because dumpster diving is perfectly legal, anything thrown in the garbage is fair game. Seventy-eight percent of those interviewed own a paper shredder. Fifty-one percent say they use their
shredder on a daily basis. Paper shredders help destroy sensitive information. When dumpster diving, criminals tend to go for the easy find. If paper is shredded, the difficulty of putting the pieces back together is enough of a deterrent to make shredding worthwhile.

Strip-cut shredders are still the preferred method of shredding, but cross-cut shredders are quickly growing in popularity. This is due, in part, to the fact that strip-cut shredders have been around longer. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed own a cross cut shredder. Strip cut shredders, especially over-the-can shredders, typically shred paper into ¼-inch strips. These strips, although hard to decipher, can still be reassembled. Cross-cut, or confetti-cut, shredders make it next to impossible to reassemble shredded documents.

The entire ABC Office paper shredder survey can be viewed by going here.

You can learn more about paper shredders, the different types and what they do by reading our paper shredder guide.

We have found that several of our customers have no prior knowledge of a product, yet are expected to find the right product for their needs. Without speaking to a sales associate, this can be difficult. We sell thousands of products and each product has loads of information listed with the page. Deciphering this information is sometimes difficult. We have created a new “Help Me Choose” button to help out.

The “Help Me Choose” button is designed to help you find the right product. It will ask you a series of questions. Once you have finished answering the questions, it will determine, from your answers, which product will work best for you. We understand that it can be difficult to do this without prior knowledge of a product.

Come take a look at the new “Help Me Choose” feature. We have set it up to work with paper shredders and several other product categories. We will be moving this feature to even more product categories over the next few months. Try it out and enjoy!

Did you know that you are caught on camera about seven times a day? Security and hidden cameras are growing in popularity and it doesn’t appear that the demand will die down any time soon. Security cameras have been used to put criminals to jail for shoplifting, selling illegal narcotics, abuse and more.

Demand for surveillance cameras is especially growing in the baby sitter and nanny field of work. Concerned parents are purchasing cameras to keep an eye on those who are watching their kids. Parents who want to keep an eye on a small child or baby also use these cameras.

Security cameras can be placed in a wide variety of places. ABC Office sells several types of security cameras. Security cameras are usually either hardwired directly to a video recorder or the signal can be wirelessly transmitted to a video recorder. You can see our entire selection of security cameras by going here.

In an effort to sell you the best office products available today, ABC Office is introducing a new product review feature. With your product reviews, we can continue to offer the best office products online. If you see a product on our site that you already own, you can now review it.

The review process is simple. We require a model or make for the product you are reviewing. We also require a name. If you wish, we can post your name and/or business name along with the review.

You will need to provide a brief description of the machine and your experience with it. Let us know what you like and dislike about the machine. You can then rate the product on a five-star scale.

If you’ve had a good experience with a product, you can also check a box that allows you to be used as a reference for future customers. Ordering over the Internet can be difficult for some people. Being able to talk to somebody who already owns and has used a product can be a big help

Reviews will be posted with products, allowing other customers to see what you think. You can review your office equipment products by going here.