ID cards anyone can check. Designed once, printed by class, verified by QR.
Student and staff ID card software for Indian schools, from the design to the day a card is reported lost. Design once in a drag-and-drop studio, print a whole class from the records you already keep, and give every card a QR code anyone can scan to check it. Lost cards are blocked in a click, and Aadhaar never reaches a card.
School ID card software for the week nobody plans for
Ask a head clerk why the school started looking for school ID card software and the story usually begins in April, before the fee rush. The class teachers of a CBSE school in Kanpur have spent a fortnight collecting passport photos on WhatsApp, a few of them sideways. The office assistant types names, classes, roll numbers and blood groups into an Excel sheet for the local card vendor, who sends a proof three days later with one surname spelt three ways and a mother's number on the wrong child's card. By the time the corrected cards arrive in May, the late admissions of April are missing, a section has been renamed, and a Class 3 girl's card says B+ when her record says O+.
Then the cards start going missing. A parent reports a lost card in July, the office writes it in a register, and the replacement waits until enough requests pile up to be worth a trip to the vendor. Meanwhile the lost card, with the school's name, the child's photo and a phone number on it, still looks like a good pass to anyone who picks it up. The guard at the gate cannot tell this year's card from last year's, or a real card from a colour photocopy. That is the most expensive cost, and nobody writes it down: a card that looks official and proves nothing.
If this sounds like your April, the problem is not the vendor. A card printed from a copy of your records drifts from them the day it is printed, and nothing on it can be checked. Inkwelly ID Cards prints every card from the student and staff records you already keep, with a QR code anyone can scan to see whether the card is still valid.
What Inkwelly ID Cards actually replaces
ID Cards covers the whole life of a school identity card: the design, the data that fills it, the print file, the day it is handed over and the day it is reported lost. It replaces the vendor's Excel sheet, the proof that comes back with spelling mistakes, the register of lost-card requests and the guard's guesswork at the gate. Every card gets its own number, such as STU-202627-00042, a QR code and a status the office can change.
It deliberately owns very little data of its own. Names, classes, roll numbers, blood groups, photos and parent details come from Student Information, and staff details from Employee Information, at the moment each card is generated. Correct a spelling in the student record and the next card prints it right, because there is no second list to keep in step. Exam admit cards are a different document, issued from Examinations. ID Cards owns only the design, the issued card and what happens to it afterwards.
What the school office stops doing
- Typing names, classes and blood groups into a separate Excel sheet for the card vendor
- Keeping a folder of photos for the vendor apart from the photos in each student's record
- Checking a vendor's proof line by line for misspelt names and swapped phone numbers
- Reprinting a whole class because two children joined late or a section was renamed
- Keeping a paper register of lost cards until there are enough to order a batch
- Having no way to cancel a lost card once it has left the school
- Letting the guard judge a card by its colours, which a colour photocopy copies perfectly
- Counting on a tick list which children have collected their cards
- Designing staff cards in a different file, with a different look, from a different list
- Printing Aadhaar numbers because the old template happened to have a box for them
The student ID card maker your office will use
This is not a mail-merge template bolted onto a student list. It is a small print room inside the school office: a design studio, a print wizard, a register of every issued card, and a public page that answers "is this card real?" for anyone who scans one. The web screens work in English and Hindi, and each person sees only what their role allows. Staff with the right access can also start print runs, manage issued cards and scan cards to check them from the Inkwelly staff app.
Everything the ID card desk works from
ID cards dashboard
One screen for the session: designs and how many are published, cards issued, the split between students and staff, blocked cards and the latest print runs, with a shortcut to finish any draft design.
Ready-made design library
Ready-made student and staff designs in classic, modern, minimal, portrait lanyard, playful, elegant and formal board styles. Preview the front and back, then copy one into your school as a draft to edit.
Drag-and-drop designer
Place text, data fields, the photo, your logo, the principal's signature, a QR code, a barcode, shapes and lines on the front and back. Snap guides, layers, undo and zoom keep it neat to the millimetre.
Fields that fill themselves
Name, class, section, roll number, admission number, blood group, date of birth, guardian's name and mobile, address, bus route and stop, and your own custom fields, filled from each record at generation.
Photos from the profile
The card uses the photo saved in each student or staff record. Anyone without one prints with the placeholder you chose, a silhouette, initials or a blank box, so one missing photo never holds up a class.
Readiness check
Before anything prints, Inkwelly counts who in the class or staff list is ready and names everyone missing a photo, so the class teacher gets an exact list instead of a general reminder.
Print by class, staff or name
Pick a published design, then a whole class, all staff, or particular people found by name or number. Anyone who already holds a live card this session is skipped, so reruns never print duplicates.
Three print files
One PDF with every card at exact card size for a card printer, a ZIP with one PDF per card for a print shop, or A4 sheets with crop marks, eight or nine standard cards to a page.
A QR code on every card
Each card carries a QR code with a random link to the school portal. Scanning it with any phone shows whether the card is valid, and if not, whether it was blocked or replaced, with the name, class and card number.
Block, reissue, collect
Mark cards collected one by one or in bulk. Block a lost card with a reason and its QR reads not valid at once. Reissue prints a fresh card with a new number, in the same language.
Messages to families
When a student's card is generated, the family can get a WhatsApp message with the card number and validity date, asking them to collect it. A blocked card sends one too, with the reason.
Verify from the staff app
Staff with access can generate cards, manage issued ones and publish designs from the Inkwelly staff app, whose Verify screen turns the phone camera into a card scanner that shows valid or not valid.
ID card design software that prints exactly what you see
Most ID card design software makes you draw the card in one place and print it from another, and the two never quite agree: a name that fitted on screen wraps in the PDF, the logo moves two millimetres, a Hindi name comes out as empty boxes. Inkwelly draws the preview, the proof and the final print from the same layout, measured in millimetres, so what the office approves on screen is what comes out of the printer. Designs belong to the school rather than to one session: make one once, use it for years, and duplicate it when the junior wing wants its own colours. Only published designs appear in the print wizard.
Start from a ready-made design
The library is a gallery of ready-made designs for students and staff, sorted into classic, modern, minimal, vertical lanyard, playful, elegant, corporate and board-style looks. Each previews front and back with sample details, and "Use this template" copies it into your school as a draft with its layout, fonts and colours intact. From there it is entirely yours: swap in the school logo, change the colours to match the uniform, move the photo, add the bus stop. The library's designs carry Hindi versions of their field labels, such as Class and Roll No. A school can also submit one of its own designs for review, and once Inkwelly approves it, other schools can start from it too.
Or build your own, element by element
Start from scratch and the designer opens a simple starter card at the standard size, ready for you to add, move or delete elements: fixed text for labels and headings, data fields, the holder's photo, images such as the school logo or the principal's scanned signature from your media library, a QR code, a barcode, rectangles, circles and lines. Every element can be moved, resized, rotated, faded, layered and locked, and a colour theme with heading and body fonts keeps the card consistent. There are 27 fonts, seven of them Devanagari, and every font falls back to a Devanagari typeface, so a Hindi name never prints as empty boxes.
Fields that fill themselves
A data field is a box that knows what to print. Choose "Roll number" and every card in the batch shows that child's roll number for the current session. Choose "Bus stop" and it shows the pickup stop from the child's assignment in Transport. A field can carry a small label such as "Roll", a prefix or suffix, and fallback text for when a record is empty. Your school's own custom fields print too, picked by their key, so a detail you already keep on the profile, such as an emergency contact, can go on the card without retyping. Every field fills in at the moment the card is generated, from the session you are working in.
- Student name, with an optional title, in full or as first, middle and last name
- Class, section and roll number for the session, plus admission number and student ID
- Blood group, date of birth, gender, and age in years worked out from the date of birth
- Primary guardian's name, relationship and mobile, or the father's and mother's names and mobiles
- Address line, city, state and PIN code from the student's primary address
- Bus route, pickup stop and seat number from the child's transport assignment
- School name, academic session, and a valid-until date that matches the session's last day
Size, orientation and both sides
Cards start at the standard CR80 size, 85.6 by 54 millimetres, the credit-card format most card printers and lanyard pouches expect, in portrait or landscape. CR79, a 70 mm square and a 102 by 76 mm wide badge are one click away, and any custom size from 20 mm upward can be typed in. Corner radius and a dashed safe zone are set per design, so nothing important sits where a cutter might trim. The front and back are designed separately, each with its own background colour or image, and you can zoom in to check the smallest print.
Rules for the child whose record is incomplete
Real records have gaps, and a card design has to survive them. Any element can be set to appear only when a field has a value, only when a field equals something, or only when a custom field is filled in. So a "Blood group" line simply disappears for a child whose blood group isn't recorded. Long text can shrink to fit, wrap onto a second line, trim with an ellipsis or clip, and shrink-to-fit runs again when the PDF is made, so a long name that fits on screen fits on paper. The photo box decides what to show when there is no photo: a grey silhouette, the child's initials or nothing.
Photo readiness before a single card prints
Photos are where ID card seasons stall, so Inkwelly keeps one simple rule: the photo belongs to the student or staff record, and the ID card only reads it. There is no separate photo folder for cards to fall out of step with. Add or change a photo in the profile, as our guide to uploading student and parent photos shows, and every card generated after that uses it. The print wizard checks before it prints. Once you pick the class or the staff list, Inkwelly counts who is ready and names everyone still missing a photo, so the class teacher gets a precise list rather than a general reminder.
A named list, not a surprise at the print shop
The readiness step shows two numbers, ready and needing attention, and under them every person with a gap, marked "Missing photo" or, if the record has no name, "Missing data". The fix happens where the data lives, in the student or staff profile, and the Re-check button counts again. Staff lists work the same way, which matters more than it sounds: new teachers who joined in June are exactly the people whose photos nobody has taken yet. When you pick particular people instead of a whole class, the picker marks who is missing a photo as you select them.
Printing anyway, on purpose
Readiness is a warning, not a lock. If the annual function is on Saturday and three children in Class 2 still have no photo, print the class now and reissue those three cards once their photos arrive. Their cards carry the placeholder your design uses, a silhouette, initials or a blank box, rather than a broken image. The photo is fixed into each card's PDF when the card is made, so adding a photo later changes nothing already printed; the reissue picks it up. Nothing prints from a half-finished design by accident either, because the print wizard only offers published designs.
Printing student ID cards a class at a time
Generating cards is a five-step wizard: choose a published design, choose who the cards are for, check readiness, choose the print file and the print language, and generate. The cards are built in the background, so a large class does not freeze the office computer, and when the run finishes the page shows how many cards were created, skipped and failed, with the file ready to download. Every run is kept with its print file, so "please print Class 5 B again" is a download, not a fresh job.
Who the cards are for
For students, choose a whole class, which in Inkwelly means one class and section such as 6 A, or pick particular students by searching names and admission numbers, with a class filter and Select all for long lists. For staff, choose all staff or pick people by name or employee ID. Anyone who already holds a live card for the session is skipped rather than printed twice, and the batch reports how many were skipped. That makes late admissions easy: run the same class again in May and only the children without a card get one. To replace a card someone already has, reissue it from the issued cards list.
- Choose a published student or staff design, shown as a live thumbnail
- Choose a class, all staff, or particular people by name or number
- Check readiness and fix missing photos in the profiles
- Choose the print file and, if your school uses more languages, the print language
- Generate, then download the file or open the issued cards
For a card printer: exact-size PDFs
Schools that print PVC cards in-house usually own a card printer, and card printers want one page per card at the card's exact size. The single-PDF option gives exactly that: every card in the run, front then back, each page sized to the card's own dimensions, in one file. The ZIP option gives the same cards as separate PDFs named by card number, for a school that prints a few at a time or a print shop that wants individual files. Each issued card also keeps its own PDF, so reprinting one damaged card is a download, not a new run.
For A4 sheets: crop marks included
Schools without a card printer can print on A4, on pre-perforated PVC sheets or on card stock for lamination. The A4 option lays the card fronts out in a grid with crop marks at every corner and a 10 mm margin, which fits eight standard landscape cards or nine portrait cards on each page. Backs are not part of the A4 sheet, so if your design has a back, print it from the single-PDF file. Whichever file you choose is saved with its print run, and the office can download it again later without generating a single card twice.
Print one real class, from design to QR scan
Bring your current ID card, one class list and a few photos. In a live demo we'll design the card, check readiness, generate the class, block one card and scan its QR, on screen, in front of you.
QR code ID cards that anyone can check
A photo and a school logo prove very little now that any colour printer copies both. What a copier cannot fake is a live record. Every Inkwelly ID card carries a QR code that points to a verification page on the school portal, app.inkwelly.com, with a long random code in the link rather than the child's details. A guard at the gate, a bus attendant, a teacher on an excursion or a hospital front desk can scan it with an ordinary phone camera, with no app and no login, and see at once whether the card is genuine and still valid.
What the scanner sees
A valid card opens a green page that says "ID card verified", with the card number, the holder's name, the class for a student, the valid-until date and the status. A card that has been blocked, replaced by a newer card or has passed its validity opens a red page saying "This ID card is not valid", and for a blocked card it shows the reason the school entered, such as "Reported lost". A QR code that doesn't belong to any Inkwelly card says it could not be verified. Every scan checks the live record, so a card blocked at 10:05 reads not valid at 10:06.
What it never shows
The verification page answers one question without leaking a record. It never shows the photo, date of birth, blood group, address, phone numbers or any parent's name, and it has no search box, so nobody can browse from one card to the next. Because the blocking reason is shown to whoever scans the card, write it the way you would say it to a stranger at the gate, "Reported lost" rather than a family matter. The page is also kept out of search engines, so a child's card never turns up in a Google result. Staff scanning from the Inkwelly staff app see the same short answer.
Lost, blocked and reissued cards
A school of 800 children replaces a steady trickle of cards all year: lost on the bus, forgotten in a washing machine, cracked in a lanyard. Each replacement used to mean a register entry, a vendor order and a lost card that stayed usable. In Inkwelly the issued cards list holds every card for the session with its status, generated, collected, blocked or replaced, and the actions sit on the same row: download, mark collected, block, reissue or delete. Marking collected, blocking and deleting also work on up to 500 cards at once.
Block: the lost card stops working
Blocking asks for a reason, up to 255 characters, and records who blocked the card and when. The card's QR reads not valid from that moment, and it drops out of the count of live cards. For a student's card, once WhatsApp is set up, the family gets a message saying the card has been blocked, with the reason, and that the old card can no longer be used. A whole set can be blocked at once too, for the day a bundle of printed cards goes missing from the office. A blocked card stays on record; nothing is quietly erased.
Reissue: a fresh card, in the same language
Reissuing marks the old card as replaced and prints a new one for the same person from the same design, with a new card number, a new QR code and the latest details from the profile, including a new photo if one has been added since. It takes an optional reason, such as "Damaged", and the list shows how many times a card has been reissued. A card printed in Hindi comes back in Hindi, because the reissue uses the language of the print run that made the original. Inkwelly doesn't attach any replacement charge to a reissue; that stays your school's decision.
What was printed stays on record
Every issued card keeps a copy of what was printed on it at the moment it was made: the name, class, section, roll number and admission number or employee ID, along with the PDF itself. If the student's record changes later, through a promotion, a corrected spelling or a new section, the card in the child's pocket and its verification page still agree with each other. When the difference matters, reissue the card and the new one prints from the current record. Cards are valid until the last day of the academic session they were issued in, which is why each new session in April starts with fresh cards.
Collected, or deleted by mistake
On distribution day, tick the rows of a class and mark them collected in one step; each card records who marked it and when. After that, "who still hasn't taken their card?" is a filter: pick the class and show cards that are generated but not yet collected. Deleting is kept for real mistakes, such as a card generated from the wrong design, and it permanently removes the card and its PDF after a confirmation. For a lost or damaged card, block or reissue it instead, so the history stays and the old QR code keeps telling the truth.
Vendor Excel and laminated cards vs Inkwelly ID Cards
Staff ID cards for teachers and office staff
Staff cards are designed and printed in the same studio as student cards, with their own designs, so teachers, the accounts office and support staff carry a card that matches the school's look. A staff card reads from the staff record in Employee Information: name, employee ID, department, blood group, date of birth and photo, with the same QR check as a student card. A new PGT who joins in June or a lab assistant hired in October can get a card as soon as their record and photo are in, without waiting for the next batch at the vendor.
What a staff card carries
Staff designs are separate from student designs, so a staff card can carry its own colour band or a "Staff" tag, and student fields never appear on it by mistake. They offer the staff fields: first, middle and last name, employee ID, department, blood group and date of birth, alongside the school name, the session and the valid-until date. Exact designations such as PGT Physics, TGT English or Head Clerk go on the card through a custom field on the staff profile, placed on the design like any other field, with its own small label beside it.
All staff at once, or one new joiner
For staff, the print wizard offers all active staff in one run, or particular people picked by name or employee ID. Readiness works exactly as it does for students, naming anyone without a photo before you print. Staff cards send no message to anyone, since there is no family to inform, and they verify on the same public page: scanning a teacher's QR shows the name, card number, valid-until date and whether the card is valid. When someone leaves in the middle of the year, block their card with a reason such as "Left the school", so it stops passing at the gate even if the physical card never comes back.
ID cards in Hindi and your school's other languages
A Hindi-medium school in Varanasi or a bilingual CBSE school in Bhopal wants the child's name on the card the way the family writes it. When your school uses more than one language in Inkwelly, the print wizard asks which language to print in, and English stays the default, so nobody changes the script of the cards by accident. Names of students, parents and staff print in the chosen language wherever the translation is saved on the record, along with the school's name, class names, the address, the bus route and stop, and dates. Anything without a saved translation prints in English, so a card may be mixed but never blank.
What changes with the print language
Hindi comes with built-in words for the values a card prints from a fixed list: gender, titles such as श्री and कुमारी, the guardian's relationship, and yes or no answers in custom fields. Dates print with Hindi month names but Latin digits, because banks, police stations and exam boards read ID cards too. The designer's fonts include seven Devanagari typefaces, and every other font falls back to a Devanagari one. Other languages your school has switched on can be chosen as well; in those, names and places print from their saved translations and the fixed-list values stay in English.
What stays exactly as it is
Some things deliberately don't change. Section names and the session label, such as 2026-27, print as entered, because Inkwelly keeps no translated version of them. Blood groups stay in international notation, A+ or O-, as on any Indian medical form, and PIN codes, phone numbers and card numbers keep Latin digits in every language. Labels you type on a design, such as "Roll No.", print exactly as typed, so a bilingual card is simply a design with both words on it, for example "Roll No. / अनुक्रमांक". Choosing a print language happens on the web; cards started from the staff app print in English.
WhatsApp messages when a card is ready or blocked
When a student's card is generated, Inkwelly can tell the family on WhatsApp: a short message with the child's name, the card number and the valid-until date, asking them to collect the card from the school office. When a card is blocked, the family gets a second message with the card number and the reason, saying the old card can no longer be used and asking them to contact the office for a replacement. Both messages exist in English and Hindi and go to the mobile number on the student's record. Staff cards send no message.
These messages travel through Inkwelly Communications, where the school's templates, channels and sent messages live in one place. Both are on by default and can be switched off there like any other automatic message, for a school that hands cards out in class without an announcement.
Ask ChatGPT or Claude about your ID cards
Schools on the Premium plan can connect ChatGPT or Claude to Inkwelly through AI Connect and ask about ID cards in plain language: "Which students in Class 6 still don't have a card?", "How many cards in Class 9 haven't been collected?", "Is card STU-202627-00042 valid?" or "Why did yesterday's print run fail?". The answers come from live records through eight read-only ID card tools, covering issued cards, one person's card history, issuance numbers by class and design, photo readiness, print runs, designs and card verification.
The assistant cannot generate, block or reissue anything; those actions stay in the ID card screens. Each connection works with a key the school admin issues to one staff member and reads only what the school allows, and these tools never hand over photos, phone numbers or the codes inside the QR.
Built for everyone who handles a card
An ID card passes through more hands than its size suggests. The principal approves the design, the office assistant prints and hands out, the class teacher chases photos, the transport in-charge wants the bus stop on it, and the guard looks at it every morning. Inkwelly gives each of them the part they need, and the school decides who can only look, who can design, who can print and hand out, and who can block, reissue or delete, as four separate permissions set through Identity & Access Management.
For the principal and the owner
The ID cards dashboard shows how many designs exist and how many are published, cards issued this session split between students and staff, blocked cards and the latest print runs. Because a design must be published before anyone can print from it, a draft can be reviewed on screen and as a proof PDF before it goes live. Blocking, reissuing and deleting sit with the people you trust with them, not with everyone who can print, and every blocked card records who blocked it and why. On the Premium plan, the same numbers can be asked of ChatGPT or Claude.
For the office assistant and head clerk
The office runs the season from three places: the print wizard, the issued cards list and the recent print runs on the dashboard. Printing a class is a handful of choices, late admissions are a rerun of the same class, and a lost card is a block and a reissue from the same row. The issued cards list filters by student or staff, class and status, and finds a card by its number. Reprinting one child's card is a single download from its row, and when a parent asks at the counter whether the new card is ready, the answer is on one screen.
For the guard, the bus attendant and the class teacher
The people who check cards need nothing installed. Any phone camera opens the verification page from the QR, and the answer is a green or red screen that needs no training to read, including for a card left over from last session, which reads not valid. The class teacher gets the office's readiness list of children without photos and fixes them in the student profile, where their role allows. For transport, the bus route, pickup stop and seat number can print on the card, so an attendant knows at a glance which bus a young child belongs on.
For staff on the move
Staff with ID card access can work from the Inkwelly staff app on their own phone: start a print run for a class or all staff, check readiness, download finished files, mark cards collected, block and reissue cards, and publish or duplicate a design that is ready. The app's Verify screen turns the phone camera into a scanner that shows valid or not valid on the spot, handy at the gate or on a school trip. Designing a card, the library, importing and exporting designs and choosing a print language stay on the web, where a bigger screen helps.
Inkwelly ID Cards vs a standalone ID card maker
Privacy, Aadhaar and who sees what
An ID card is a piece of a child's personal data that leaves the school every day, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 expects schools to handle children's data with care. Inkwelly's first rule is about Aadhaar. India's Aadhaar law does not allow Aadhaar numbers to be displayed publicly, and a card on a lanyard is about as public as it gets, so Aadhaar is kept off ID cards in three separate ways. The designer has no Aadhaar field to choose, a design that tries to print a custom field named for Aadhaar or UID is refused when saved, and any 12-digit value that looks like an Aadhaar number is dropped from custom fields before a card is drawn. The number can stay in the student's record; it never reaches a card.
Inside the school, access follows roles, so a role can view cards and check readiness without being allowed to block one. Parent phone numbers print only if you put them on the design, and the verification page shows none of them.
Switching from a vendor, Excel or your current software
Most schools reading this already get cards made somehow: a local vendor working from an Excel sheet, a design program on the office computer, or the ID card screen of another ERP. Switching doesn't need a card-by-card migration, because Inkwelly cards are generated from your records rather than imported. Once your students and staff are in Inkwelly with photos in their profiles, rebuild your current card's look in the designer or start from a library design, and print your first class as soon as the design is published. A design can be exported as a file and imported into another school's account, so a group with several branches designs once.
Migration, training and setup cost ₹0, and extracting your data from your current system, or from Excel if the vendor won't cooperate, is on us. Go-live can be the next working day, and older records move across on their own track afterwards. We do a full day of on-site training at go-live and stay on WhatsApp through the first month, answered by a person who works on the product, not a ticket queue. See the pricing page, or book a demo and bring your current card.
“An ID card nobody can check is only a laminated photograph.”
What's included with ID Cards
- A library of ready-made student and staff designs to copy into your school and edit
- A drag-and-drop designer with data fields, photo, logo, signature, QR code, barcode and shapes
- CR80, CR79, square, wide-badge or custom sizes, portrait or landscape, front and back
- Show-when rules, shrink-to-fit text and photo placeholders for records with gaps
- A proof PDF made with a real student or staff member before anything prints
- A readiness check that names everyone missing a photo before a class prints
- Printing by class and section, all staff or chosen people, skipping anyone already holding a card
- A single exact-size PDF, a ZIP of card PDFs, or A4 sheets with crop marks
- A QR code on every card that opens a live valid or not-valid page
- Mark collected, block with a reason, reissue with a new number, in bulk up to 500 cards
- Printing in the languages your school uses, with built-in Hindi values and Latin digits
- WhatsApp messages to families when a student's card is ready or blocked, in English or Hindi
Stop printing cards that nobody can check
Bring your current ID card, one class list and your busiest April week. In a live demo on your own classes we'll design the card, print a class, block one card and scan its QR, so you can see every step before you decide.
Frequently asked
14 questionsWhich Inkwelly plan includes ID Cards, and what does it cost?
ID Cards is part of the Lite plan at ₹49 per student per year, and it is also included in Standard at ₹99 and Premium at ₹199 per student per year. Inkwelly's plans run from ₹49 to ₹199 per student per year, flat at any school size, with no enrolment slabs and no per-module upsell, and each plan includes everything in the plan below it. Asking ChatGPT or Claude about your cards through AI Connect comes with Premium. Inkwelly produces the print-ready files; the blank cards, lanyards and the printer or print shop are your own.
We get ID cards made by a local vendor from an Excel sheet. How hard is it to switch?
Not hard, because there is nothing to import card by card. Inkwelly prints cards from your student and staff records, so once those records and their photos are in, any class can be printed from a published design. Rebuild your current card's look in the designer or start from a library design. Migration, training and setup cost ₹0, and extracting your data from your current system, or from Excel if the vendor won't cooperate, is on us. Go-live can be the next working day, and older records move across on their own track afterwards. You can also start with a 90-day paid pilot on your real data; if it isn't working at day 90, you get a pro-rata refund and your data back in standard formats.
Do we need a special printer for ID cards?
No particular printer. A PVC card printer uses the single-PDF file, where every card is its own page at the card's exact size, front then back. Without a card printer, the A4 option puts card fronts in a grid with crop marks, eight landscape or nine portrait standard cards to a page, for pre-perforated PVC sheets or card stock you laminate; backs print from the single PDF. The ZIP option gives one PDF per card for a print shop that wants separate files.
What happens when a student loses an ID card?
The office blocks the card from the issued cards list or the staff app and types a reason, such as "Reported lost". From that moment the card's QR opens a red "not valid" page for anyone who scans it, and the family gets a WhatsApp message that the card has been blocked, once WhatsApp is set up for your school. Reissuing prints a replacement with a new card number and QR code, in the same language as the original. Inkwelly doesn't add a replacement charge to a reissue.
What does someone see when they scan the QR code on a card?
A page on the school portal saying whether the card is valid, with the card number, the holder's name, the class for a student, the valid-until date and, for a blocked card, the reason the school entered. It never shows the photo, date of birth, address, phone numbers or parents' names, needs no app or login, and is kept out of search engines. The QR carries a random code rather than the child's details.
Can we print the Aadhaar number on the ID card?
No. India's Aadhaar law does not allow Aadhaar numbers to be displayed publicly, so Inkwelly keeps them off ID cards. There is no Aadhaar field in the designer, a design that tries to print a custom field named for Aadhaar or UID is refused, and 12-digit values that look like Aadhaar numbers are dropped from custom fields before a card is drawn. The Aadhaar number can still stay in the student or staff record.
Some students don't have photos yet. Can we still print their class?
Yes. The readiness step names everyone missing a photo so the class teacher can collect them, but it doesn't stop you. Cards without a photo print with the placeholder your design uses: a silhouette, the child's initials or a blank box. Once the photo is added in the student's profile, reissue that card and the replacement carries it. Photos always come from the profile, so there is no separate photo folder to maintain for ID cards.
Who in the school can design, print or block ID cards?
It follows roles. Viewing designs and cards, designing, printing and handing out, and blocking, reissuing or deleting are four separate permissions, so the principal can let the office print while keeping blocks and reissues with a few people. Only published designs can be printed, and publishing belongs to the design permission. Students and parents don't see these screens at all.
Can we make ID cards for teachers and other staff too?
Yes. Staff cards use their own designs from the same studio and read from the staff record: name, employee ID, department, blood group, date of birth and photo, plus any custom field on the staff profile, which is how schools print exact titles such as PGT Physics. Print for all active staff at once, or pick people by name or employee ID. Staff cards verify on the same QR page and send no message to anyone.
Can the ID card be printed in Hindi?
Yes. When your school uses Hindi in Inkwelly, the print wizard lets you choose Hindi for a run. Names, the school name, class names, the address, the bus route and stop, and dates print in Hindi wherever the translation is saved on the record, while gender, titles and relationships come from Inkwelly's built-in Hindi words. Section names, the session label and blood groups stay as entered, digits stay Latin, and anything untranslated prints in English. Other languages your school uses can be chosen too, with fixed-list values in English.
Is there a mobile app for ID cards?
For staff, yes. Staff with ID card access can use the Inkwelly staff app to start a print run, check readiness, download files, mark cards collected, block and reissue cards, publish a ready design and scan a card's QR to check it. The designer, the library, importing and exporting designs and choosing a print language are on the web. Anyone else can check a card with an ordinary phone camera, no app needed. Students and parents have no ID card screen in their app; families hear about a card on WhatsApp.
Will parents be told when the ID card is ready?
Yes, on WhatsApp, once WhatsApp is set up for your school in Communications. When a student's card is generated, the family gets a message with the child's name, the card number and the valid-until date, asking them to collect it from the office, in English or Hindi. A blocked card sends a second message with the reason. Both can be switched off in Communications, and staff cards send nothing.
Do we need to print new ID cards every session?
Yes. Each card is valid until the last day of the academic session it was issued in, with one day of grace, and after that its QR reads not valid. Your designs carry over from year to year, so at the start of a new session, usually in April, you only print the classes again. Cards from past sessions stay on record with what was printed on them.
Our school group has several branches. Can they share one ID card design?
Yes. Each school keeps its own designs and cards, and a design can be exported as a file, with or without its logo and signature images, then imported into another branch, where it arrives as a draft to adjust and publish. Each branch prints from its own records and handles its own blocks and reissues.
You might also like
6 readsSee Inkwelly on your school
30-minute demo. We open your current ERP with you and load your data into Inkwelly on the call. Dated go-live plan by the end of it.