I’m prototyping a card game for my four year-old son and getting a little frustrated. I’m trying to print out cards that are real enough to play with and handle (won’t get ripped, can’t see through). I got excited when I saw some blank playing cards on Amazon for a good price (I think they were $10 for four sets) but I can’t run them through my printer, and even if I could, the ink doesn’t stick. So to solve that problem, I bought some Avery 25395 name tags which fit the cards pretty well, but none of the templates line up very well so everything comes out a bit off center. I guess it’s not a big deal, but I was wondering if anyone had any other options for low-cost prototyping of playing cards?
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Check out the protective sleeves used by card collectors. Stick your cards inside those and they can be made out of pretty much any sort of paper or cardstock but still be usable.
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Why can’t you print onto A4 card stock?
It’s the cutting that’s the problem - I don’t want to spend hours cutting cards, only to have them have rough, uneven edges. Plus card stock is kinda flimsy. Playing cards have a much better feel, are more durable, and are easy to deal and shuffle. Which is my only question about @Wanderfound’s suggestion; do people use those in game play or are they more for collectibles? I would think they wouldn’t be easy to play with.
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Shuffling takes some getting used to but yes they are used in game play. All the decks I used for Pokemon were sleeved.
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I’m not sure how many cards you need.
If it’s one or two decks, you could print on card-stock and cut them out. Card-stock is thin, so craft-store cutting tools should work.
If it’s one or two decks, you could also print labels, cut them out, and affix them to playing cards. If you have a couple hard surfaces, you can put the cards on top of one surface, the other on top of the cards, and a pile of books on top of both to help with the gluing.
If it’s more than that, you might want to consider counters, but cutting gets more complicated.
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I have no experience with this sort of thing, so I’m just brainstorming here.
What about printing onto perforated business-card stock, which separates neatly and leaves a fairly clean edge? The cards would be small, but that might be suitable for four-year-old hands. Then laminate, either with a laminator you buy (they seem to be available for about $15) or by taking it to Staples or somewhere who will do it for you.
https://www.staples.com/Staples-5-mil-Pouch-Business-Card-25-Pack-17470-/product_793745
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Added to the list of “essential tools for crafty dads,” which probably serves as my X-mas gift list this year as well.
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Another option is just bog standard playing cards and gluing paper to them. You will want to put them in sleeves if you do that.
Also the business card sheet would work well for testing. I have had several cheap games that used that pretty much that option and they worked for a $10 game.
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Here are some options I culled from BGG Forums… that’s a good place to see what others are using…
http://www.superiorpod.com/category/gamingcards
http://www.artscow.com/photo-gifts/playing-cards
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Hmm. It looks like ordering one custom deck of 54 cards is less than $5 - that’s actaully a pretty good price. I think I’ll have to look in to that when I’m past “alpha” stage.
Am I the only one who can never get these %#^{%*! Avery sheets to line up? I feel like no matter what I’m using, whether it’s name tags or business cards or whatever, the templates never match the printed output, and my name or other info is always printed right on the peroration. There is a special place in hell for the guy who designs those templates…
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I buy full-sheet labels. Yeah, it requires more cutting, but it avoids alignment issues.
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I’ll give a hearty recommendation too DriveThruCards. My wife and I have developed a couple of board games and they printed our card decks quickly, cheaply, and to a very high quality.
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Are you using Word templates by any chance? They don’t work well, and Word tries to be too helpful when printing, something about sizing to fit throwing everything out of whack. I fucking hate Word, but at least it isn’t Publisher (which can DIAF already.)
This might not help you (Sorry!) but PDF templates in InDesign, sent to a color laser print work perfectly for me. (I’ve been in the design and printing industry for almost 20 years, so my perspective is skewed and I have the software.)
If it’s the printer skewing the sheets as they go through, you might try printing at kinko’s or someplace similar, but that’s not going to be all that cheap if you are printing in color.
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I tried Word first, and that was pretty bad. Then I got the PDF template and used that in Paint.Net - I don’t have Photoshop or InDesign.
I think my biggest mistake was putting borders on my graphics because then it’s much more obvious that it’s misprinted. Whatever, it’s a prototype and the play-tester is four years old. But it makes my OCD kick in. 
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Oh yeah. Borders are a pain in the ass. Borders that bleed are even worse unless you want to double the cutting
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i’ve gotten good results on card stock laminated post-printing and pre-cutting. i made card decks for a “game” for my 6th grade science classes 6 or 7 years ago and they are still in fairly good condition even after 5-600 6th graders have handled them over the years.
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Hows the kerning?
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Imho, uneven kerning is preferable to using ligatures which break certain software…
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