PRINTING your own deck...uniform size and appearance ques

[Hummingbird]

Those of you who have created and/or self-published your own decks: can you offer some info on the printing part of it? With color copies being so available these days, and on a wide range of papers (I would obviously go with heavy card stock), I wonder what kind of success people have had, appearance wise. Also, from what I understand, major players like US Games print the cards on large sheets and then machines cut them to size. How could I make this work with copies????? I just want the
deck(s) to be perfectly uniform in size.

[funkpuss]

Hi

If you try www.cartamundi.com they would be able to do this for you and give you an estimate. I used to work for a printing/ Publishers and that's the cheapest way to do it instead of doing it yourself unless you only want to make one deck of cards instead of 1000.

I'm just starting to design my own cards but I got a lot of info first from the publishers. Have you gone to there websites?

Anyway good luck it will be worth it in the end!

Funky

[Hummingbird]

Wow, I wasn't really thinking about 1000 decks!!!! I assume the larger the quantity printed, the better the price. But 1000! LOL! I was thinking that I would read with my own initial deck and then if any of my clients were interested, they could purchase a deck.

The process of creating the deck alone is intense, time-consuming and rewarding. I haven't yet considered who I will get to do the artwork. And now you're talking about 1000 decks! I can't even think of being at that point right now!

I need suggestions from those of you who have printed your own deck... I'm thinking a blade cutter is the way to go with the actual card cutting. But they might be imperfect. But I guess that's ok for what I'm considering.

Thanks, Funky! If and when I do get to the point where I want to self pub that many, I will contact Carta Mundi.

[.dc]

btw,

carta mundi is one of the best card press houses. they do all sorts of tarot decks and i heard about them thru having played the Magic: the Gathering card game as they were Wizards of the Coast's (role playing game company) main supplier.

blessed be,
.dc

[catboxer]

Hummingbird:

I just did one copy of my deck on my home printer. After scanning all the cards and the card back, I made sure all the images were exactly the same size. Then I ran heavy-guage, shiny-surface card stock, printing each card, giving it a few seconds to dry, then turning it over and running the card back on the reverse side.

The images centered perfectly, so it worked out well. The cards are playing-card size, and I didn't try to get fancy with multiple images. I just did one card on each 8-1/2 x 11 sheet and cut them out with scissors. Needless to say, let the ink dry completely before you do the cutting. Even with an ink jet printer, the colors should be fast within a few minutes.

I ended up with exactly what I wanted -- a single, serviceable deck of my own cards.

[Emily]

You could also try cutting out your cards with a craft knife and a straight edge, like a metal ruler. It would take some time, I know I've done it lol, but at the end you would have a deck that was nearly perfect and even if it wasn't perfect, you'd still have the satisfaction of using your own deck and you'll have gained experience :) Sometimes decks are not as even as you'd think, I own one that when I place the cards together you can tell they've not been cut out straight but it doesn't bother me.

[funkpuss]

Hi

I would still recommend going to a printers as they might even have some leftover card from an old job that you can use. It's worth getting touch as some small family run printers only do 100's and not 1000's. Also printers not only print they could just do the cutting for you.

To be honest I'm in the same boat as you and I wouldn't even dream of doing it myself as the printers can do all the job in less than half a day!! It just saves time.

Good luck and I would like also to hear from those who has had ther cards printed and published.

Hey I just spoke to mundi today and they will send me out some templates.
You should contact them, they are sooooooooo cool!

Funky

[Hummingbird]

Thanks to all for the ideas. I think I will start out with my own homemade one-of-a-kind deck. If I get positive response, I might consider having some printed. For now, though, printing the front and back on my printer and cutting with a paper trimmer sounds feasible. I hadn't even thought about the backs before!!!

Has anyone else out there done it?

[funkpuss]

Hi Hummingbird,

Just wanted to know if you have finished desiging your cards,if so how long it it take??

Funky

Good luck with the printing!!

[DarkSpacemonkey]

I'm also looking to print out a deck of cards I designed. The 1000's are too many, but I am interested in printing out at least 100.

Small printers were mentioned awhile back... I've been searching on the web for them, but I can't seem to find anyone that would print a deck of cards.

Can anyone help out? Some company names would be great, but even a few keywords I may have been missing from my web search would be great too

Thanks!

Spacemonkey

[HudsonGray]

I've got a friend who made up her own deck & had 200 printed. It was rather pricey, even considering the deck was all black & white. The quotes she got from printers were all over the board.

The one she settled for did it on card stock but they only had 2 grades of it & even their best was rather thin, it's sort of like shuffling paper with the deck. AND there's no plastic protective coating on the cards.

She left the back plain white (it would have increased the cost to have it double printed). They did the cutting, and were uniform in the cuts but the cards on some weren't centered completely straight. This was before good home computers (around 1989), so if you want to do the art on your computer & print off, you're only limited by the stiffness of the carstock that would feed through--plus you'd be paying for a ream of paper for each deck more or less (figure some mistakes).

Hand laminating even one side would have made the deck way too thick to work with, so the cards she ended up with had their downside. However, all 200 sold at science fiction conventions & by word of mouth. She did another printing last year (paid for by disability, according to her), but the results were the same.

If you look to get it done by a company that specializes in tarot cards or playing cards, you'll be paying more, but it'll be worth it. Also check out their minimum runs, it MIGHT be up around 1,000 or it could be something like 700 or even 500. But figure you're going to be paying at least $5 a deck when they do it. You'll recoup your costs over time, but them's the breaks.

[kayne]

Thanks for the info HudsonG,
Is the deck she produced online at all, I would love to see it... Was it a full deck of 78 cards?

[HudsonGray]

No, it's not online. She did it up with her own drawings so it's sort of a minimalist deck in black & white--and it has a suit of Aura so it's got an entire extra suit in it along with the standard suits & majors. I was the one who redid the booklet (it's pretty large, about 60 pages I think, folded 8 1/2"x11" paper stapled in the middle).

But it is available yet, there's 50 decks here that I was going to take to Pennsic War in August, so I've got a box full at my house, and she's got the rest. She gets all the money from them, I'm not taking any cut on it. The deck/booklet costs $19 which includes the shipping cost (ok, plug for the deck). It's called the New Visions Tarot & she DID get 3 cards featured in the Encyclopedia Of Tarot II back when she did the original art in the 1980's. THAT was a real coup for her! There's also a cluster spread described in the booklet that works very well for in depth 'where am I now' readings.

She stuck with RW interpretations, with some similar artwork, but went off on her own for most of the art, making it more simplified to give the mind more to interpret creatively. Oh, she used Cassandra for the Heirophant. It took her at least 8 months to do the deck, and she's been a tarot reader since the 1960's.

[kayne]

You are just making me *really* want to see that deck Hudson! :D