Card Stock

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 22 Apr 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

mike gorth	22 Apr 2005
I really only need one respnse but what is card stock? The thickness, what it is made out of...... just curious Mike Gorth

Fulgour	22 Apr 2005
It's often spec'd per "pound" (as in 40#) and so on... thickness is the general idea, but paper is organic :) so there are many things to consider, weight and feel are maybe what you're after. Lamination comes after.

HudsonGray	23 Apr 2005
It's a thickly pressed paper, but not exactly cardboard. The fibers run mostly in one direction making the length stronger than the width when you bend it slightly back and forth (that can affect card layout in a project). But the pound designation isn't the same as what you'd call a 'stiffness' factor. I've come across some stiffer 60# weight card stock than 90#, when you'd think the 90 should be the stiffer one. You have to go by feel to be sure. Standard business card type card stock is 90#, but there's a better 'feel' to resume card stock, you can compare them side by side at any Kinkos, Office Depot, or print shop just for the asking. And card stock can go upwards of 150# but that's usually so stiff that standard photocopy or printer machines can't run it through their rollers, it gets stuck. There's some nice colors available now, also. Most people think it's mostly in white, but there's a nice marblized one in cream and light gray, a seafoam, flecked blue, parchment, etc. Using the parchment or marblized types you can do a nice looking 'antique' seeming deck which has the paper looking aged. I don't know if anyone's taken advantage of that yet.

baba-prague	23 Apr 2005
There is also specialist stock made for playing cards. It has a layer of carbon "sandwiched" between the card, this makes the card completely opaque and it also protects against bends and tears. It also tends to be a bit different in feel - it's kind of more "whippy" when you bend it gently if you know what I mean. We use this kind of stock for our cards, but it tends to come up expensive in small quantities so very few self-published decks use it. This isn't necessarily a problem - it may just mean that you need to handle cards printed on "ordinary" board with a little more care.

HudsonGray	23 Apr 2005
Yes, 'whippy' is a factor. The printer we talked to about cards said the 'snap' factor would be less if there was no lamination on the cardstock to help stiffen it further. Best way to learn is to go to a printer and ask to see/touch/feel the card stock to find out what they carry & what the differences are.

The Card Stock thread was originally posted on 22 Apr 2005 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.