Typical Tarot Card sizes?

Sakabu

Typical Tarot Card sizes and print setups?

This question is for people who are familiar with printing Tarot cards and what kinda of templates most printers expect. What are the sizes that most people recommend them being printed in? (the cards themselves) i.e. What size is best that most printers won't have any issue with printing them and won't cost extra or need special stock to get printed.

I need to setup my files and templates so I can start producing a deck. But, I need to know what kind of bleed is 'typical' (I plan to have a white border), the inches, etc. What format do you think the printers would want? I may do the layout in a vector program (Illustrator), but I am going to paint the cards in Photoshop. So the image will be painted, but the template maybe hand drawn, maybe converted to vector depending on what looks good...

Thanks in advance. I'm only beginning to plan this deck, but I am getting more serious as time goes on. I'd like to have the files setup so I can paint one card at a time at my leisure... anything you know or can suggest would be very helpful!
 

Sakabu

Bump :)

Any information right now would be helpful. Even if it's just the sizes of the cards. I can setup my own bleed.

I just don't want to start a template, create all these beautiful cards and then find out that it's going to cost a fortune because the size of the card is not 'typical', etc.
 

AJ

bumping again. Maybe our DIY deckers are sleeping.

I know there have been discussions about this but they are probably buried in creation threads. If you have time look back through this forum though, there is so much information shared...
good luck with your project!
 

Laura Borealis

I don't know the answer to your question, but I would ask the printer what their recommendations are. You could get estimates and advice on card stock at the same time.
 

HudsonGray

I asked around on forums when I did my Ferret Tarot. Overwhelming answer I got was 'small enough to shuffle without hurting the hands'. Since I had a local printer do up mine, I had to check how many cards I could get on one standard 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper since that was the size our local printer could do the best deal for me. Turns out it was 8 (2 rows of 4).

The cost at the printers is based on how many sheets used per deck, the weight of the card stock you need, any color/black & white type, and a few other things. They want a certain amount of 'bleed' edge to use for cutting. My finished size was 2 1/2" x 3 3/4". If you go larger, the number of cards per sheet goes down and the arrangement of cards shifts. You always want the cards printed in the same direction due to 'bend' of the paper, the paper fibers run in one direction. If you do some vertical and some horizontal, half those will be weaker cards. You have a choice on weight of the paper (not all 'heavy' weight will be stiffer as you get higher up in numbers).

Folding boxes would have doubled the deck cost, so I asked in the forums again as to whether people wanted a box or a pouch. 99% wanted a pouch, which was easy enough for me to sew. For those first 500 decks it took 32 yards of fabric (I lined the inside) and 19 skeins of cording. Since I used coupons at JoAnn Fabrics to get the best deal, and got the inner solid color fabric cheaper at WalMart, the cost per pouch came down to 17 cents each.

Here's a really good link.
http://www.arnellart.com/makenpub.htm

When Cirom made his deck he had a photo of how the cards came uncut from the printer, they'd used a poster sized sheet of card stock paper (they were professionally done with varnish on the surfaces and such). The entire deck fit on it, with very little room to spare. It was over on a Livejournal account, not sure of the link at this point or if it's still there. This was a few years back.

(added) Here's my thread on Aeclectic about the self publishing/printing I did on the Ferret Tarot. http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=8948&highlight=Deck+Hits+Table

And the thread I had going for my Chat du Marseille deck. http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=22911&highlight=Cat+Marseille+cat+tarot

God, has it been that long ago??? LOL
 

Sakabu

Wow, I got REALLY side tracked away from this thread. I'm really busy lately so not completely all together up there... heh

I asked around on forums when I did my Ferret Tarot. Overwhelming answer I got was 'small enough to shuffle without hurting the hands'. Since I had a local printer do up mine, I had to check how many cards I could get on one standard 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper since that was the size our local printer could do the best deal for me. Turns out it was 8 (2 rows of 4).

The cost at the printers is based on how many sheets used per deck, the weight of the card stock you need, any color/black & white type, and a few other things. They want a certain amount of 'bleed' edge to use for cutting. My finished size was 2 1/2" x 3 3/4". If you go larger, the number of cards per sheet goes down and the arrangement of cards shifts. You always want the cards printed in the same direction due to 'bend' of the paper, the paper fibers run in one direction. If you do some vertical and some horizontal, half those will be weaker cards. You have a choice on weight of the paper (not all 'heavy' weight will be stiffer as you get higher up in numbers).

Folding boxes would have doubled the deck cost, so I asked in the forums again as to whether people wanted a box or a pouch. 99% wanted a pouch, which was easy enough for me to sew. For those first 500 decks it took 32 yards of fabric (I lined the inside) and 19 skeins of cording. Since I used coupons at JoAnn Fabrics to get the best deal, and got the inner solid color fabric cheaper at WalMart, the cost per pouch came down to 17 cents each.

Here's a really good link.
http://www.arnellart.com/makenpub.htm

When Cirom made his deck he had a photo of how the cards came uncut from the printer, they'd used a poster sized sheet of card stock paper (they were professionally done with varnish on the surfaces and such). The entire deck fit on it, with very little room to spare. It was over on a Livejournal account, not sure of the link at this point or if it's still there. This was a few years back.

(added) Here's my thread on Aeclectic about the self publishing/printing I did on the Ferret Tarot. http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=8948&highlight=Deck+Hits+Table

And the thread I had going for my Chat du Marseille deck. http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=22911&highlight=Cat+Marseille+cat+tarot

God, has it been that long ago??? LOL

Sweet! This is very useful, thank you! :)

I know since it's been a while, I will probably have to check with some printers to see if anything has changed. I didn't know about how the card stock was printed, so I'll have to keep that in mind. I was thinking of doing it online but I know the quality of that can be unpredictable. I know some shops nearby that do the norm. I wonder if they do cards?

Right now, I'm in the very beginning stage of just concerned with getting my files setup and establishing some sort of template with a bleed. I'm painting my images in Photoshop (I'm a concept artist). I'll more than likely creating the 'template'/design portion in vector, probably Illustrator, with the bleeds setup, etc. I will look at the dimensions you have and google around some more.

I haven't even begun to think about packaging the cards, so that information is very helpful as well. Thank you again!
 

ShiroiNeko

I know since it's been a while, I will probably have to check with some printers to see if anything has changed. I didn't know about how the card stock was printed, so I'll have to keep that in mind. I was thinking of doing it online but I know the quality of that can be unpredictable. I know some shops nearby that do the norm. I wonder if they do cards?

Normal shops can print your cards, but they wont cut them. Once I did a normal english/poker deck, but once you're gonna print it, it really depends on the printing shop, normally, if you want them to cut each card and round borders you'll have to go to a very professional printing house, and a won't lie to you, it's gonna be really expensive... I spent 70 € printing mine, because it was school work, so I had to.. I really advice you to contact every printing you can so you have more choices. Also make sure about adding a coating or laminate the cards when you print them :)
 

HudsonGray

The local printer I used did cut all of mine and did a great job centering it all around the framing lines, but the corner rounding was a job that would have needed to be sent out, and it was going to cost $50 per cut per stack. Since the stack he was talking about was 10" high, that was going to run into big money fast (4 cuts per stack, probably 9 stacks per 100 decks....).

We didn't get the corners rounded.
 

gregory

Marcia959 gets her decks printed and cut by somewhere I THINK is a normal printer.... and when I was still at work and dealing with such places regularly - they would all cut - for a price.