Hey! Deck publishers!

gregory

I prefer borders on MOST decks, not least because the IMAGE doesn't get shuffled away at the edges - but it does depend on the deck. I do dislike borders that are almost as wide as the image....
 

canid

So....borderless or just not huge borders? Frankly, small borders don't bother me although I admit on some decks, I really like borderless. The Anna. K comes to mind as a good example of thin borders. I don't have the first one, but the second edition has such thin borders, it seems borderless to me. ATers? No, or thin borders, for our poll? I think polling on whether we prefer no borders, thin borders, or thick borders might be a start, but hey, I'm open to whatever anyone wants to poll on or how to word it.

OK, I'll jump in here. I usually trim off borders; my choice. But some decks are simply ridiculous. For instance, the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg (US Games). It has a quarter inch gold border. OK, I can deal with that. I can cut it off if I want. But the actual images are oval & there is scrollwork around that oval image that bleeds to the actual gold border; the corners actually have 3.5" borders of that filigree scrollwork!! & you need a microscope or a loupe to see the image. THAT is overkill & I can NOT see any tarot reader liking it. What a waste of paper & ink. Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg

ETA: The actual oval images are 2" x 3". Come on. You could fit that on a business card.
 

baylys

Whoa! The borders on that deck is crazy.

I realise the Maroon was self published, but again, very big borders and hard to trim
 

greatdane

Ding ding ding ding ding Gregory!

That's it! When the border is about the size of the image, I think why??? I understand a border, no problem with that, although some decks I really enjoy without a border or a very thin one, the Bohemian Gothic and the Anna. K come to mind. It's when the border SO overpowers the image. Mystic Dreamer is a deck that comes to mind. Not one I have, but one I had. There was so much going on in the images and then there's this big honking border! And not even a pretty border. I kept thinking I have to squint at some of the details, because of the border. Surely even if everyone doesn't agree on border vs borderless, many would agree that the image should be more important and larger than the border?
 

baylys

It also comes down to the ability to trim.

Renaissance tarot, can only really trim to the gold because of the card title, but effectively it has 2 borders

View attachment 61264

The tarot of witches (james bond) also has 2 borders but can trim both off due to title placement

View attachment 61265
 

greatdane

True Baylys...

And then there are some us who really aren't that great at trimming and if the border isn't HUGE, I don't feel the need anyway. And you're so right, with a lot of decks you can't really trim them well depending on the image. It would just be great if they would worry about the size of the image and then either do borderless or just a minimal or even moderate border. If the total size of the border takes up more space than the image, not my fav because even if you did trim it, the image is still too small.
 

baylys

I don't trim as I don't want to do a card and then find it looked better with the borders still on it.

Poll question:
We here at AT are trying to provide some constructive feedback regarding publishing of the decks. This poll is focusing on border/image size.

After taking the poll, could you please post a comment to name your favourite deck border (or borderless if that is the case), as well as your least favourite deck border. These will get tallied up and presented to publishers so they can get an idea of possibilities.

1) I prefer my cards to be borderless

2) I prefer my cards to have minimal border (1-4 mm or 0.04-0.15 in)

3) I prefer my cards to have large or decorative borders
 

baylys

Is that the sort of thing you were thinking of GD?
 

greatdane

Oh excellent baylys!

I like that very much! :))
 

Annabelle

I prefer borders on MOST decks, not least because the IMAGE doesn't get shuffled away at the edges - but it does depend on the deck. I do dislike borders that are almost as wide as the image....

Me too! I like borders. Sometimes good art looks even better with a good frame :).