Print on Demand Cards

[souljourney]

We tried that with ours, it actually works. Pisses the cats off though.

I know, I can get one or two of ours to do it...

Ok... back on topic.

I suspect some of this POD will get better as more people want to use it, and then complain about it not being centered. Makes creating a deck more feasible.

 

[Mabuse]

Game Crafter Tarot cards

I know of at least one tarot pack due to be published this way soon. I shall be keeping an eye on that one as it will be designed for playing the tarot games. I've been told that it will use French suits but with the Italian trumps - thus, from a player's point of view, providing the best of two worlds. (I find new player have a lot of trouble getting used to the Latin suits - it is particularly common for them to confuse the swords and batons)

Thank to Philebus for mentioning my deck
which appears here
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/trionfi/
and thanks to Aeclectic for displaying it.

Other Tarot or similar decks may be seen here.

http://www.thegamecrafter.com/shop/tarot
http://www.thegamecrafter.com/shop/non-games


From my own experience what Tarotmama has stated is correct. The cardstock is excellent and I like how these cards feel in my hands.
However the not so good news is that the registration or offset is not quite as professional looking as I'd like. When certain cards are grossly off-center it can detract a bit from their aesthetic quality.
Full bleed is especially recommended for backs. My blue tartan pattern worked nicely and so they do their job as playing cards.

I find this website good for generating card backs suitable for Print on Demand resources
http://www.tartanmaker.com/

 

[Mabuse]

Superior POD and Game Crafter

Well, I've found another option:

http://www.superiorpod.com

Again, they print Poker (or Bridge) size cards but this time, they seem to be saying that they can guarantee registration for the face side (they suggest a full bleed pattern on the back side). There is a minimum order of 3 packs but the price doesn't seem bad. I'm not sure of their marketing arrangements if you want to sell through them but for a small print run for you to sell yourself, it could be a runner.

Although the tuck boxes are for a couple of standard packs, there is a suggestion on the pricing page that for a one time set up charge they can produce custom sizes - if I've understood correctly, then they may also be able to print a LWB to enclose with the pack.

It's good that Superior POD is also mentioned. From the Game Crafter forum theres an announcement that Game Crafter and Superior POD are joining forces.
"From this point forward thegamecrafter.com will be the forward facing storefront for both of our companies. We will focus solely on user experience, and they will focus solely on production. They will no longer be handling individual or small game orders except through thegamecrafter.com. They will however, still be doing bulk orders (more than 25 games in a single purchase)."

 

[HudsonGray]

Will the centering issues be addressed? Decks done for reselling need to look as good as possible, off centered cards that are extremely noticeable end up making things stand out in a negative way.

 

[tarotmama]

Will the centering issues be addressed? Decks done for reselling need to look as good as possible, off centered cards that are extremely noticeable end up making things stand out in a negative way.

I've talked to several of the POD guys out there (the other one not mentioned yet is Guild of Blades) and it's just the limitations of the technology right now. For complete registration accuracy I was told that offset printing is the only way to go.

 

[Mabuse]

An example of Superior POD cards

As the creator of Trionfi Tarot Playing Cards, my own deck had the same centering problems as Tarotmama's oracle cards. It is for this reason that my deck is selling for only 10.00 USD. Here's an example of cards printed by Suprior POD which makes me more optimistic http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/553949/shenanigans
Notice how much more even looking the borders appear on the Shenanigans game cards. If this "joining of forces" by these two parties means an improvement in quality as displayed by those Shenanigans pics, then I for one would be happier for it.

 

[ekb]

As the creator of Trionfi Tarot Playing Cards, my own deck had the same centering problems as Tarotmama's oracle cards.<snip>If this "joining of forces" by these two parties means an improvement in quality as displayed by those Shenanigans pics, then I for one would be happier for it.

I've had wonderful conversations with the technical people behind TGC about how to possibly improve their die-cutting and printing issues, pretty much since talking to them at GenCon in 2007. It's definitely gotten better, but it's still not quite to the standards that you can get using "conventional" printing and finishing technologies - 1/8" is a pretty big error. However, for trying to do minimal waste/LEED production, POD is still the best choice for small-press artists.

I did notice some issues with my latest order from them - the artwork was shifted more than the bleed of the ganged sheet. However, what was surprising was that the image shift wasn't off more than 1/8". The good news is that they're replacing those misprinted decks with new ones without needing a return - pretty good customer service.

It's not the choice for everyone building a deck, but with some design compromises it's not too bad of a service as is and it seems to be getting better.

BTW - my deck: http://thegamecrafter.com/games/anaithnid-tarot

 

[ekb]

Got back from GenCon yesterday and had a very interesting discussion with the staff at The Game Crafter about their merge/collaboration/??? with Superior POD while I was there. They're working out templating for LWBs, flip boxes and other accessory pieces, as well as different size cards. However, their estimates are between 6 months and full year away for full integration with the wizard system and database. In the meantime, if you're not needing a distribution channel such as TGC, you can still use Superior to produce their full range of products without any issue.

What makes that nice: you can do trade-paper and hardbound books with them, as well as sleeved boxes and decks of varying depths. In short, boxed-sets are feasible from the same vendor. So possibly an option in the future...

Takeaways I had:

• Using Superior really changes nothing in terms of process of production.
• TGC is working on moving back to their strong suit - developing web applications.
• Integration with distribution channels such as Amazon, Diamond, etc isn't on the table.

 

[cookienin]

This is all very interestinng. Thank you all for investigating this.

 

[Maxamillion]

I'll have to look into this. Sounds awesome being able to get your own deck printed.