Best method to print my custom cards? Worried about too much description text

[Aeo Locphry]

Hi there, I've been working on two custom decks intended to duel against each other as a surprise for some friends, but I may have gotten to the point where I need to check what these will end up looking like when printed out. I say that because I ended up making a few cards with a LOT of text and I want to make sure that when printed out it's still readable... I've come across two options: printing them out at home, or using a website like MPC.

I tried playing with the MPC design tools and it appears they might not have the right dimensions for Yugioh cards. Even if they did, it looks like they might cut off important parts of the card, unless I were to contact them for a custom printing job that might become super pricey. Does anyone have experience using them to print out custom Yugioh cards before, and if so how did you get it done well?

In the event I resort to printing at home, what kind of paper do I need and do I need a special printer? I don't know if my printer is good enough. If anyone has tips for doing it this way that would be great too.

 

If this is the wrong place to post this, sorry.   Also I'm attaching an example of one of my cards with a lot of text, maybe someone already can tell whether it's going to be too small when printed?

[The Nyx Avatar]

Just now, Aeo Locphry said:

If this is the wrong place to post this, sorry.   

Holy shit! Don't worry man. You posted in the right place. I'm just genuinely surprised to see a new user not only do so, but admit responsibility.

ANYWHO:

1 minute ago, Aeo Locphry said:

I tried playing with the MPC design tools and it appears they might not have the right dimensions for Yugioh cards. Even if they did, it looks like they might cut off important parts of the card, unless I were to contact them for a custom printing job that might become super pricey. Does anyone have experience using them to print out custom Yugioh cards before, and if so how did you get it done well?

In the event I resort to printing at home, what kind of paper do I need and do I need a special printer? I don't know if my printer is good enough. If anyone has tips for doing it this way that would be great too.

If you want accuracy, it's best to pay the price with a custom printing job.
 

If you are curious about what material Yugioh cards are made of, they are made out of layers of paper. Pasteboards. To quote someone who probably knows more than me, "acid press machine and cylindrical feed, similar to printing newspapers. The process was partly adopted from the machines Fleer uses to print sports cards". So...yeah. I don't think you can accurately replicate the cards from home.

 

I mean, you can still print them out on paper if you want.

[Aeo Locphry]

  

9 minutes ago, The Nyx Avatar said:

Holy shit! Don't worry man. You posted in the right place. I'm just genuinely surprised to see a new user not only do so, but admit responsibility.

ANYWHO:

If you want accuracy, it's best to pay the price with a custom printing job.
 

If you are curious about what material Yugioh cards are made of, they are made out of layers of paper. Pasteboards. To quote someone who probably knows more than me, "acid press machine and cylindrical feed, similar to printing newspapers. The process was partly adopted from the machines Fleer uses to print sports cards". So...yeah. I don't think you can accurately replicate the cards from home.

 

I mean, you can still print them out on paper if you want.

Have you or do you know anyone who has done a custom Yugioh printing job with MPC before? And do you have any clue if the example I attached might end up having too tiny text that won't be readable once printed (or if there's a way to check/tell pre-print)? Don't want to end up printing cards that are going to come out worthless haha

Thanks a bunch for responding!

[The Nyx Avatar]

32 minutes ago, Aeo Locphry said:

  

Have you or do you know anyone who has done a custom Yugioh printing job with MPC before? And do you have any clue if the example I attached might end up having too tiny text that won't be readable once printed (or if there's a way to check/tell pre-print)? Don't want to end up printing cards that are going to come out worthless haha

Thanks a bunch for responding!

Well, I can't say I have or know anyone.

 

Also, you may want to correct the card. Not so much for small text. Moreso that it could be worded better.

[Aeo Locphry]

What's wrong with the wording..?

[The Nyx Avatar]

8 minutes ago, Aeo Locphry said:

What's wrong with the wording..?

Stuff like "Can only be destroyed if this is the only Old Sith Empire monster on the field"

When in real life it'd be, "Cannot be destroyed if there is another face-up Old Sith Empire monster on the field"

[Aeo Locphry]

Ohh I see good point, I'll look out for other things like that. Thanks again!

[Rayfield Lumina]

On 9/15/2021 at 8:21 PM, Aeo Locphry said:

Hi there, I've been working on two custom decks intended to duel against each other as a surprise for some friends, but I may have gotten to the point where I need to check what these will end up looking like when printed out. I say that because I ended up making a few cards with a LOT of text and I want to make sure that when printed out it's still readable... I've come across two options: printing them out at home, or using a website like MPC.

I tried playing with the MPC design tools and it appears they might not have the right dimensions for Yugioh cards. Even if they did, it looks like they might cut off important parts of the card, unless I were to contact them for a custom printing job that might become super pricey. Does anyone have experience using them to print out custom Yugioh cards before, and if so how did you get it done well?

In the event I resort to printing at home, what kind of paper do I need and do I need a special printer? I don't know if my printer is good enough. If anyone has tips for doing it this way that would be great too.

Leaving modesty aside, I have a large amount of experience in this regard. You see, it was around 2014 since I decided to make a full Touhou Project Deck, and since then I printed it god knows how many times in order to achieve the closest to perfection, and at a certain point I learned how to make them foil.

Dimensions. Welp, as you must know already, a YCM card is 5.9 x 8.6 cm. I always print my cards at exactly 350 DPI (dots per inch). The cards are 813 x 1185 px in size.

After inspecting your card, I realized it is actually the exact pixel size I'm suggesting, so that's just perfect. Moreover, after looking at the kind of template you used, I have little doubts you used TCGEditor. Honestly, I don't remember the dpi in which cards generated from TCGEditor are downloaded by default, but I think it was 90 (86?) or something, so you gotta adjust that in your image editor if possible. Printing them in a printing center is much more affordable than you'd think. I can't know the price in your country, but in my country there's a size of paper called "tabloide rebasado" which is 30.5 x 45 cm, slightly bigger than the typical tabloid size (28 x 43 cm.), and in which 25 cards can be arranged in a 5 x 5 format. They were roughly 40 cents each print with the monetary conversion, believe it or not.I print them in a paper called Couche mate, 350 grs. per m². Printing them in your house definitely won't give you good results unless you use high quality paper and a hella good printer, and most printers aren't compatible with such thick paper. Lemme see if I can show you a couple of images so you see how good the results can be if you find the right place (because quality can greatly vary from place to place, and you can bet I visited tenths of printing centers looking for the best).

Welp, not bst quality photos lol, but you get the idea. The one on the left is the couche 350 grs. one, pretty outdated. I chose one with long text so you see it can actually be decently appreciated if you find a place with good printing quality (and again, the photo is not best quality, looks a lil' better in person). One on the right is, obviously, a secret rare I made, but that requires a pretty complex process and you might not be interested on that, which means I'm 100% posting it to brag LOL.

Ok, hope this helps, any doubts, feel free to ask.

[Aeo Locphry]

13 hours ago, Rayfield Lumina said:

Leaving modesty aside, I have a large amount of experience in this regard. You see, it was around 2014 since I decided to make a full Touhou Project Deck, and since then I printed it god knows how many times in order to achieve the closest to perfection, and at a certain point I learned how to make them foil.

Dimensions. Welp, as you must know already, a YCM card is 5.9 x 8.6 cm. I always print my cards at exactly 350 DPI (dots per inch). The cards are 813 x 1185 px in size.

After inspecting your card, I realized it is actually the exact pixel size I'm suggesting, so that's just perfect. Moreover, after looking at the kind of template you used, I have little doubts you used TCGEditor. Honestly, I don't remember the dpi in which cards generated from TCGEditor are downloaded by default, but I think it was 90 (86?) or something, so you gotta adjust that in your image editor if possible. Printing them in a printing center is much more affordable than you'd think. I can't know the price in your country, but in my country there's a size of paper called "tabloide rebasado" which is 30.5 x 45 cm, slightly bigger than the typical tabloid size (28 x 43 cm.), and in which 25 cards can be arranged in a 5 x 5 format. They were roughly 40 cents each print with the monetary conversion, believe it or not.I print them in a paper called Couche mate, 350 grs. per m². Printing them in your house definitely won't give you good results unless you use high quality paper and a hella good printer, and most printers aren't compatible with such thick paper. Lemme see if I can show you a couple of images so you see how good the results can be if you find the right place (because quality can greatly vary from place to place, and you can bet I visited tenths of printing centers looking for the best).

Welp, not bst quality photos lol, but you get the idea. The one on the left is the couche 350 grs. one, pretty outdated. I chose one with long text so you see it can actually be decently appreciated if you find a place with good printing quality (and again, the photo is not best quality, looks a lil' better in person). One on the right is, obviously, a secret rare I made, but that requires a pretty complex process and you might not be interested on that, which means I'm 100% posting it to brag LOL.

Ok, hope this helps, any doubts, feel free to ask.

First of all, thank you for your reply!

So I actually did use TCGEditor to make my cards, including the attached one. It looks like it's the right pixel size but might not be the right DPI. How would I go about checking that? And then if it's not 350 how would I go about fixing it? Should I be using a different card creating tool?

As far as printing, what website/service did you use to print? I'm in the US.

[Rayfield Lumina]

3 minutes ago, Aeo Locphry said:

First of all, thank you for your reply!

So I actually did use TCGEditor to make my cards, including the attached one. It looks like it's the right pixel size but might not be the right DPI. How would I go about checking that? And then if it's not 350 how would I go about fixing it? Should I be using a different card creating tool?

As far as printing, what website/service did you use to print? I'm in the US.

As I don't know which kind of image editors you got access to, I'd simply recommend Photopea, it's pretty much a free Photoshop, but works online only. 

https://www.photopea.com/

To adjust an images' DPI, after opening it click on Image --> Image Size --> Take note of your current px size. When you increase the DPI, the pixel size will also increase proportionally, so restore it to 813 x 1185 and click ok. This way, your image should keep it's current pixel size but increased DPI, which is important for getting printing quality.

Sadly, can't help you with the service I used. It was just a local one , which only have 3 or 4 branch offices in the city I live. I'm afraid you'll have to look around for printing centres close to your place and try here and there.