Hello fellow lemmings! I’m designing a customized deck of cards as a present for a friend of mine. When finished, I’d like to print it by myself, because online print services would cost way too much for a single deck of cards. I’d like the cards to be robust and durable, and to be easy to shuffle. Is there a particular type of paper that you recommend? Or something to apply afterward? I’m thinking of plasticizing the cards after the print process, but I don’t know how well it would come out. Any idea is welcome!
I wrote up a huge guide on the process until my phone crashed and I lost it all. but honestly? Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Pay whatever it costs to get it professionally printed. I promise you, it’s not as easy as you think, you’ll spend more money getting the tools and materials to create a good final product than you would have done just getting it professionally printed. I can pretty much guarantee that unless you have professional design-grade printing, cutting and gluing equipment that you will not be able to do this as easily as you’re imagining it would be. Please heed my warning, do not make the same mistakes I did.
Have them printed from a service. A normal deck of cards should run about $30 USD. The paper, laminate, ink and maybe sleeves will probably cost the same or more and will come out with way lower quality especially if this is your first time crafting them.
I’ve done both and unless you want really quick and dirty prototype cards or something that is super handmade that you drew on yourself instead of designed on a computer, the ones from a printing service win hands down.
there are some print-on-demand card and game manufacturers that might be less expensive than you think. I’m a hobbyist game designer and I’ve used thegamecrafter.comthegamecrafter.com as well as makeplayingcards.com to have custom cards printed, and it wasn’t particularly costly.
but if those services do charge more than you want to spend, the thing I recommend most strongly is that whatever stock you decide to print on, cut them with one of those sliding-blade paper cutters. don’t try to cut them with scissors. they’ll come out a lot more even.