The Game Crafter

Printer Studio

Hi ShadowDancer,
Thanks for sharing this info. Your cards look really great. I am going to check Printer Studio out again. You mention the turnaround was fast - how quickly from when you pressed the button? Also the plastic cards - I just wanted to clarify - they were all plastic not just plastic coated?

Lorelei

It took around 2-3 days from uploading to getting a notification they were being processed.

After that, it was approx 5-7 days before they were in my letter box.

The plastic is plastic, not plastic coating. You can only get that finish in the smaller card sizes. I actually tested the plastic coupon they sent, by pouring water over it and wiping it off, and then cutting it up. Defintitely was plastic, but had a nice smooth feel. I gave them to James Ricklef when I saw him, to have a look at. He was amazed they were plastic and not card.

Another question

I hope you don't mind me asking another one? Part of the attraction of TGC is that they will put you in their shop which allows customers to purchase the deck and then they ship them. For me it's important as it seems silly to get them made, shipped here then end up shipping them possibly back to where they came from!

The downside of this is that the shipping from the US to anywhere else is prohibitive and pretty slow. This is a very long-winded way of asking whether you manage all the marketing and selling of your deck and does it work OK?

I don't actually market or sell my decks - they were one off printings for myself. So hopefully someone may be able to come in and answer that one.

I guess you have to weigh up the pro's and con's of both systems. I understand what you are saying about the drop shipping. You do not get much by way of return, compared to if you choose to have decks sent to you, you set the price and ship.

I think shipping to anywhere, from anywhere is quite high these days

Comparisons

auntie said:

I've never published a deck, but may I just say that I don't know why everyone doesn't use Printer Studio? I just find that as a buyer, their quality is better, both for card stock, finish (whether plain, or linen) and color, and I have a feeling that mark up is better too. Just my personal opinion. If I love the deck, I'll buy it anyway.

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Thanks Auntie - this was a very good lead and has been a bit of a learning experience for me. I have now had decks printed on both TGC and PS.

PS were better on card stock, price, production time and shipping by a long shot. While they don't do tuck boxes, they do seem to print the cards in the right order with the front and back cards where they should be and the shrink wrap was nice and clean.

The deck from TGC was more vivid and the colours were truer to what you see on the screen. They also handle the logistics of selling your deck and provide a shopfront for it.

At this stage I am checking with PS as to whether the colour can be improved. I'm hopeful this won't be an issue.

Anyway, I thought you might like the feedback and it might be useful to other deck creators.

Lorelei

Aina said:

Hello, I have just been on Game Crafter trying to publish a Lenormand deck but my pixel count was the wrong size everytime I uploaded and I couldn't download any of their softwares in order to help me out with the editing and pixels and all that, so I just quit doing that. Have no patience. I did have the chat with very helpful people out there but even after increasing the pixel count, my cards were not accepted by the software. All my project is just pending out there and I don't know what to do. Was everything smooth for you?

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Hi, Aina!

I don't usually come to this thread if I am not developing a deck, so I hope you have gotten this figured out.

What I discovered is that TGC has very specific requirements (such as a tarot image is 900 x 1500 pixels) and if you are NOT in their ballpark it does NOT work. I had an avatar that was 300 x 298 pixels and TGC wanted 300 x 300 pixels and THE DAMN THING WOULD NOT LOAD! Since I am still new to this pixels vs inches thing I still have to ask someone to help me at times.

Once I had my images resized to EXACTLY 900 x 1500 pixels (thank you, Ed!) the images did load. I have since learned how to regulate that myself and am now in the process of 'clearing & cleaning' my original B&W artwork.

With this imagery in mind I was also able to download the same images to PS and produce the same deck - minus box or documents. IMHO the products are exactly the same between TGC and PS other than one has 'rounder' corners. PS was lower cost without the box and document. Some people throw the box away, anyway. AND - PS will put the cards in the order you load them into their system; TGC does not - which is annoying when you come down to it! The cards are mixed up any old way!

Just my two cents... I recently went to PS for a project because it has 28 cards and TGC 'cannot' produce a 28-card tarot deck unless it is in a 90-card box (??? ) and I did not want to create both a poker-size and tarot-size version!

My 2 cents worth

tarotbear said:

IMHO the products are exactly the same between TGC and PS other than one has 'rounder' corners.

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Hi TarotBear,

There is a difference in colour production. I have in front of me TGC and PS versions of my deck. The black areas are the same but the colours are more washed out in the PS version. So I think we might not be comparing apples with apples here. I'm hoping this can be resolved as I like the PS card stock much better.

Lorelei

shadowdancer said:

I don't actually market or sell my decks - they were one off printings for myself. So hopefully someone may be able to come in and answer that one.

I guess you have to weigh up the pro's and con's of both systems. I understand what you are saying about the drop shipping. You do not get much by way of return, compared to if you choose to have decks sent to you, you set the price and ship.

I think shipping to anywhere, from anywhere is quite high these days

Click to expand...

I don't want to be marketing and selling and packaging and shipping my decks! That is a lot of work! That is why for my Everyman Tarot deck I will just let TGC do all the work and pay me my cut. Even if I eventually get a blog or website I will still be letting TGC do the dirty work for me. My work was producing the artwork - let someone else handle the particulars!

For those outside the USA:

In the USA what we call the 'small' Priority mail box -which will hold two boxed decks - the current US postage on that little box is $5.80 domestic (up to 3 pounds) and then it JUMPS to $19.95 to go to Canada (only right next door!) but it only goes up to $24.95 Anywhere Else in the world.

So, my deck to New Jersey is $6 ($30), to Ontario is $20 ($45) ... and to Oz is $25 ($50)

Lorelei Douglas said:

Hi TarotBear,

There is a difference in colour production. I have in front of me TGC and PS versions of my deck. The black areas are the same but the colours are more washed out in the PS version. So I think we might not be comparing apples with apples here. I'm hoping this can be resolved as I like the PS card stock much better.

Lorelei

Click to expand...

My deck is B & W , so the black still looks black to me ...

I will say, though - as with anything on your monitor vs ink reproduction - there is going to be a difference and you really do need to get a copy of your (whatever) to check this out. When I got the proof copy of my children's Christmas book - the blues on my monitor in one pic printed purple in ink! I went back and changed the color in that image to a brighter blue to compensate for it.

Black is black...

tarotbear said:

My deck is B & W , so the black still looks black to me ...

I will say, though - as with anything on your monitor vs ink reproduction - there is going to be a difference and you really do need to get a copy of your (whatever) to check this out. When I got the proof copy of my children's Christmas book - the blues on my monitor in one pic printed purple in ink! I went back and changed the color in that image to a brighter blue to compensate for it.

Click to expand...

Tee hee TarotBear. It certainly is.

I'm hoping I won't have to adjust my images - the amount of work just makes my head spin. I just want the volume turned up to vivid! I must say though the TGC prints came out much more like the photograph prints I made as a test.

PS. Where do I get the little green devil icon?