The Game Crafter

auntie

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.
 

Lorelei Douglas

Printer Studio

Hi Auntie,

Thanks for the lead - I wasn't aware of them. I will check them out.

Kind regards
Lorelei
 

Lorelei Douglas

Printer Studio

Hi Auntie,

I checked out Printer Studio. Their prices are comparable with TGC - I can't comment on the relative quality of the output as yet. Thanks for the lead though - it may come in handy in the future.

Not having used PS though, I think TGC has the advantage that you can package more up. They have customisable tuck boxes and you can include booklets if you want to. This didn't seem to be the case with PS (I could be wrong).

The other advantages are that you control the deck loading and checking process yourself and purchase a proof copy, which you can't do easily with offset printing in my experience. TGC also provide a shopfront you can sell through which saves having multiple decks shipped to you only to be shipped off elsewhere or being stuck with stock that doesn't sell.

I have had good reports re the quality of output so far, but I should be able to assess that soon once I get my proof deck. If it's not good - back to plan A - using offset printing!

Kind regards
Lorelei
 

Aina

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?
 

Lorelei Douglas

Pixels

Hi Aina, I had no problems with this. What program are you using to develop your deck and what format are you submitting cards in? I might be able to help you if I know a bit more.
Lorelei
 

Luna-Ocean

Hi Lorelei

I was just browsing on TGC and saw your game advertised on there, that's good to know you were happy with the printing results?

I'm not able to buy any more at the moment, but your deck is on my wish list ready.
 

HudsonGray

I looked all over the printerstudio site and can't find a quote for tarot decks, only the standard playing cards. The only thing that says 'tarot' is the blank cards which look to be $1.89 per 10 card deck.

Am I missing a page or link or something over there?
 

Lorelei Douglas

TGC printing results

Hi Lorelei

I was just browsing on TGC and saw your game advertised on there, that's good to know you were happy with the printing results?

I'm not able to buy any more at the moment, but your deck is on my wish list ready.

Yes I was Star. The colours came out really well. The cards feel good in your hands. My only concern is the postage outside the US which is quite off-putting. So I may think about doing a standard print run so it's more affordable for overseas taroistas some time down the track. I have also been approached by a publisher so we will see if anything comes out of that in the new year.
 

Lorelei Douglas

Printer Studio

I looked all over the printerstudio site and can't find a quote for tarot decks, only the standard playing cards. The only thing that says 'tarot' is the blank cards which look to be $1.89 per 10 card deck.

Am I missing a page or link or something over there?

If you go to the playing cards section they have a section on tarot. It looks like you would have to contact them for a quote as pricing looks indicative. The other outfit is Quality Custom Playing cards. They have quite a lot of detail on their site about costs but you still have to contact them for a quote. Arnell Aando has used them and gives a good summary of the work they did.

TGC is the only outfit where you pretty much do it all yourself - load up your cards, publish etc. It's pretty good, the cost per deck is higher but you don't have to buy the volumes required by other printers. Hope this is helpful.
 

shadowdancer

I have used Printer Studio now, and found them to be fine. With regards the tarot cards, you have to select how many cards you want in the deck from the drop down menu. So, you could have 80 to make the standard sized deck. It then gives the price for one deck, of that many cards. ($16.50 for linen finish) With Printer Studio, if the order was over $30 postage was free. And they are quick in their turn around and their delivery.

With regards the boxes, you get a free tuck box if it is a standard playing card sized deck you have printed (54 cards) and that applies to the large cards also.

I have only had the bridge sized printed on plastic (which is my favourite finish by far) and large printed on linen (which is also excellent as a finish)

If anyone wants to know the pixel size I used for a) the image and b) the overall canvas size so as to add a border I can happily post that here). I used gimp to size the image then size the canvas/centre the image before uploading to their site.
There is a fair bit of maths involved, I do accept that, and my partner helped me out for my first attempts when using bridge size. I also have the dimensions I used for bridge and large saved for future use, as well as tarot size. Be aware though - I do add a border, due to the fact I don't want to have any image of the card cut off when it comes to the cutting process. They cannot guarentee the blade will come down dead centre but overall, they have only been off by a few pixels - certainly not anything for me to be upset about.

I also had a mouse mat printed and that too came out fine.

The thing people don't take into account when uploading images (besides getting it so the whole box is filled as per their instructions) is the aspect ratio of length x width. It varies dramatically between bridge and tarot cards. Tarot will be longer and thinner in comparison. So, if you start with a bit of a chunkier image, when you size it to fit, it will be stretched. Which may mean some images look a bit odd. Reverse happens if you go from tarot to bridge. It is shortened and fattened slightly. If you can trim parts off - fine. It shouldn't show. But if you can't, be aware of what size will best suit what you are uploading.

The attached shows both linen finish and plastic cards from my silhouttes Lenormand ... there is no difference between them, other than the plastic feel great and have the robustness about them for me to feel happy not wrapping them in cotton wool each time I use them. The 2nd photo is of the large cards in linen. It came with the tuck box.
 

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