Beginners in Playing Card Designing

[laitostarr777]

Hello everyone, I would really love to try firsthand on doing designs of playing cards?
Who knows that I will be another new designer rising in the community?

Though I am here with a request... Is there any templates that I can use to start designing playing cards and its tuckboxes? Few days ago I tried contacting USPCC about wanting to use their template, but they won't give it away unless you are ready to order one.
And on other questions, what softwares should be best to do designs on playing cards? Are there any tips and tricks on doing playing cards designing?

[BaconWise]

Hi Laitostar!

I would recommend visiting the MakePlayingCards.com website. They have templates for any size of card you would consider along with tuck box templates. I think the industry-standard software would be illustrator but you might want to reach out to other designers on the forum to see what they like to use. Likely a mix of Illustrator and Photoshop. Good luck with your journey!

[Eric Lee]

You should also check out JR's youtube channel where he posts his live drawing videos and interacts with the viewers. You should be able to gather some useful tips from that.
https://www.youtube.com/c/KingsWildProject/videos

[Harvonsgard]

Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and prtially Photoshop are the industry's weapons of choice when it comes to design software. Check the web if there're some cheap or free open source alternatives since Adobe programs aren't cheap as far as I know. Alternatively you can use them for a monthly fee as well though.

I second what Eric wrote, the Drawing with Jackson videos are full of useful tips.

[JacksonRobinson]

Stop worring about having the right template, start drawing

Here are the USPCC Templates, now get to work!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pfv3nezf6ocn ... WbQsa?dl=0

[Harvonsgard]

Stop worring about having the right template, start drawing

Here are the USPCC Templates, now get to work!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pfv3nezf6ocn ... WbQsa?dl=0

[laitostarr777]

Stop worring about having the right template, start drawing

Here are the USPCC Templates, now get to work!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pfv3nezf6ocn ... WbQsa?dl=0

WHOA, was gotta asked you through Instagram, but I guess you read my queries here first! Thanks a bunch, Jackson
Once I get something in work, I will surely show it here!

[Lolwel21]

If you need a free alternative to Illustrator, Inkscape is also a decent choice if you make full use of the relevant features.
Namely:
Linked copies (useful for establishing rotational symmetry)
Embedded files (useful for repeated elements like pips)

If you don't use those features, or their equivalent in Illustrator (Transform effect, Placed assets), be prepared to have some really dumb mistakes in your first physical prototype (ex: forgetting to flip a 5 on the bottom corner, so they're either both right side up or both upside down).

Of course, only applicable if you don't already have an Adobe Cloud subscription

[laitostarr777]

If you need a free alternative to Illustrator, Inkscape is also a decent choice if you make full use of the relevant features.
Namely:
Linked copies (useful for establishing rotational symmetry)
Embedded files (useful for repeated elements like pips)

If you don't use those features, or their equivalent in Illustrator (Transform effect, Placed assets), be prepared to have some really dumb mistakes in your first physical prototype (ex: forgetting to flip a 5 on the bottom corner, so they're either both right side up or both upside down).

Of course, only applicable if you don't already have an Adobe Cloud subscription

It is not that I don't like to use those features, the big problem is, I have no experience drawing in Illustrators
Before I used that software only for making boards for design presentation. From there, I get the grasp of using the grid, alignments, and simple stuffs

[laitostarr777]

Stop worring about having the right template, start drawing

Here are the USPCC Templates, now get to work!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pfv3nezf6ocn ... WbQsa?dl=0

If you don't mind me asking, what is Copy Limit Line and Punch Registration Limit Limit Line?

[Harvonsgard]

Copy limit line is border of what gets printed.

Punch registration limit line is the minimum area that needs to be blank if you want your design to have borders.

[laitostarr777]

Copy limit line is border of what gets printed.

Punch registration limit line is the minimum area that needs to be blank if you want your design to have borders.

So is it like copy limit is a safe area where you want the elements to be seen - while punch registration is something like the maximum safe line? Still don't quite get it

[House of Cardistry]

Is Procreate an acceptable platform to use for designing/drawing artwork for decks? I’m also interested in trying a design for a deck but don’t have photoshop or any of the other Adobe products.

[Lolwel21]

Honestly anything that allows you to punch in accurate physical dimensions should do fine, though some services prefer vector-based files over regular images. It's mostly a matter of where you place the difficulty: During creation by (buying and) learning a new tool, or during export to make your art meet the specifications of the manufacturer.

I do appreciate that Procreate has a rotational symmetry tool; it may come in handy depending on what you plan to do with the face cards.

Some things that you may get hung up on, depending on the service you plan on using:
Many of the higher quality card printing services strongly recommend (or even require) submitting artwork in CMYK, because RGB and CMYK don't actually map all that well. The achievable range of colors are different in RGB and CMYK, and certain features of the color system also have drawbacks.

A few concrete examples:

• CMYK is not good at reproducing light, saturated colors.
• 100% black (c:0, m:0, y:0, k:100) is actually a dark grey. It's plenty for small to medium features, but it feels washed out in large expanses.
• Rich black (adding C, M, and Y to make it darker) may create color alignment issues on small features and sharp borders.

Neither Inkscape nor Procreate supports CMYK. You can work around it, but it takes third party software to do so, and automatic conversion takes away a lot of control when it comes to color.
Sadly, not a lot of free software has good CMYK compatibility. Krita internally supports CMYK, but can only export bitmap (jpg, png, tff, etc.) images in CMYK (as opposed to vector files like SVGs).

[laitostarr777]

Procreate software is slowly developing to a better art platform slowly, and eventually will soon be at almost equally Photoshop I think
Right now, the latest version of ProCreate do supports CMYK, but I heard that it is still not as accurate as working with CMYK in Illustrator.

But, the thing I like about Procreate it's the ability of the mirror drawing. I did it once, with my personal fun name card fashioned to looked like a playing card.

[Dan.Yule.Sun]

Is Procreate an acceptable platform to use for designing/drawing artwork for decks? I’m also interested in trying a design for a deck but don’t have photoshop or any of the other Adobe products.

i used procreate to get my rough draft of the design down since I have an ipad pro and it was easier for me to draw on the tablet. Once I got the design where I liked it, i moved over to Illustrator to get it fine tuned.