Online Card Maker

[EldritchGamer]

EDIT: The latest version of this tool can be found here: http://imperialvault.co.uk/DeckSmith/EditCard.html

I'm new here - hello!

I'm working on a FREE online tool that lets you make cards for Warhammer Quest & HeroQuest.
The idea is that you fill in a couple of fields (the card title, description etc) and choose the art for the card front/back and for the monster or item the card is about.
As you change the information, a preview of the card is updated, allowing you to see the effects of your changes.

When you're finished, you hit export, and the card you are working on is created as a PDF document that can be printed. Simples!

I have a very basic prototype up and running - including the live preview and exporting to PDF for printing - but really have no talent when it comes to art, digital or otherwise.

What I would really like is two things:

• Some donations of art work to the project (from card fronts/backs to items, treasure, monsters and so on) - there seem to be tons of talented artists on this forum, and much of the artwork would benefit both games. I didn't want to steal any art without permission, and newly created art is also very welcome. I will of course provide credits to the original artists.
• Also, if anyone has any ideas for other things the utility can do, I'd love to know your thoughts!

Oh, and I should definitely mention that the tool will be freely available online for everyone. Perhaps the HeroQuest version of the tool could be posted on Ye Olde Inn, if the owners are interested.

I'm personally going to use the tool to make a new Gargoyle card, the only part missing from the copy of HeroQuest set I bought in a car-boot sale for £1!

Looking forward to your thoughts, any and all contributions are welcome!

Cheers

[knightkrawler]

I'm looking forward to a really good card creator.
That would be awesome.

Welcome on board, my man.

[EldritchGamer]

Thanks

I might PM a few of the folk here who have posted images to see if I can drum up some support/permission. I'm having some fun converting the existing prototype to work in any browser, after that comes different types of card... I hope to have a HeroQuest version (maybe for treasure or equipment cards) working in the next week or so.

The massive card project you guys have started sounds like it could use a convenient way of creating the cards after all the translations have finished.

I'd love some feedback on what people think it should do.. once I've got the basics nailed down, hopefully I'll want to make it more useful!

[torilen]

Very nice. That sounds like something I would use. My only option thus far is creating cards
in MS powerpoint and saving them as PDF's. Very time consuming, though, as working with
powerpoint can be, at times.

And aren't you a saint, offering it free. If only there were more people who would offer things
for free. Thank you very much for that.

[Von Necron]

My only suggestion to what the tool can do is this, what ever the format is it should have a template of where to insert the cards so that when printing starts it can be double sided. My printer takes card stock but does not print on both sides so I have to flip the page and make sure the back side image is aligned correctly. I've been able to save word templates and succeed at this. I would love a card making program but if I can't make legit looking doublesided cards I wouldn't use it.

[EldritchGamer]

@torilen: This should be easier than Powerpoint, so long as your happy to pick from whatever library of formats & artwork I can scrape together!
I'm a software developer by trade, and I make use of free and open source software on a daily basis. Why shouldn't my favourite board games benefit when I decide to 'give back'?

@Von Necron: Capital idea! This is my first foray into print, but that is going straight onto my TODO list!

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it

[Daedalus]

Do you plan to make all of the cards available with this (ex. Spell cards from the expansions and Equipment cards)? What about the smaller scrolls and artifacts? Maybe those should be offered in small and larger sizes.

One thing I'd like is an optional field on the monster cards for homebrew information. Another would be an optional place on the Spell Cards for a spell point cost.

As for Warhammer Quest, any cards that convert tables and charts to a deck of cards would be awesome. It sure would be nice to not have to flip through the pages for things like town events.

[knightkrawler]

For Spell cards I'd need a space at the bottom for a single number (the cost, as Daedalus already suggested).
One line - original font - at the top, directly underneath a line for a smaller font on all cards.

Hard to specify.

[EldritchGamer]

@Daedalus: I don't currently plan to convert all of the cards myself and make them available, but am happy to collect the results of what people do create and make them available. I'll probably make a couple of decks though.
What I will try to do is compile a list of the different card 'formats' and convert them into what the card maker needs so that eventually a user can make any kind of card.

It seems perfectly reasonable to have two different sizes of equipment cards if that's what is needed, and similarly a notes field on monster cards and a field for the cost on spell cards are also easy enough to add.

With regard to Warhammer Quest, that was my original motivation for making the tool was to make all the custom town events, traps, monsters etc available on my website as physical cards for my games. It is way quicker to take cards than it is to constantly roll on tables!

@Knightkrawler - not sure what you mean. Is that in addition to the fields you find on all cards, so that it kinda squeezes in above the item picture (for example)?

[EldritchGamer]

Right, a quick update: after wrestling with Real Life, the vagaries of old versions of Internet Explorer and so on, I have a small prototype card editor on my website.

The URL for the HeroQuest version card editor is: http://imperialvault.co.uk/DeckSmith/EditCardHQ.html.

You can do the following:
Changing the text in the text boxes results in the image in the preview area being updated
Click export to have a PDF of your card created. This can be saved and printed normally.

This is way off being complete, I need to add the following in the near future:
Changing the item image (currently hard-coded) - any stock art welcome!
Selecting card back image (e.g. teasure cards have lots of gold on the back)
Getting the card scaled correctly for printing
Crop lines in the PDF

Have a play and let me know what you think!