Printing game cards

[lestodante]

they look cool.. but why did you chose to add a black border?

[Kurgan]

So I got my first batch of "US Game" size cards finally (Custom US Game Deck Size, S33, MPC card finish). It was hard to get the edges of the backs just right (many of them had a tiny sliver on the left edge when viewing the back of the card).

These are identical width to the NA GS cards.. the corners are the exact shape, but the cards are slightly shorter (yes, shorter!). It's very, very close, and when you are shuffling them they will line up on the sides so that's probably the best one can do. Then again, you can use the "contact us [MPC website]" for a quote on a totally custom size, so if you really wanted them to match perfectly, you can do that, and they will contact you within 1-3 days.

I noticed that the original cards are still a bit lighter off/white in the "background" to the face art, and the ink/text is a bit more brown on the real thing, but it's really close. I'm not trying to fool anybody with these, just make it look like at a moment's glance when playing like they "belong" together. Also, from the pics at least, the ink on the Japanese cards looks black, while the UK cards it looks more of a grayish brown (different shade than the NA version). I created my custom cards with a reddish (magenta) shade ink in paint.net and it prints out a brownish color.

The "Superior Smooth (S33)" finish feels great, just right for playing but not overly waxy. My originals feel like cardboard in comparison, but of course they have a finish too, just a very mild one and probably diminished with age and use.

I think I'm going to say "close enough" for my purposes and I'll probably do some more batches of these.

[Kurgan]

More pics...

Original NA card on the left, mpc US Game size on the right. They aren't this blurry and washed out in person, that's my amateur camera work. But if you really look up close you can see the tiny printing artifacts on the "new" cards, whereas the originals look perfect to the naked eye up close. I suppose a person could scan their originals and match them color for color and really use a high res image to make it match, but that's up to the person. I wanted something that looked close for my custom cards to fit while playing. But no future person looking at my decks is going to be confused as to which are the true originals.

Again, a step up from having printed slips of paper sandwiching slips of cardstock cut with scissors, if a bit more expensive. I plan to keep these in pro sleeves, but they should be sturdier than the originals in actual usage.

A good thing HQ cards vs. your typical deck of playing cards, longevity wise, is that you aren't usually spending lots of time just gripping them in your hands. You also don't shuffle as often, so they shouldn't wear out as fast as a bicycle deck, even though those are coated in plastic to last longer for that very reason. When we play, the cards just sit in front of us on the table, and we turn them over as they get used, or Zargon will just draw the card, show it to the person and then discard. Still, it's nice knowing they have a layer of protection, look and feel nice when you do pick them up.

[Kurgan]

Comparison of the texture/color of the faces.

[lestodante]

I think they used a matte style more than opaque. The font used on your card is also different, just look at the M letters of "Mind Points" on the original card and Mithril on the custom card. It is Times New Roman font (wrong one).
HeroQuest cards has a very uncommon size, both NA and Eur version, I didn't find any site yet that use their format, you always have to contact them for a quote but they will ask for a minimum quantity, so not sure it will be worth the price.
Thanks for the images anyway. I think MPC is probably the best site to deal with if you need some new cards.

[Kurgan]

It's all good man, I'm not trying to counterfeit anything, but a hair closer to perfect would be cool. If perfection is what you're after, I suggest just scanning the original cards yourself in very high resolution and work from that (and get a custom size quote).

The font used on your card is also different, just look at the M letters of "Mind Points" on the original card and Mithril on the custom card. It is Times New Roman font (wrong one).

I don't know of a closer font, do you? I could have copied and pasted the individual letters, but it looked shoddier...

This page had some nice fonts, but not every one.

[lestodante]

Correct font for the cards is "Aldine 721 BT".
I did an example with the text of that card.

font card aldine 721 BT example.jpg

[Kurgan]

That's helpful, thanks! Do you have the font matches for the other types of text on the NA cards?

The BQP cards uses a different title font for example, than the others. [Edit: I just used a larger size of that font you mentioned]

Those templates out there are great, but as I'm using Paint.net (not PSP or PS) it doesn't always show me the proper font.
So now I will create my custom card sets, which will be the wrong color and wrong size, but the font... again, "close enough" and nobody will be confused over which are legit originals and which are customs.

Alternate version (there's a slight imperfection in it I noticed only too late, that's not a grease spot):

[Kurgan]

Recently ordered up some more designs, (their website claims no extra delays) but we'll see what happens. It's cool because I have a set of cards that is yellowed with age and another that is more white, so my new cards will be customized to "match" those more closely, again while not being so identical it would confuse anyone. Put in a few extra because of typos (doh!). It's pretty fun making them, that's for sure...

[laukiaerkko]

What I did for my cards was print them on plain A4 in color using the North America card files from this site. Cut them out, and put them into a perfect fit sleeve along with a MTG card. Sleeves are standard size perfect fit sleeves. They might not be the prettiest but for the purpose of getting to play the expansions, it'll do.

For me it is a matter of getting the game to the table at a reasonable price.