Tool
Print-and-play card maker
Lay out your own card images for printing at an exact card size — poker, bridge, tarot, mini, square or custom — with bleed, crop marks and backs that land behind their fronts on a double-sided print, or a gutterfold sheet for a one-sided printer. A test page measures how far your printer shifts the back, and the offset corrects it. For your own games, prototypes and print-and-play titles you have the right to print. Your images never leave your browser.
Print it both sides as you will print the cards, hold it to the light and type the two numbers the back lines cross. The offset moves every back by the same amount.
9 cards a sheet (3 × 3, portrait); fronts and backs alternate — print both sides, flip on long edge. Print at Actual size or 100%.
The preview shows where the cards go: add your card images to download the PDF.
How the backs find their fronts
When a sheet turns over on its long edge, the card at the top left of the front is at the top right of the back, so each row of backs is laid out right to left; on a short-edge flip the rows swap top to bottom instead. On a landscape sheet the two are the other way round, because its long edge runs across. The cards are centred on the sheet, so a back placed this way is exactly behind its front — if the printer puts the back side where the front side is. Most printers are off by somewhere between a fraction of a millimetre and a few millimetres, and the same printer is off by about the same amount every time; that is what the alignment test measures and the offset corrects.
Exact sizes, sharp images
The PDF is drawn in millimetres: a poker card is 63 × 88 mm on paper when printed at 100%. Each image is cropped from its middle to the card’s shape, never stretched, and placed at its own resolution; the page shows that resolution for each card so a small image is caught before printing. Crop marks sit outside the grid in line with every cut, so a guillotine or a craft knife and ruler can follow them. To count how many cards of any size fit on a sheet, try the sheet layout calculator; for text cards rather than images, the flashcard maker.
The link carries the settings only: your images stay on this device.
Frequently asked questions
How do I print my own cards so the backs line up?
Add your card fronts, choose one back for every card or a back for each, and print the PDF on both sides with the flip edge the page names — long edge unless you choose short edge here. Each back is placed where its front will be once the sheet is turned. Printers rarely put the back side exactly where the front is, so print the duplex alignment test first: it tells you, to half a millimetre, how far your printer shifts the back, and the offset you type moves every back page by that much.
How does the duplex alignment test work?
It is one sheet printed on both sides: the front has two fine scales, one across and one down, and the back has a line printed exactly behind the zero of each. Hold the printed sheet up to a window with the front facing you. Where each line crosses its scale is the offset to type in — X across, Y down — in millimetres. If both lines cross at 0, your printer is accurate. Print it on the paper and with the settings you will use for the cards, flipping on the same edge.
What is bleed, and do I need it?
Bleed is picture that runs past the cut line, so a cut a little off still leaves no white edge. If your card art is exactly card size, choose Extend the edges: the outermost pixels are stretched outwards by the bleed you set (1 to 3 mm). If your files already include bleed — a 63 × 88 mm card supplied as 69 × 94 mm — choose Images include bleed and set it to the bleed in the files. Cards set edge to edge share one cut and keep the full bleed only around the outside; add a gap between cards for a bleed on every side.
What size are poker, bridge and tarot cards?
Poker size is 2.5 × 3.5 in, usually given as 63 × 88 mm (63.5 × 88.9 mm exactly); bridge size is 2.25 × 3.5 in (57.15 × 88.9 mm). The sleeve makers also list Standard European 59 × 92 mm, Mini American 41 × 63 mm, Mini European 44 × 68 mm, tarot 70 × 120 mm and square 70 × 70 mm. Measure a card from the game you are matching, or set a custom size from 20 to 200 mm.
What resolution should my card images be?
Each card shows the resolution its image will print at. 300 pixels per inch is the usual target for print; below 200 the page warns you, because edges and small text begin to look soft. A poker card at 300 ppi is 744 × 1039 pixels (more with bleed). The images go into the PDF at their own resolution — never scaled down — and a JPEG that already has the card’s shape goes in byte for byte.
My printer cannot print on both sides. What do I use?
Choose One side, gutterfold. The fronts go on the left half of the sheet and the backs on the right half, mirrored about the centre line, so that folding the sheet along that line puts each back behind its front. Cut out the folded pairs, glue the halves together (a glue stick or spray adhesive), and the cards come out stiffer than a single sheet. Use paper of 120 gsm or less so the fold is clean.
What paper should I print cards on?
Card stock of about 200–300 gsm (75–110 lb cover) feels like a real card; check that your printer’s manual feed takes it. Thinner paper in card sleeves with a real playing card behind it is the other common method, and needs no glue. Print at Actual size or 100% — never Fit to page — or the cards come out smaller than their sleeves.
Are my card images uploaded?
No. The images are read in your browser, one at a time, and go only into the PDF you download. Nothing is sent or stored, and the link from “Continue on another device” carries the settings only — the card size, bleed, layout and offset — never an image.