Pre-made Card Templates?

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Tue, 06/23/2015 - 00:41

Evil ColSanders

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Joined: 12/08/2010

Is there anywhere I can get (or anyone have) blank card game templates. Magic-esque layout. (Standard: 2 1/2 x 3 1/2) I spent 3+ hours looking for some but of course they're all 72dpi and 500x900 or something unusable like that.

I REALLY don't want to make one on the fly because if I do, I'm going to go by gamecrafter's template (which the psd image is all one layer... *thanks CS3) and that's going to take a lot more time considering I'm going to want it to be "perfect". I worked over gamecrafter's template but just got frustrated because I can't picture the difference of bleed and end of card and all that when creating my cards. I'm not gamecrafter ready yet, but I at least want my stuff to be slightly presentable for playtesting before I actually take the time to make it TGC ready down the line.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 15:41

Zag24

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Joined: 03/02/2014

Have you looked here?

Have you looked here? http://www.makeplayingcards.com/custom-print-game-cards.aspx

However, I think that if you are making cards to go along with any game, then, in the long run, you'll be happier if you learn nanDECK: http://www.nand.it/nandeck/ There's some learning curve to getting started, but when you are trying to tweak the layout of the cards for the fourteenth time, you'll be happy that a one-line change will move your icon the two pixels to the left on all the cards, to where you need it for the two cards that were too crowded.

I like to start with a spreadsheet where I put all the important data for all the cards. Export that to CSV file which is imported into nanDECK, which then builds all the cards for me. I can print it locally on card stock and cut it with a guillotine cutter, and these are easily good enough for prototype and early play-testing. Then I can use the same nanDECK program to make the files needed by GameCrafter, DriveThruCards, whatever, and get professional results.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 18:24

questccg

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Joined: 04/16/2011

Here's what I do...

Design my card in Photoshop to be 2.5" x 3.5"...

Then I create a SECOND file in which I COPY & PASTE the PNG created via my Photoshop template...

Photoshop is great - it centers it and everything...

The only thing is this assumes that you have a BLACK BORDER (or any color) around your cards. So the BLEED area is BLACK (or some other color...)

I've designed two (2) games with this and it works PERFECTLY.

BTW I use "Save As" with the second file and create PNGs that are perfect for The Game Crafter (TGC)...

Note: the SECOND file can be TGCs Photoshop file (with the bleed indicators on the bottom-most layer).

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 22:17

Evil ColSanders

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Joined: 12/08/2010

Thanks Zag. I HAVE checked

Thanks Zag. I HAVE checked them out but the options are just too few. Also, I have over 450 cards at the moment so that's going to cost me a pretty penny to make even just 1 run.

Quest, I'm aware of the technique. Unfortunately, it doesn't help with the problem Thanks though.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 06:48

wombat929

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Joined: 04/17/2015

Software and goals

I'm unclear what you're looking for.
1. A graphical layout you can easily slot your card information into.

2. A template for laying out finished cards to be printed.

Questions:
1 - How are you planning to print these? Are you looking for a template to use to set up 8x11 pages to print yourself?
2 - what software do you use/ have access to?

I have a layout that I use for a page of eight bridge-size cards (2.25 x 3.5 plus bleed) in InDesign. I could send that to you when I get back from traveling next week, if you just need something to slot the cards into. But if you have InDesign and know how to use it, you can probably make this yourself pretty easily.

The other way is to make the cards in your graphics program of choice at 300dpi with measurements 1/4inch bigger than you need them. So your raw cards should be 2.50 x 3.75, with an eighth-inch edge that you'll plan to cut off. Then you can add them into Word or a similar document as a table.

It might be an interesting programming project to make a web script that takes card info and outputs them as formatted cards. Hmmm. A cool idea...

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 14:02

Evil ColSanders

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Joined: 12/08/2010

I was looking for option 1. A

I was looking for option 1. A standard magic card size with graphics done which I could just input and print. I'm working with photoshop cs3. I've never heard of inDesign.

I resigned myself to 3 more hours of searching. This time for buttons, widgets, and textured backgrounds Which yielded better results. I still have to make the canvas of a 300 dpi 2.5 x 3.5 card though.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 15:55

JewellGames

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Joined: 06/03/2012

The issue of a catch all

The issue of a catch all template is that it might not support all the info a game requires. So the template needs to support inserted art or supply the art?

I have limited skills otherwise I'd offer to help. My templates are very basic but clean.

Btw, how much info do you have per card?

In regards to TGC file, is the issue with cs3 that it flattens grouped layers or ALL layers?
It'd be very easy for one of us to open it in our Photoshop (I have CC 2015) and save in a supported cs3 format.

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 19:45

Evil ColSanders

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Joined: 12/08/2010

The Card

Support the addition of art. I guess CS3 merges all the layers together.

The Card is almost like a magic the gathering card with less stuff on it. No mana, power/toughness, or expansion symbols. The same box in top for the name of the card. After the typical magic card art box is That text box that says "instant" or "creature - type. I have 2. One below the next, both centered. Probably going to make them nameplates too. I tend to go overboard with early prototyping. Then card effect box. Finally, a centered nameplate which will slightly overlap the text box.

I have some nameplates and stuff. I'm going to work on it but if you want to, I have no objections to help. I'm no Leonardo DaVinci. Also, no images needed. I'm just going to grab some deviant art and throw it on there til I get to the " finished and ready to kickstart" phase.