Question regarding printing of The Marvels and of customs in general

[TGW]

Hi,

Most of us (if not all) on the forum are aware of The Marvels set designed by Jack and printed professionally. I've also read up on Bios custom cards and how he has them printed professionally (around $100 for 250 cards, if I remember correctly).

My question: How do you go about having custom cards printed professionally? I know you'd have to get in contact with a printer, but what is the best way to go about presenting what you want to have printed? Let's say I have some customs, say between 230 and 260 cards and I'm looking to have them printed. I have high quality JPG files for most of these customs, but is that enough? Do I have to have them formatted in a special way? I'm terrible with photoshop and most of the customs were either done for me by others or located online. Obviously I'm not looking to print them to sell for profit, in fact, I'd probably only request one set to be printed (maybe two, so I have a backup).

What are some things I should keep in mind when looking for a printer and what is the best way to provide the items I'm looking to have printed? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Jack]

Ask your printer for samples, preferably with the artwork that you intend to put onto it. This way you can feel what type of material they are using and do a (double)blind test to see if they are distinguishable from regular OverPower cards. There are other reasons for doing this.. outlined below.

When you provide images for print, I would avoid JPG files at all cost. Unless you export them in the highest possible quality, they get jittery and develop unwanted blocks. Export as a (compressed) TIFF or PNG with 24-bit colours. DPI/PPI (dot/pixels per inch) is important, try to design for 300DPI or greater. For a 2.5x3.5 inch card, that means you need to design at 750 by 1050 pixels.

BUT...... in the printing world, things aren't always that exact. Most printing companies require bleed space because they almost never cut properly to the card size. Bleed makes up for it so that you still have artwork around the edges so it doesn't show up as the paper's white. Bleed space is something you should inquire. This poses a problem for people printing off cards they didn't design because they are all exported to the 5:7 ratio without bleeds. A good way to work around this is to mirror the edges.

If you want good looking cards, you should be designing on a properly calibrated monitor. This is ensuring that what you see on the screen matches what the printers would output. I use mid/high-end computer monitors (Dell Ultrasharps) and have them calibrated properly so that when I sent your custom cards to my inkjet for printing, they looked exactly like they do on the screen. The same goes for sending them to your printers, you should ask them what profile they require (most printers use a CMYK profile) so you can properly export them. A benefit of using TIFF over PNG is that you can embed a colour profile onto the image instead of translating the colours around.

Getting samples printed off with one of your art pieces also ensures that your method for exporting images is compliant with their methods. I had some samples printed off (the Gambit one I showed in the other thread) and it was spot on. You probably want to send in something that has a wide gamut of colours on the card. I chose Gambit because there was a lot of black but had other vibrant colours inside it. You might also want to print off a colour bar too so you have something to hold up to your monitor for comparison.

Another thing to figure out is the whole copyright factor of the cards you're printing. Make sure that the printing company understands that the cards will not be used for profit. Some will understand but some won't. Quality assurance and refund policy is key, make sure the company has a policy for refund/exchange if they made mistakes (missing cards, reverse images, etc.). You don't want to get stuck with a bunch of error cards and a good amount of money if they were the cause of the mix-up. Processing time and shipping probably doesn't matter in your case but if you had a scheduled release date, you'd want to work out your submit/processing/shipping schedules so they come in timely manner.

[TGW]

Thank you very much for the detailed information, Jack, it's much appreciated.

Regarding printer purchase, does anyone have any recommendations? I'm not looking to break the bank, I'm thinking something that isn't over $150.00, the lower the better. I'd like to be able to print off Bio's homemade cards on my own printer first, and then consider my options with a professional printer.

I know Jack has a thread somewhere in the forum where he details his selection of paper/ink, so I'll be sure to check that out for additional information.

[Jack]

It's hard to recommend printers, most of them do a good enough job and it depends on your method of printing, colour profiles, paper, etc.

If you want a printer solely for printing cards, get a photo printer that can accept and print borderless 5x7 paper. Dedicated photo printers have better colours than standalones and all-in-ones but are probably more costly. I choose to use 5x7 paper since it prints 4 cards exactly without any waste.

[TGW]

Thank you very much, Jack.

[thetrooper27]

Jack, you should go into the printing business.  All that is way confusing to me.  I would customize OP cards much more often if I knew how to print them on stock and share them with others.