Free Shipping Over $200 to Canada's Biggest CitiesAll Prices in Canadian Dollars ($CDN) 
Customer Service Hotline : 877-503-2679
Free Shipping Over $200 to Canada's Biggest CitiesAll Prices in Canadian Dollars ($CDN) Customer Service Hotline : 877-503-2679
Creating playing cards for the first time can seem complicated, but the process is much easier when your artwork is prepared with a few simple rules in mind.
We highly recommend creating your playing cards using the CanadaCopy.com Online Designer powered by OnPrintShop. The designer is designed to make it easier to create your cards using the correct product specifications.
If you already have professionally prepared artwork, you can upload your own files. However, the Online Designer is the easiest option for most customers.
The card size and required number of cards are determined by the specific playing-card product you select. Do not assume that all playing cards use the same specifications.
The CanadaCopy.com Online Designer is the recommended way to create your playing cards. It is powered by OnPrintShop and is designed to help you build your artwork within the specifications of the product you selected.
The card size is determined by the playing-card product you select. The designer will use the appropriate size for that product.
If you need a different card size, select the appropriate product rather than changing the dimensions of the artwork yourself.
Bleed is recommended but not required for playing card artwork.
Bleed is extra artwork that extends beyond the finished edge of the card. It gives the production process additional artwork to work with when the cards are cut.
If your artwork does not include bleed, CanadaCopy.com will add it during production preparation.
Outer area = bleed
Solid line = finished card edge
Dashed line = recommended safe area
The safe area is the portion of the card where important content should be placed.
Our recommended safe area is 0.1875" (4.76 mm) from the finished edge.
The absolute minimum is 0.125" (3.175 mm). This is the closest that important artwork should be placed to the finished edge.
Whenever possible, use the larger 0.1875" safe area. This gives your artwork more room to accommodate normal production movement.
Keep the following inside the safe area:
Playing cards go through multiple stages during printing, cutting, and finishing. Some movement during the production process is expected.
This means that artwork may not be positioned with absolutely perfect mechanical precision from card to card.
A design with generous margins and no thin border around the outside edge will generally be more forgiving of normal production variation.
This is particularly important when designing symmetrical cards. A very thin border may appear slightly different from one edge to another if normal production movement occurs.
Borders are one of the most noticeable design elements when production movement occurs.
A border that is extremely close to the edge can make even a small amount of movement much more noticeable.
Use wider borders or a borderless design that does not depend on perfect positioning.
Very thin borders positioned at exactly the same distance from every edge can make normal production movement more noticeable.
Playing cards have rounded corners, but your artwork should still be created as a square-cornered rectangular card.
The rounded corners are created during the finishing process. You do not need to cut or round the corners in your artwork.
The rounded corners are created during production.
Text, numbers, symbols, logos, and other important elements should remain inside the recommended 0.1875" (4.76 mm) safe area.
Pay particular attention to how your card fronts and backs are arranged in the Online Designer.
If the backs of all the cards in your deck are identical, place the common back artwork on page #1.
When a single common back is supplied on page #1, we will use that back for the cards and shuffle the deck during production.
If the backs of the cards are different, all of the backs must be included and placed in their correct positions.
CanadaCopy.com will not know which unique back belongs with each front unless the backs are supplied in the correct order.
When backs are unique, each back must correspond to the appropriate front.
Playing cards are relatively small, so text needs to be treated differently than text on a poster or brochure.
For standard 2.5" × 3.5" (63.5 × 88.9 mm) playing cards, we recommend a minimum font size of 6 pt for important text.
Six-point type should be considered a minimum guideline, not a recommendation to use 6 pt for everything. If you have room, larger text will generally be easier to read.
Decorative, condensed, or very thin fonts may need to be larger than 6 pt to remain readable when printed.
Use high-resolution images whenever possible.
For raster images, we recommend approximately 300 DPI at the final printed size.
Changing a low-resolution image to 300 DPI in Photoshop does not create additional detail. The original image needs to contain enough information to produce a sharp print.
For the most predictable printing results, create your artwork in CMYK where your software allows it.
RGB colours are designed for screens and may be converted to CMYK during the printing process.
Before approving your playing cards, take the time to review the entire deck.
Don't just look at the first card. Review the cards individually, particularly if the deck contains unique artwork.
Make sure everything is correct before approving your order.
If you're not experienced with preparing artwork for printing, use the CanadaCopy.com Online Designer. It is specifically designed to make creating your playing cards easier and helps keep your design within the specifications of the product you selected.
When designing, remember the three most important measurements:
0.125" (3.175 mm) — Recommended bleed
0.1875" (4.76 mm) — Recommended safe area
0.125" (3.175 mm) — Absolute minimum safe area
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