Printing and cutting cards

weirdspaceships

Pretty much I want to make some cards, like for a card game. Nothing shady, just something I threw together. However, whenever I get something printed from the printer place, their cardstock isn't as thick and sturdy as I'd like. Is there a special type of cardstock or paper I should ask for, or something I can do to make it a little less flimsy? I'm trying to aim for the same thickness as any deck of playing cards or CCG cards.

Lastly, Staples wants to charge me $1 a cut to use their big stationary cutting blade that gets perfect cuts, and that's going to come out to way too much. Where can I look to find one of those that'll let me use it for free or at least at severely reduced cost per cut?

amateurhour

First off, there's no such thing as "perfect cuts from a stationary blade" at Staples. I used to work there. Those things aren't maintained, and if you're cutting more than one page at a time you're going to get this downward sloping v in the cut which will not make a deck uniform.

You're better off spending $30 to $50 on a nice trimmer and doing it yourself.

For the cards, I'd say that any single or double sided glossy stock around 120 lbs would suffice for what you're looking for.

I found this online

Casino quality poker cards (and some board game cards) use a special playing card stock comprised of 2 or more layers of paper glued together with a blue or black glue, often containing graphite. For this reason it is sometimes called “black liner board”, and it is opaque (print on one side of the card cannot be seen from the other side). The usual weight is 300 GSM and it has more springiness than ordinary paper card stock. Apparently, most playing card stock comes from France and Germany. It is usually sold by the ton and difficult to find in small quantities.

To start, I'd get some good card stock, check out a local printer instead of staples and examine their stock. They'll let you buy a few sheets to play around with and see what you like. Staples doesn't have the best selection.

Figgy

Staples has 100lb paper, which should be perfectly fine. Make sure you go with the laser printer, even if you're printing black and white. The contrast is much, much better. Just go visit the store and take a look at what they have before submitting an order.

And they seriously will charge you to use a cutter on your own? There is a station with a cutter/stapler/etc at all the Staples I've been to, and it's free for anyone to use. Do they stand beside you while you cut and count how many times you push the arm down?

amateurhour

Not only should you go with the laser printer, but if you can afford it, go with the color laser printer if you're doing a small enough run that it won't break the bank.

I've gotten some of my comics printed at Kinkos and they accidentally used the color laser (they're black and white/greyscale) and the next time they wised up and used the b/w laser and the difference was noticeable, like very noticeable.

Wezoin

Go to a proper print shop (read: not Staples, they're awful) and get them to use a guillotine, at the print shop I worked at it was 95cents per cut, but it could cut through a stack of 100 sheets at a time (so effectively 99% off compared to staples) and had a magnifying glass and markers to line up the cut as closely as possible. Just keep in mind that that means the cards need to be lined up perfectly on the page when you set them up.

Also, 100pound card stock should be fine.

Molybdenum

I'd suggest checking out the Boardgamegeek forums.

http://boardgamegeek.com/forum/26/boardgamegeek/board-game-design
http://boardgamegeek.com/forum/36/boardgamegeek/do-it-yourself

There's plenty of resources there (or links to resources) that will help.

weirdspaceships

Wow, okay, thanks, BGG is turning up helpful.

Thanks, everyone! I'll look for somewhere more suited to the task than Staples.

CptHamilton

I've looked into doing the hand-made card-game thing before myself, and something you might want to consider is sleeving. Getting that professionally-printed low-gloss coat on your cards is a huge pain in the ass, and if you don't do it they're going to wear out pretty quickly when shuffled. If you pick up some card sleeves you can even skip the high-grade paper products by sleeving your printed 'cards' with some actual cards for stiffness.

MagicToaster

Keep in mind that paper comes in two basic categories: text and cover. Cover is thicker. 100lbs text is not the same as 100lbs cover.

Text, however, hides imperfections from laser printers better than cover.