Does anyone know of or can recommend any companies or websites that can make customised playing cards or game cards?
I’m looking to get some sample cards made for a game I’m developing but also have been thinking about getting some personalised “standard” 52-card deck of playing cards made for friends’ birthdays. I found some websites a while back but few seemed to reply to emails so I’m not sure if they are still in business.
gwek, the chap on BGG who’s done a lot of customisation for Firefly, uses printerstudio.com and seems generally happy with them, but of course they deliver from the USA. I don’t know anyone who’s used printerstudio.co.uk, the same company’s UK operation, but they seem rather more flexible than most of the “make a deck of playing cards” printers out there.
Ah I see they have a Spanish arm too, which would save on shipping cost and time. Excellent! Thank you.
I use cowcow or artscow, but only when they have a free shipping 4 decks for $20 deal, which they do quite frequently. Be prepared for the possibility of some printing and cropping errors, but you can’t beat the price.
That’s the other “big” card printer I’ve heard of – thanks for the name. The people I’ve hung around with are mostly concerned with colour and thickness accuracy so that the cards can be shuffled into existing game decks, so they might put up with more problems in other respects.
Technically cowcow and artscow are both just intermediaries, doing no printing themselves. That’s why results vary, you can never quite be sure the actual printing company used will do the same thing as the last one.