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Printing cards

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End of Time Games
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Joined: 04/16/2009

I'm wondering how do you print out cards so that there are many on the same page. Is there a common program or simple way of laying out cards or images so there are many on the same page. I'm not asking how to have a website print and play or just what is the simplest program for getting lots of images on the same page for printing out on a printer. I'm wondering if a common program I already have can do this that I don't know about.

truekid games
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Joined: 10/29/2008
most printers have it

most printers have it somewhere in their options, you're looking for "N-up", where N is how many are printed to a page. windows native photo printing application does it visually, by putting 2, 4, 9, etc. pictures on a page, but most printers have a better one in their downloadable software (meaning, go to the company site for your printer).

additionally, any PDF application will also give you that option... print to PDF, choose the app rather than the printer, then go into the advanced options. 2, 4, 9, and 16 up are the most common i've seen.

SiddGames
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Joined: 08/02/2008
If they are images, Windows

If they are images, Windows Fax and Picture Viewer will let you print at a specified size, assuming you want a standard photo size like 4x6 or 3.5x5; actually wallet size might work out.

Check the software that came with your printer. A lot of them have utilities for printing images in different ways.

If you're willing to learn a bit, nanDeck is terrific for making cards. You have complete control over the size and layout of the cards, and you can save as individual JPG files (one per card) or print directly, or print to a PDF; it will automatically fit as many cards on the page as possible in the orientation you specify.

http://www.nand.it/nandeck/

End of Time Games
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Joined: 04/16/2009
Thanks vary much! I will try

Thanks vary much! I will try these things. Yes, nandeck seems like a really cool program. I havn't had it that I have specifically designed my cards that I needed the program yet or have not learned it yet. At the moment, I want to print a bunch of images for myself and this should be vary helpful.

gameprinter
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Joined: 08/06/2008
Printing Cards

I like to use Adobe Illustrator, but I'll layout the cards for the whole page in one file. Illustrator is powerful stuff and makes moving to a more professional print later an easy task. It's also expensive! If you have a way, however, the Academic version is comparatively cheap. I got the Web Design Premium package for $500 and it included Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and more. Money well spent.

Alternately, MS Publisher (which I generally despise as a printer, but for this it might work) will also let you easily layout a page so that you can print multiple cards at one. You can probably do the same thin in MS Word, but Word isn't as good at it. Keep in mind that Publisher is a bit of a Cul-de-sac. You can't export Publisher files into any other format - not even Word.

In general any graphics/word processing program will let you do this, but programs like nanDeck make it easier to manage the cards as individual units. You'll have to decide what works best for you.

Best of luck!

schmanthony
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Joined: 12/18/2008
Illustrator

I'll second the recommendation to pick up Illustrator for $500 if you can. It will allow you to design many, many other parts of your prototypes besides the cards rapidly and with great clarity and precision. From scratch, I could build a hex-based map with 200 spaces and multiple types of terrain in less than 20 minutes, and it would print crystal clear for a few bucks at my local fedexkinko's on 2 11"x17" cardstock sheets which I could tape together or spraymount for a decent sized gameboard. This is useful at the early stages of prototyping, when rapid revisions are needed, and also towards later stages when you are working towards a slick professional prototype.

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