Templates
Once you decide on the components in your game, you'll be ready to download our templates. We provide a variety of blank templates to make the design process quick and easy.
You can watch a tutorial about how to download templates for your game here: https://youtu.be/VggD1_mTlmY
You can watch a tutorial about how to design images using our templates here: https://youtu.be/8IDecwxMakY
The templates display trim lines, bleed areas and other guides so game designers know exactly where to place artwork and content. Templates are available in several file types and are edited with image editing software. When finished, the designer must export the file as a PNG or JPG so it can be uploaded to TGC.
Our website will only accept RGB images. CMYK images will be rejected. However, for the closest color matching, we recommend that designers develop in CMYK and then convert their files to RGB before uploading them to our site. It's also a good idea to use our color profiles.
Before you start designing your images, we recommend watching the two videos below, which offer design recommendations to ensure that your printed components will look their best! You can also find additional design tips here
**Please note that there can be up to 1/8" of variance on any printed product, due to printer drift and/or cutting/registration error. Backs of printed components are going to be more prone to drift than the fronts. While these variances are minimal, they may be an issue for some customers. You should bleed your background color/pattern all the way to the edges of the images. We strongly recommend that you DO NOT design any game components with thin borders around the edges. This will only magnify the effects of drift and variances in registration!! If you use a border, be sure to use the minimum border width recommendation, as indicated in the template.**
Here are examples of images that have full bleed beyond the red cut line and where all the important information is within the blue dotted safe zone. If drift of 1/8" were to occur then it will not be as noticeable compared to a card that has uniform borders. Borders often exaggerate the drift that can occur.
Template Proportions
We print at 300 dots/pixels per inch so if you are designing an image that is 3 inches wide, then it will be 900 pixels wide. Our cut lines are 1/8" from the edge of the image for square items like cards, which means that they are 37 pixels (300 x 1/8 = 37.5) from the edge. Likewise, the safe zone on such images is 1/4" from the edge, or 75 pixels (300 x 1/4 = 75) from the edge.
Before uploading your images to our site, be sure to delete the layer containing the cut lines (from the template)! Otherwise, these lines will appear on the printed product.
Types of Templates
Keep The Content Safe
Watch the video below to learn about our templates and the proper way to insert artwork.
Dealing with Drift
Watch the video below to learn what drift is, how it can make your game look bad, and how you can design your game to mitigate its effects.