How to Make and Order Custom Printed Dice
Completely custom printed dice are possible, and AWESOME, using The Game Crafter. We offer both custom wood dice and custom acrylic dice.
Note: At this time, we offer custom D4 (4-sided) dice, 16mm D6 (6-sided) dice, and D8 (8-sided) dice.
Downloading the Template
To make custom dice, you will first need to download the template for the custom dice you want to make. The template is for a single side of the die. When making custom dice using our site, you will create and load an image for each face of the die individually.
For our Full Color dice, we have 4 options:
Custom Full Color Acrylic D4- Full color printed faces on a white D4.
Custom Full Color 16mm Acrylic D6- Full color printed faces on a D6 in your choice of 8 colors.
Custom Full Color 16mm Wood D6- A 16mm wooden six-sided dice with your own custom faces.
Custom Full Color Acrylic D8- Full color printed faces on a white D8.
On the Products page, you will see several format options for templates. Pick the format that works best with your image editing program.
Making Your Die Face Images
Open the template directly into your image editing program.
When using our templates, you will want to keep the image elements within the blue dotted safe zone line. If any part of your image falls outside the blue dotted safe zone, it is not guaranteed to be on the die face.
You can find more information about the die face orientation at https://help.thegamecrafter.com/article/349-custom-color-printed-dice
**Note** it is very important it is to have a high-quality PNG image with no jpeg artifacts and minimal anti-aliasing. This means that the edges of your image elements are crisp and don't have any blurry areas.
**Note** We highly recommend buying 1 copy of each item (per image), and checking that the images look the way you want in print before ordering more items. (Because we have no minimum order requirements, you can order only one item if you wish.)
Special White Color Process
Anything pure white in your normal image will actually come out clear on the dice, so it will show the color of the dice through that space. If you actually want to print white, then you will need to use a shade of white other than pure white (#FFFFFF). For example, you could use #FFFFFE or #FEFEFE instead.
Loading Your Images Into a Game
First, you will need to make an account on our site or log into your account.
Even if you are only ordering one custom die, our system needs a "game" to load the images into.
Think of a "game" more like a basket where you tell our system what you want to be sent to you. What you add to that game does not need to be a full game--you can just add one card, and we will send you that one card if you order that game.
You will click on "Make" at the top of the screen, then select "Games."
There you will see the option to Add a Game by entering a game name and clicking on "+ Create Game."
Clicking on the Create Game button will take you to the edit area of the new game you've created. On the right-hand side of the screen in the Make tab, you'll see options to add components to your game. You'll click on "Add Custom Component."From the following screen, you'll click on "Parts" to see the available custom part options.
You'll click on "Add to Game" under the die type to add this part to your game. For this example, we'll use Custom Full Color 16mm D6.
Once you add the die to your game, you will see the following:
You can name the die, change the quantity for the die you are creating in the game, select the color of die you wish to use (for acrylic D6 only), select which sides have art, and load images for those sides.
Next, you will load your images into each side of the die. You can either click on the box for the specific side to select a file to upload, or drag an image into that box.
Any side(s) that you uncheck in the "Which sides have art? section" and for which you do not load an image will be blank. Please note that Side 1 cannot be blank.
Our process should result in side 1 being opposite side 6, side 2 being opposite side 4, and side 3 being opposite side 5 for six-sided dice. That said, we do not guarantee it.
If you are looking to make a regular die with all the pips/numbers except for the one side, you will need to create images for all sides of the die.
These dice come to us completely blank without any numbers or pips on them. This means that you will need to load images for all sides of the die into our system (even sides that will have pips/numbers).
Here is a resource where you can download images for the pip die sides, so that you do not have to create them yourself: https://www.fairway3games.com/the-game-crafter-faqs/#custom-pips
Clicking on the upload box will prompt you to load an image for that side. You will need to load an image into each side you want printed. You should uncheck any sides from the "Which sides have art?" section that you wish to remain blank. Please note that Side 1 cannot be blank, which is why you cannot uncheck it from this section.
After you have loaded all the sides of your die, you will need to proof the images for the die.
Click on the orange eye button next to the image to see your image with the template over it.
All parts of your image should fit within the blue dotted safe zone.
If the image follows our template, you can click on the green "Approve" button. Then you will be taken to the next image that needs approval.
Ordering your Dice
You can learn about placing your first order, as well as issues new designers often encounter, here: https://help.thegamecrafter.com/article/429-how-to-order-your-game