Ye Olde Inn

by **Idomeneas** » September 19th, 2012, 7:31 pm

leo wrote:When printing cards do you coat them with anything like clear varnish? Or is the glossy paper good enough.

Photo paper is good enough. Before that i had experimented by using different paper (heavy weight HP) and coating it with acrylic varnish. It works. But it demands some basic skill and takes much time

great thread. I have been wandering myself how to get that laminate finish on cards... I just bought a laminator off amazon which works great for some of my projects... but I want to start making decks that have that strange "low" laminate finish that can be shuffled. And I have started to wonder what kind of finish that is. so thanks for answering those lingering questions.

but I am still curious about how it is done in a manufacturing process, what and how playing cards are protected/finished with... most likely some very expensive machinery. but I wonder if it can be done at home or perhaps at a copy/printing place... I will have to research this further.

by **Daedalus** » September 24th, 2012, 2:51 pm

I can't remember the specifics, but I have read about a finishing wax you can buy to gloss cards, made just for that purpose. Found it somewhere on Boardgamegeek.com.

by **shy-design** » September 24th, 2012, 3:22 pm

nice, thats a good start. thanks

by **shy-design** » September 24th, 2012, 3:57 pm

this was insightful. the products are a bit expensive, but worth looking into for anyone who is interested in the process.

http://www.lybrary.com/how-to-make-your-own-playing-cards-a-11.html

by **Idomeneas** » October 16th, 2012, 5:11 pm

shy-design wrote:great thread. I have been wandering myself how to get that laminate finish on cards... I just bought a laminator off amazon which works great for some of my projects... but I want to start making decks that have that strange "low" laminate finish that can be shuffled. And I have started to wonder what kind of finish that is. so thanks for answering those lingering questions.

but I am still curious about how it is done in a manufacturing process, what and how playing cards are protected/finished with... most likely some very expensive machinery. but I wonder if it can be done at home or perhaps at a copy/printing place... I will have to research this further.

Hi
In the old days (80's-90's in our case) the cards after printed in 4 colours* they were mounted again on the printing machine and varnished. Thats why in HQ cards you have that semi-matt feel. The cheep paper absorbed some varnish and retain its texture but still its protected (to a point). Today we still varnish prints but there are more advanced lamination methods. You can have a matt or satin finish. Basically its a thin film protecting the paper and it can be alot more stronger, to the point of completely waterprooffin the printed material. It also adds weight to the cover, allowing the use of abit lighter paper, or making a heavy paper stronger. There can be aslo combinations of lamination and varnishing. What we call ''spot UV''. On a matt finished cover you can add by using a mask, satin finish to a designated area of any shape you want. Im sure you ve seen it on various prints and cards.

* When using the offset method, all colors are created from placing raster (dots) of various size closer together, or further. Its basically an illusion which you can understand if you close to any billboard or street ad. Because of the low resolution used the effect is more apparent there.

by **shy-design** » October 16th, 2012, 6:36 pm

great thanks for the info.

by **chaoticprime** » May 27th, 2013, 4:55 pm

If you want to get the most out of your printed pieces, buy a 16oz. container of Mod Podge (Matte or Gloss Paper type) and a brayer (should be sold alongside mod podge). It'll set you back very little, and if applied correctly will make your tiles and cards nigh-invulnerable. You can also use that same mod podge as a brush on sealer for painted miniatures (apply thinly).