Hey Robert,

I actually have all my own card templates done already. I scanned the cards in at 600 DPI, then chopped and edited out the unique artwork and text to make the templates (I did that years ago). The problem is, GIMP's default DPI setting is 72 and I never really noticed or cared about that until recently. I'm saving my cards using 300 DPI for my current images, and we'll see how it goes when it comes time to do some test printing. I'm finding some pretty decent screen caps online (not sure what DPI they were captured in, but I'm not using any images that need to be expanded in terms of pixels (btw, I'm saving my final card images at 300 DPI into 618 x 862 pixel image for printing). So, if I find an image that is smaller than that, or that is too grainy on-screen at that size, I don't use it.

As for layout, on my more recent decks, I leave a thin white border around the cards to allow for cutting room. I use an arm cutter now to quickly cut out the cards, and hand scissors to round the edges. I've found that the little white border is crucial so that I don't accidently cut into the image ever so slightly. But, I still plan to use 3 x 3 layout, because I could never quite get the images to fit 4 cards wide and still allow 1/2 inch margins on the side. Each card width is just over 2 inches, so if you wanted them sized correctly, you would spill over the printable area on most 8.5 x 11 sheets. So, I prefer to use 3 x 3, and I finally got away from using MSWord to layout my decks (I'm using Gimp now...). Although, I've laid out the cards closer to how Sultan does with large gaps between them.

My end goal is to take them to a professional printer to get them printed on high quality paper, but I will probably make them available in PDF format as well.

Darth Trumpetus...trumpeter of fury.