Case Study · Design Systems & Print Production

TCG Card Template System — Seven Card Types, One Build

Print-ready, script-driven InDesign templates for a German fantasy trading card game: a shared material finish, two card orientations, foil separations, and a documented interface the client's own database fills without hand layout.

A finished horizontal Defender Creature card, Cailleach, Mutter des Tiefwinters, in an aged-bronze frame with a ruby medallion, archetype plate, rules text and a Schildwert value of 2200

A populated horizontal Defender Creature card. Frame, finish, typography and production files are mine; card artwork and game text are supplied by the client.

Client

Independent TCG publisher, Germany

My Role

Layout, material system, prepress & template interface

Scope

7 card types · 2 orientations · BASE + FOIL

Tools

InDesign · Illustrator · Photoshop · ExtendScript

Overview

A card game doesn't need seven card designs. It needs one system that can print hundreds of cards, in seven variations, without anyone laying out a card by hand.

The client is building the game's production pipeline himself: a database of cards, exported as data, merged into InDesign and output as print files. My job was everything on the template side of that line — the frame designs and finish, the print specification, and a stable, documented interface his scripts could rely on.

88 × 63 mm

Trim, 3 mm bleed, safe areas set inside the rounded corners

PDF/X-4

PSO Coated v3 (FOGRA51), 300% total ink limit

BASE + FOIL

A separate spot plate carrying only the card titles

Scope note: card illustrations and game text are supplied by the client. The frames, finish, layouts, swatch system, templates and print files are my work. Shown with the client's permission; no source files are shared.

Process

Five stages, each approved before the next

Every stage ended with written sign-off. Locking decisions in order is what let the final production build happen without reopening a single design question.

Material study

Three CMYK finish directions; one approved

Vertical family

Four templates, swatch families, interface spec v1

Horizontal concept

Two directions and one refinement round

Reference cards

Populated cards, full finish, print PDFs

Production build

Script-ready templates, audit, packaging

Material

Aged bronze, held under a 300% ink limit

The client chose aged bronze from three studies (aged bronze, weathered copper, dark patina). The approved seven-step ramp then stayed fixed across every card type. Depth came from shading and occlusion layers rather than heavier ink, so even the darkest contact shadow sits comfortably under the press limit.

00 glint

62%

01 highlight

94%

02 light

136%

03 mid

174%

04 deep

210%

05 shadow

238%

06 contact

256%

Total ink per ramp step, with bars scaled to the 300% press limit. Swatches are screen approximations of the CMYK values.

Vertical Family

One construction, re-coloured by card type

Attack Creature, split Attack Equipment, Spell and Retaliation share a single frame build. A structured swatch system keeps it that way: FRM swatches carry the frame colour and change per card type (bronze, blue, crimson), while ORN ornaments, GEM gems and NEU dark neutrals stay fixed. A recolour is one edit, not a hunt through the artwork.

Vertical Attack Creature card, Strix, an owl with red eyes in a bronze frame — Attack Creature

Split vertical Attack Equipment card with two half-cards, a rapier and a scalpel — Attack Equipment: two complete half-cards on one frame

Card back with a central ruby gem in an ornate bronze frame, shown with bleed — Card back, prepared for print from the client's art and shown with bleed

Horizontal Family

A panorama window for 16:9 artwork

Defender Creature, Base and split Defender Equipment needed new horizontal layouts. I presented two directions; the panorama layout won because it keeps about 72% of a 16:9 illustration as a clear window. Every title, value and label was tested against the client's longest real names and rules texts before approval.

Horizontal split Defender Equipment card showing a baroque hand mirror and an opal diadem side by side — Split Defender Equipment: two half-cards with a shared divider and shield-shaped value housings.

Detail of a ruby set where two bronze rails cross — Ruby at the rail crossing, reused from the Creature cartouche.

Detail of the Schildwert value cartouche showing 2200 in lining figures — Value cartouche, set with lining figures so every number sits on the same line.

Template Interface

Templates the client's database can fill

This is what makes it a system rather than a set of designs. Every field has a stable script label, fixed geometry and a defined paragraph style, and the written specification documents normal and minimum type sizes and the practical maximum length per field — so the client knows what will fit before he exports a single card.

Blank split template showing placeholder fields for name, archetype, rules text and stat label — An empty template: every frame is labelled and waiting for data.

Script label	Controls
`IMG_ARTWORK _LEFT / _RIGHT`	Artwork frames, fill proportionally
`TXT_CARD_NAME _BASE / _FOIL`	Title twice: ink plate and foil plate
`TXT_LEVEL · TXT_ARCHETYPE`	Level badge and archetype plate
`TXT_RULES`	Rules text, normal and minimum size
`TXT_STAT _LABEL / _VALUE`	Value housings; labels live, not baked in
`TXT_COST _AMOUNT / _TYPE`	Two-line cost field on Spell and Retaliation

Interface specification: labels, geometry, styles, type floors and maximum lengths
Data model for split cards: two records linked by a group id with an explicit side
ExtendScript audit that checks labels and preflights before output
A 16:9 composition guide so new artwork drops in without cropping surprises

Print Production

Masks, separations and checks

The metal finish is driven by masks. My first masks were built by colour selection, and an audit against the vector frame showed they missed parts of the medallions and rails, so those areas were getting no finish at all. Rebuilding the mask directly from the vector geometry covered 76% more of the frame, before anything reached a proof.

Vector frame reference with text hidden — Vector reference

Black and white gold mask generated from the vector frame — Gold mask, generated from the vector

Black and white mask of the stone reading panels — Stone mask: reading panels only

Foil plate showing only the two card titles — FOIL plate: titles only, overprint

Checked before every delivery

Every texture mask compared with the vector reference, with stroke spill removed to the pixel
Separations and total ink checked in Acrobat Output Preview on every BASE and FOIL PDF
Bleed, trim and box sizes, embedded fonts, links and a clean preflight
A running audit list of open items, carried into the final consolidation stage

Why this matters for hire: a card frame that looks right on screen is the easy part. The value is in files that separate correctly at press, a finish that stays inside the ink limit, and templates that keep working when someone else's data and artwork go into them.

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