When print and play is the right call

About five years ago I was running a design thinking workshop, and I'd built a prototype card deck to use in it. The client knew we'd be testing it together.

As usual, I'd left the printing late. The evening before, I bought a printer at FNAC, carried it back to my hotel, and printed the deck on the desk in my room. Then I sat on the carpet at 11pm and cut every card out with a pair of scissors.

The cards were wonky. Nobody said a word about it. They did their job, and we got on with the workshop.

That's still one of my favourite uses for print and play: getting a deck ready to try with a group, even at short notice.

The deck and the printed thing are two different objects

Your deck is the content: what's written on the cards, the images, and how they're grouped. You can print a copy at home on A4 or send it to a print shop for a box with rounded corners and a more polished finish.

I Love Cards lets me export for either. I choose based on what I need that week, and I can use the same deck for both.

Printing for yourself

Most of my printing is for my own use. Often I've got a deck in progress and I want to know what's wrong with it. A rough printed copy helps me spot things I missed on screen. Cards I thought were different look identical in a fan. Text is unreadable when the card's lying on a table and I'm standing up. Sometimes two categories turn out to be doing the same job.

I also catch typos this way, even after reading the deck four times on screen.

And sometimes it's to run a session, like that hotel evening. A deck exists, it's finished enough, and I need copies tomorrow.

If I want a deck on Thursday, I can decide on Wednesday. I don't need to wait for production or delivery.

That makes small, specific jobs practical. I can print one copy using a client's vocabulary, or translate fifteen cards for a particular group. After a session, I can fix the cards that didn't work and print replacements for the next group.

And if I lose a card, I can print just that one, as long as I still have the file.

When someone else does the printing

If you give or sell the file, someone else has to print and assemble it. That needs a little more preparation.

Selling a download means you don't have to store or ship boxes. Someone on the other side of the world can buy your deck and print it the same day. It can suit trainers or consultants who only need one or two copies.

But they need to be able to use the file without you there to help.

I know my own printer and which paper and layout to use. A buyer may be doing this for the first time, so include those instructions with the download. Explain how to print both sides and where to cut. Check that all the cards are there and that the fronts and backs line up.

Ideally, ask someone to test the file without coaching them through it. You'll find out which instructions are missing before a customer wastes paper or gives up.

What you're giving up

Home-printed cards are often thinner than professionally made ones. I print on 200 gsm paper; a print shop can offer heavier stock and finishes my printer can't handle. Check your printer's paper limits before buying anything thicker.

Cutting by hand takes time, and getting every card the same size can be difficult. Corners stay square unless you punch each one yourself, which for a 54-card deck means over two hundred punches.

And a printed box has a presence that a stack of cut paper doesn't. There are rooms where that matters. If I'm giving a deck as a gift, or selling it at a decent price, or handing it to a client who's paying for polish, I get it printed properly.

Start with the copy you need now

For a prototype, a rough home-printed copy is enough to learn from. For a workshop, spend a little more time on printing and cutting. If you're sharing the download, test the instructions too. For a finished product or gift, a print shop may be worth the extra time and cost.

You can change your mind as the deck develops. That hotel-room deck eventually went into production, but the rough copy was enough for us to try it in a workshop.

Next in the series: what a print-and-play file actually is and what equipment you need at home.