Printing Game Cards at Home: Letter, A4, Scale and Clean Cutting

Letter or A4: which file do you need?

Every printable on this site comes in two versions, because the world uses two paper standards.

	US Letter	A4
Size	8.5 × 11 inches (216 × 279 mm)	210 × 297 mm (8.27 × 11.69 inches)
Used in	United States, Canada, Mexico, parts of Latin America	Most of the rest of the world
Shape	Slightly wider and shorter	Slightly narrower and taller

The two sizes are close, but not interchangeable. If you print a Letter file on A4 paper at full size, the left and right edges can be cut off. If you print an A4 file on Letter paper, the bottom can be. The paper sizes themselves are defined by ISO 216 for A4 and by the North American Letter standard.

Not sure what is in your printer? Measure a sheet. If the short edge is 8.5 inches or 216 mm, it is Letter; if it is 210 mm, it is A4. Then download the matching file from the printables page, where every link is labelled with its paper size, format and file size.

Our two versions are separate layouts, not one file stretched to fit: card sizes and page breaks are set for each paper size, so no rule block or card is split across two pages in either version.

Scale: the setting that matters most

Nearly every “my cards printed wrong” problem is a scale problem. Print dialogs like to helpfully resize your document, and that is what makes cards come out different sizes or with uneven borders.

Look for the scale or size setting in your print dialog and choose:

• “Actual size”, “100%” or “Scale: 100” — this is what you want.

And make sure these are off:

• “Fit to page” / “Fit to printable area”
• “Shrink oversized pages”
• “Scale to fit paper”

When scale is 100% and the file matches the paper, every card on every sheet is the same size, and a stack of cut cards has even edges.

If you only have the wrong paper size, “fit to page” is the acceptable fallback: the cards will be about 3–6% smaller and the margins uneven, but nothing will be cut off.

Margins and the non-printable edge

Almost no home printer can print to the very edge of the paper. There is a strip, usually 3 to 6 mm wide, that the rollers need to grip. Anything placed there simply does not print.

Our layouts leave a margin of at least 12 mm (about half an inch) on every side, which is safely inside the printable area of ordinary inkjet and laser printers. You do not need to select “borderless” printing, and we would advise against it — borderless modes enlarge the page slightly, which brings back the scale problem.

If an edge is still clipped, the cause is almost always a Letter file on A4 paper, or the reverse.

Double-sided printing: know the limits

It is tempting to print cards double-sided, with a pattern or the game name on the back. We do not recommend it on a home printer, and our cards are designed to be single-sided for a reason.

Home printers feed paper with a small, unavoidable sideways error — commonly 1 to 3 mm, and different on every sheet. On a document, nobody notices. On a sheet of cards, it means the back of each card is visibly off-centre from the front, and a cut that is right for the front slices through the design on the back.

If you do want backs:

• Use plain, uniform backs — an all-over pattern with no border, so that a shift does not show.
• Print a test sheet and hold it up to a window to see how far your printer drifts.
• Check which way to flip. “Flip on long edge” is right for portrait pages.
• Or skip the printer: print single-sided and glue the sheet to coloured paper before cutting. It is slower, but the backs are perfect and the cards are sturdier.

For a prompt you do not want seen through the paper, the simplest answer is slightly heavier paper, or folding each card in half.

Paper and ink

Paper weight. Ordinary office paper (75–90 gsm, or 20–24 lb) is fine for a pack you will use once or twice. For cards that will be shuffled, use heavier paper or light card stock — 120 to 200 gsm (about 32 lb bond to 110 lb index) — after checking the maximum your printer accepts. Many home printers handle 200 gsm through the rear or manual feed, but not from the main tray.

Ink. Every printable here is designed in black and white: black text, thin grey rules, no solid colour blocks and no photographs. Choose “black and white” or “greyscale” in the print dialog to avoid using colour cartridges to mix a black. “Draft” or “economy” quality is perfectly readable and saves more.

How much paper? The page count is shown beside each download. A host sheet is one or two pages; a complete prompt pack runs to several. You can print only the category you need by entering a page range.

Cutting cleanly

• Cut along the dashed lines, which mark the card boundaries. Solid lines are borders that stay on the card.
• A paper trimmer (a sliding-blade guillotine) gives the straightest edges and is the fastest tool for a whole pack.
• Scissors are fine. Cut the long lines across the whole sheet first to make strips, then cut the strips into cards.
• A craft knife and metal ruler on a cutting mat are the most accurate, but slow. Adults only.
• Stack no more than two or three sheets when cutting; thicker stacks slide.
• Round the corners with scissors if the cards will be handled by small children — optional, but they last longer.

No scissors? Fold sharply along each dashed line and tear against the edge of a table. The edges will be rough, and the game will be just as good.

Large print

If anyone in your group finds small text hard to read, use the large-print option. On any print view on this site — reached with the “Open the print view” link beside each download — there is a Large print button. It increases the text size substantially and reflows the page so that fewer cards fit on each sheet, without cutting any card in half. Then print from your browser as usual, at 100%.

Two more things help at least as much as type size:

• Contrast. Print in true black on white, not on coloured or patterned paper.
• Light. A well-lit table matters more than a bigger font.

Our large-print sizes follow the general principle behind accessibility guidance such as the W3C’s advice on resizable text: text should be able to grow considerably without losing content. For other ways to make a game comfortable, see adapting games for mixed ages.

And remember that printing is optional. Every game has a host mode that shows the same prompts in large text on a phone, with no paper at all.

Quick answers

How do I print game cards at home?

Download the PDF that matches your paper size, open it, and print at 100% scale — “actual size” — in black and white on plain or heavier paper. Print single-sided, then cut along the dashed lines with a paper trimmer or scissors. Print one test page first.

Should I print on Letter or A4?

Use US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and A4 (210 × 297 mm) almost everywhere else. Measure a sheet if you are unsure. Printing the wrong version at full size can cut off an edge of the page.

What paper is best for printable game cards?

Plain office paper is fine for occasional use. For cards that will be shuffled and reused, choose 120–200 gsm paper or light card stock, after checking the heaviest weight your printer can feed. Matte white paper gives the best contrast.

Why are my printed cards cut off or the wrong size?

The print dialog is probably scaling the page, or the file does not match the paper. Set scale to 100% or “actual size”, turn off “fit to page”, and make sure you downloaded Letter for Letter paper or A4 for A4 paper.