After a few rounds of printing prototype cards with my inkjet printer, I decided to have a real shop print me a copy of Monster Zoo. The base game of Monster Zoo contains 185 cards, so printing different versions at home quickly used up my printer ink.

I went with Printer Studio mainly because of different size decks available for printing (up to 234 cards per deck). Their pricing is very reasonable and there is almost always some sort of coupon floating around for free shipping. I found the user interface very straightforward and easy to use.

Here is the unboxing of my order:

The cards came in a basic cardboard package. Shipped by USPS with tracking code. No special markings on the outside of the package.

The cards were packed well inside the package. The walls of the cardboard package served as bumpers for the cards, providing some protection during the shipping process.

Each deck (I ordered 2) comes shrinkwrapped by default. If you order a set of 54 cards, it will come with a clear plastic case by default.

Here are the cards unwrapped. The cards are made from card stock and have a good weight to them. I opted for the standard 300gsm card stock with smooth finish. The cards have a good bend and are shuffled easily.

The colors came out well and you can see the two-tone background clearly. You can see the various shades of blue come through on the Monster art nicely.

The cards are cut well and I didn’t run into any issues with the margins. All the essential card elements were left intact and the border looked fairly uniform around all cards.

Cost:

Cards (2 Decks of 234), 300gsm smooth – $41.48

Shipping – Free

Tax – None

Total – $41.48

Timeline:

Order – March 27

Shipment Sent – March 29

Arrived – April 4th

Overall, I’m really happy with the results from Printer Studio. I may test how the linen finish looks in a future print run. If you are looking for an affordable and relatively fast printer for your card games, I highly recommend Printer Studio.

After printing the cards, I realized that the card text is a little small, so in I’m increasing the font size for the card text in future versions.