Question about scaling down art

DOOMNOTRON 2020-06-23 06:51:50 UTC #1

Will scanning or creating my art at 600 dpi help when I scale down the images for trading cards or smaller prints? Or is 300 dpi enough?

nostalgicroxas 2020-06-23 06:53:55 UTC #2

It'll help preserve small details but it also takes into account your real life size.

IE if you're planning to print a 2"x3" card, then draw your art at 4"x6" OR LARGER. Then also scan that at 600dpi. If you draw at scale of 2x3 and scan at 600dpi, it will retain the scale of 2x3, but that also means any mistakes there will be more obvious. Stuff scaled down from something two times larger will generally look sharper and better.

DOOMNOTRON 2020-06-23 06:58:05 UTC #3

Thank you for answering. I want to make a comic book. So its 10x6 aprox. Will that be fine for the 2.5x3.5 card? I dont mind filling in the empty space with a border or a foil stamp since its not in the same scale.

nostalgicroxas 2020-06-23 07:02:27 UTC #4

The biggest thing to keep in mind is ratio's and bleed. So you always want something a TAD larger for the final size 2.75 x 3.75 = .25 room for bleed
Sometimes bleed is needed, sometimes not. Even when you think you don't need it, you might always want a tad extra because most professional print manufacturers are designed that you've taken and put in bleed areas.

DOOMNOTRON 2020-06-23 07:07:28 UTC #5

Again, Thank you! I have been racking my head cause I need to commission art and i'm super confused. One last question. Since my comic art wont with perfectly, can I use a 2.75x3.75 background and add in the scaled down comic cover on top of it?

nostalgicroxas 2020-06-23 07:11:43 UTC #6

The larger 2.75x3.75 includes EVERYTHING

So take this OG YuGiOh! card. See how it's set inside that grey/black border? That was their space for the bleed, which is why on some cards, its a little thinner. It's also why their ID # for each card, the copyright, and the foil square for authenticity is inside that border. In the cutting process, which these cards are cut on a machine en masse, won't be chopped off or hampered. This sort of border is not required, but iirc Magic The Gathering does it too.

Other TCGs like Final Fantasy, does not. Which you can see they're more careful about spacing to keep all their info away from the bleed edge on the bottom. And instead, leave a bar of empty but "filled in" space for the bottom cut.

DOOMNOTRON 2020-06-23 07:16:09 UTC #7

I think I understand. One of the printers had a pdf that show where to put my art. It hat cut lines. It makes sense to me now. Thank you. You dont know how helpful this was for me. Know I need some artists lol.

nostalgicroxas 2020-06-23 07:22:34 UTC #8

Imagine on that last blue card the same black border from the YuGiOh card on it, and you'll see it's about the same for the empty space for their placing of Copyright information You can take it into a paint app and put in the lines if it helps you visualize.
So what we don't see for the cut line, is likely some extra space of art work and the game square. But you can still see that everything is inset within a certain rectangle just as an "oshit" insurance.