To make your own tarot deck, plan the 78 cards (22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana in four suits of 14), design each one at 70 × 120 mm with 3 mm of bleed, and give the deck one back that looks the same either way up, so a reversed card cannot be spotted from behind. Add a printed box and a stapled guidebook in Printedin Studio, order a single proof deck, then the decks you need, up to 300. An oracle deck is made the same way with any number of cards from 25 to 100. Every price includes delivery, import duties and taxes; prices for 1 to 100 decks are on our tarot and oracle cards page.
This guide is for artists, readers and small publishers making a deck of their own, as a gift, for their practice, or to sell. The tarot page says what we print; this post is about making the deck: what to plan before drawing, what the back needs, how much fits in the guidebook, and how to check it all with one deck before a run.
Step 1: Plan the cards
A tarot deck has a fixed structure, and it is worth listing all of it before you start drawing:
- Major Arcana: 22 cards, numbered 0 (The Fool) to XXI (The World).
- Minor Arcana: 56 cards in four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles), each with Ace to Ten and four court cards.
- Extra cards: a title card or a card on how to read the deck can be added; up to five such cards count as cards of the deck, so 78 and 2 are priced as 80.
An oracle deck has no fixed count. Choose the number your theme needs, from 25 to 100; 36 and 44 cards are common. The price moves a little with every card rather than in big steps, so a card you add or drop changes it by a small amount.
Step 2: Choose the size
A tarot card is 70 × 120 mm, and that is the size we print a tarot deck at. Oracle decks vary; besides 70 × 120 mm, we cut 65 × 100, 70 × 118, 80 × 120 and 90 × 127 mm, all with rounded corners. A larger card shows more of the artwork but is harder to shuffle in small hands.
Each card file is the card plus 3 mm of bleed on every side: 76 × 126 mm, or 898 × 1488 pixels at 300 dpi, for a 70 × 120 mm card. The print specifications give the same figures for every size.
Step 3: Design the back
Many readers read reversed cards, upright and upside down meaning different things. That only works if the back gives nothing away, so:
- Make the back look the same when turned: a pattern that is symmetrical top to bottom, or turns into itself when rotated half a turn. A title, a signature or a picture with an up and a down shows which cards are reversed.
- One back for the whole deck: in Printedin Studio, design it once and "Apply to all backs" puts it on all 78 cards.
- Keep frames generous: a narrow border close to the edge shows the smallest difference in the cut from card to card. Run the background into the bleed, and keep a frame a few millimetres wide or leave it out.
Step 4: Add a guidebook and a box
The guidebook is a stapled booklet at the size of the cards, 70 × 120 mm for tarot, from 4 to 32 pages in steps of four. Thirty-two pages are not enough for a page per card in a 78-card deck: write a short meaning for each card, a few to a page, and keep the longer text for your website. A longer or bound guidebook is a custom quote.
The guidebook goes in the box with the cards, and the box is printed with your own design:
- Folding box: a printed card box, made as deep as the deck and the guidebook together.
- Rigid box: a lid and a base in rigid board, 35 mm deep inside, room for the deck and the guidebook.
- Rigid box with an inlay: the same box with an insert that holds the deck in place.
Step 5: Prepare the files
You can draw the cards in your own software and place them in Printedin Studio one by one, or build the whole deck from the print template for a 78-card tarot deck, which marks the cut line, the bleed, the rounded corners and the box.
- Pictures need 300 dpi at the printed size. Keep card names, numbers and anything that must be read a few millimetres inside the cut line.
- We print in CMYK. A very bright blue, green or violet on screen comes out calmer on matt card; the proof deck shows you by how much.
- A finished PDF can be sent through the print-ready form: the fronts card by card, and the shared back once. We check every file by hand, and the finished deck waits in your Printedin account for you to order.
Step 6: Order one proof deck, then the run
Order one deck first. You shuffle it, lay out a reading, and see the colours, the back and the guidebook in your hands before you pay for a run. One deck costs more than a deck in a run, because it is printed on its own; from 25 decks the price per deck drops, and it keeps dropping up to 300. Printedin Studio shows every card as it will be printed, and nothing is printed until you order.
- Quantities: 1, 5 and 10 decks, then 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300. The price of a 78-card deck at 1, 25, 50 and 100 is on the tarot and oracle cards page, and Printedin Studio prices your own deck, box and guidebook.
- Delivery: about a week to print, then up to two weeks by courier, or faster by Express. Delivery, import duties and taxes are in every price, so nothing is due when the decks arrive.
The cards are 350 g matt coated card, printed in full colour on both sides, without lamination. We do not make gilded or painted edges, foil, metallic inks or linen, gloss or soft-touch finishes; if your deck needs them, a printer that specialises in them is the better choice. For the steps of any card game, from size to run, see how to print your own card game.
Questions and answers
How many cards are in a tarot deck?
78: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana in four suits of 14. A title card or a card on how to read the deck can be added, up to five extra cards.
What size should tarot cards be?
70 × 120 mm is the usual tarot size, and the size we print tarot decks at. Each card file is 76 × 126 mm with its bleed.
Why should a tarot card back look the same upside down?
Because many readers read reversed cards. If the back has an up and a down, the reader can see which cards are reversed before turning them over.
Can I print just one tarot deck?
Yes. One deck is the proof price, higher per deck than a run; from 25 decks the price per deck drops. Every price includes delivery; see tarot and oracle cards.