The numbers that matter
A Magic card is 63mm by 88mm, with roughly a 3mm corner radius. In inches that is 2.48 by 3.46, which is why every guide that works in inches ends up with rounding errors.
Everything else follows from those two numbers:
| Property | Value | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Card size | 63 by 88 mm | Anything else will not sleeve alongside real cards |
| Corner radius | about 3 mm | Cosmetic, but square corners catch in sleeves |
| Cards per A4 sheet | 9, in a 3 by 3 grid | With 8mm margins and 2mm gaps |
| Cards per Letter sheet | 9, in a 3 by 3 grid | Slightly wider margins than A4 |
| Recommended DPI | 300 | The point where home printers stop being the limit |
| Pixels at 300 DPI | 744 by 1039 | Per card, which is the size to make your art |
That last row is the one to write down. If you are compositing card art yourself, build your image at 744 by 1039 pixels and it will print at exactly the right size at 300 DPI.
Doing it in GIMP
The generator above produces a template in a few clicks. If you would rather build it yourself, or want to composite actual card faces rather than an empty grid, here is the process with the settings that actually matter.
Create the document at print resolution
File, then New. Set the size in millimetres, not pixels, and set the X and Y resolution to 300 in the Advanced Options before you create the image. This is the step people skip, and skipping it means every measurement afterwards is in the wrong unit.
For A4: 210 by 297 mm at 300 DPI.
Turn on the grid and snapping
Image, then Configure Grid. Set both spacing values to 63 by 88 mm so the grid matches card size directly.
Then View, then Snap to Grid. Without snapping you will place cards by eye and they will drift by a millimetre or two, which compounds across a sheet.
Add guides at the card boundaries
Image, then Guides, then New Guide (by Percent) is the fast route, but for exact placement use New Guide and enter positions in millimetres.
For a 3 by 3 grid on A4 with 8mm margins and 2mm gaps, your vertical guides sit at 8, 71, 73, 136, 138, and 201 mm. Horizontal guides at 8, 96, 98, 186, 188, and 276 mm.
Place your card images
Each card image should be 744 by 1039 pixels if you made it at 300 DPI. Drag it in as a new layer, and with snapping on it will lock to the grid.
If your source image is a different size, scale it with Layer, then Scale Layer, and check that the result is 744 by 1039. Do not scale by dragging a corner handle, because GIMP will not constrain to an exact pixel size that way.
Export correctly
File, then Export As, and choose PNG. Not Save As, which produces a GIMP project file rather than an image.
In the export dialog, leave compression at default. Do not resize on export.
The step that ruins most proxies
Printing.
Your template is correct. Your print dialog is about to scale it by four percent and produce cards that do not fit a sleeve.
Before printing, in the print dialog:
- Set Scale to 100%, or Actual size, or None depending on the driver
- Turn off Fit to page, Shrink to fit, Scale to fit paper, and any similar option
- Turn off borderless printing, which crops the edges
- Check the preview shows margins rather than a full bleed
Then print one sheet and measure a card with a ruler before printing thirty more. If it is not 63mm wide, the scaling is still on somewhere.
This single step accounts for the large majority of “my proxies came out wrong” problems, and it is not a template issue at all.
Paper and finishing
For sleeving in front of a real card, which is the most common and cheapest approach, ordinary printer paper is fine. The real card behind it provides the stiffness and opacity, and the proxy just needs to be readable.
For a standalone card, use a heavier matte paper around 200gsm. Glossy photo paper looks impressive and handles badly, because it sticks to itself and glares under table lighting.
Cutting is easier with a guillotine or a rotary trimmer than with scissors. If you only have scissors, use the corner marks option in the generator rather than full grid lines, since a line you cut along leaves ink on the card edge.
Corners can be rounded with a 3mm corner punch. Purely cosmetic if you are sleeving.
Where the line is
Worth being clear, because the distinction is meaningful rather than pedantic.
Proxying means making an obviously non-genuine stand-in so you can test a deck or play a casual game without owning an expensive card. It is widely accepted at kitchen tables, it is what this tool is for, and Wizards has never pursued anyone for it.
Counterfeiting means producing something intended to pass as a real card, whether to sell it or to deceive a player or a buyer. That is illegal, and it is not a grey area.
The practical test is whether the card could fool someone. Print your proxies plainly, do not try to replicate the card back, and never sell them. Sanctioned tournaments do not allow proxies at all, with the narrow exception of a judge-issued replacement for a card damaged during an event.