Recommend a printer for Tarot/Playing Cards

[Randalls]

I have an artist friend that will be designing some Tarot or Playing Cards for a customer. I see a wide range of printers from here to China. Has anyone had satisfactory experiences with any of these folks? He also has designed several comic books so any experiences with 4c or spot color comic book printing appreciated as well.

[Robert M]

Randalls,

If it's just a one or two time project, I'd farm it out to a reputable local printer. If your friend will do these regularly and/or use the printer for other projects, then it's worth investing in a printer. Just sayin'

Robert

[Randalls]

Yeah, didn’t think there would be too many that would have die cut card experience but you never know so just thought I would ask. My old company does all sorts of die cuts, coatings, foils, cards etc but they are international and too expensive for short runs. He has a decent color printer but it doesn’t do coatings. With handling there would be too big a chance of smudging without a good gloss or matte coat.

There are a couple shops in Indy that do special printing and die cutting. Looks like an on line specialty shop that already has the die lines and a good supply of decent weight card stock is going to be the cheapest. I was just hoping I wouldn’t have to cold call. Thank You, Robert!

[Randalls]

Here is my old company, WestRock. Started at a mom and pop shop (actually brothers) 25 years ago and through strange evens and hard work was doing International Preflight for these folks until a couple years ago. Now it looks as if the Irish “Smurfs” have bought them.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/sm...023-09-12/