What Paper Type Is Best For Printing MTG-Proxy PDF Cards?

DIY Magic the Gathering proxies for casual play look best on a thicker cardstock. What gsm weight and finish avoid that cheap printer feel?
2025-07-04 15:21:36
1.1K
Share
ABO Personality Quiz
Take a quick quiz to find out whether you‘re Alpha, Beta, or Omega.
Scent
Personality
Ideal Love Pattern
Secret Desire
Your Dark Side
Start Test

9 Answers

Best Answer
Patricia Lian
Patricia Lian
When printing out MTG proxies it’s best to use a thick smooth paper such as 300gsm cardstock, this allows the paper to hold the colors well and stop it from bending. Try to avoid glossy finishes as they can make the cards slip out of your hand whilst shuffling. By the way, I just finished reading ‘Dark Desires : A Collection of Filthy Forbidden MM Sins’ – a dark fantasy ‘deck’ of fictional taboos. Each chapter is a completely separate story comprising of forbidden romance and power play scenarios, perfect for short bursts of very filthy fantasy.
2026-08-04
Wyatt
Wyatt
I have experimented with many types of paper through trial and error, but the only paper that I consider to be adequate for use as cardstock is 300gsm smooth cardstock. It is thick enough to simulate shuffling with real cards, yet still flexible enough to be comfortable to handle. Smooth cardstock is the only type of paper that I have found to prevent graininess from appearing in printed artwork. It takes ink very well, and does not bleed. In the past, I have used photo paper for its high vibrancy, but it does not have enough rigidity to be shuffled as cards. A matte finish is far better than a glossy for avoiding glare when playing games with printed cards. Finally, it is crucial to set your printer to cardstock mode, otherwise it will get stuck in the rollers.
2025-07-07
Olive
Olive
I have recently discovered that printing on linen-textured cardstock in the 270-310gsm weight range makes very reasonable MTG-proxies for cube drafting. The slight texture in these papers replicates the feel of an actual Magic card better than non-textured papers, and helps to hide any minor printing inaccuracies.

This option can be good for those looking for a budget friendly option to print out large amounts of cards. 65lb cover stock can be used and paired with penny sleeves to get a deck of cards that feels near to being a real deck of Magic the Gathering cards. Just remember to print out a test copy on regular paper before cutting out the cardstock to check the size of the printout.

Cardstock with the adhesive backing already applied is probably the biggest change for me, now my proxies of bulk Commons are the exact thickness of their printed counterparts. Obviously this method takes a bit more time, but it’s definitely worth it for the more authentic feel.
2025-07-09
Xenia
Xenia
I have been experimenting with most paper types available on the market. The best results for me so far have been achieved using double-sided matte presentation paper (around 250-300gsm). It is of sufficient weight and has a great Magic like feel to it while being smudge free on both sides.

For accurate color renditioning, look for premium, high quality inkjet paper that is based on a very bright white stock. I have found that stocks with any blue or yellow tints can cause colors not to print accurately. When cutting your proxies, be sure to use a guillotine cutter rather than scissors as they can cause the edges to peel.

One tip to keep in mind is that if you plan to sleeve your cards, you can go with a slightly lighter weight (200gsm) to save some money and get some decent cardboard for your money. However, for unsleeved play, there’s just nothing that compares to pulling out a nice, thick 300gsm ‘Black Lotus’ proxy.
2025-07-10
Georgina Demmery
Georgina Demmery
I think the preoccupation with paper weight is largely a function of printer quality. A basic inkjet simply is not going to produce acceptably non-smudgy prints regardless of the weight of paper you choose. For true card-like prints you need a good color laser printer. Coated cardstock (around 270-300gsm) is my suggestion of choice. The coating on such paper allows the printer's toner to sit on top of the fibers, producing a sharp, almost-glossy impression reminiscent of a real card. Matte-coated cardstock is perhaps my favorite variant – not too shiny, not too dull. Most print shops will happily sell you a handful of sheets rather than a whole ream, and you should also check your printer's print settings to make sure it's been set to print on thick paper or, better still, cardstock.
2026-07-30
View All Answers
Scan code to download App

Related Books

Related Questions

Can I print a Kindle book to PDF if it has DRM?

3 Answers2025-07-03
I’m pretty much just a reader looking to read my Kindle books on my tablet using the PDF app, so this question really resonates with me. Unfortunately, the DRM protection of Kindle books makes it extremely difficult to convert them to PDF. Amazon’s proprietary book format and the Kindle reading apps for iPad, etc. do not allow users to print or save to PDF. Using screenshots of individual pages would be extremely tedious and likely to be in contravention of copyright laws as well. Instead of breaking the law, I work around it by checking the author’s website for free PDF samples or companion files, buying books in DRM-free ePUB format from retailers like Leanpub, borrowing PDF e-books from libraries that offer them through services like OverDrive, and checking if a classic book is already available in PDF format on sites like Project Gutenberg in various formats. Buying and supporting authors and retailers who sell DRM-free e-books is just one way to encourage authors to continue producing stories for us to read.

Can I print a pdf book from Kindle or other e-readers?

3 Answers2025-06-05
I love my e-reader but I sometimes miss the feeling of real paper under my fingers. It is easy enough to print a PDF from your Kindle if the eBook is in a DRM-free PDF format. You would need to connect your Kindle to a computer and find the PDF in the documents folder on your Kindle and print it from there. eBooks that are in Kindle book format (e.g. for purchase from Amazon.com) with DRM are trickier to print. There are plenty of e-readers out there that handle PDFs better than a Kindle (Kobo, PocketBook etc.). If you’re techy enough, you could also use tools like Calibre to convert your Kindle books to print and then print them. However, be careful to check the copyright on any book you try to print out, as some publishers allow limited printing for personal use. You can always try to stick to PDFs that are DRM-free or buy print copies of your favorite books to avoid any hassle.

Which file formats for kindle work best for manga?

9 Answers2025-06-06
First, consider your source. Comics purchased through ComiXology these days are often simply Amazon storefronts for Kindle comics, while subscription comics such as Shonen Jump are typically consumed through their own dedicated apps rather than on your Kindle. Free and legal manga such as provided by Manga Plus is read through their own app as well. So once again, the ‘best format for Kindle’ is really a question for people who are either reading comics outside of Amazon-licensed channels, sideloading their own files for reading on their Kindle, or perhaps are a part of the comics-archiving community – i.e. the DIY crowd, the archivists, and those looking to read comic books that are not currently available through digital channels.

What is the House of Cards BTS controversy about?

9 Answers2025-09-11
Meanwhile, Robin Wright and the cast were performing wonderfully throughout the years. The superb work of Wright and rest of cast in the last season, although the material wasn’t of the best quality, was truly dignified. Sadly, their efforts are mostly being eclipsed by the Spacey scandal and so aren’t getting the appreciation they deserve. For people in the TV industry, the Spacey scandal was a big wake-up call for how dangerous it is to rely too heavily on a single big star. It’s pushed the TV arms of the networks and of the streaming services to think more about building ensemble casts as “safety nets” and to think about contingency plans for how to handle problematic actors. So in some way the awful ending to House of Cards might have had a positive effect on the industry and made it a little stronger to handle difficult stars and show them in a negative light.

How to cite Gutenberg ebooks in academic papers?

9 Answers2026-07-27
When the original text is public domain, but it has been digitized into a specific e-text edition, many find this citation tricky. MLA handles this as: Author. Title. Project Gutenberg, eBook number, Publication date (the e-text release date given on the author’s Project Gutenberg homepage), URL. The fact that it is an e-book or digital file does not need to be noted in the bibliographic citation since it is a publication by Project Gutenberg. Always verify the proper eBook number and the e-text’s release date for that edition from the author’s book homepage on the Project Gutenberg website; there are often multiple versions.

How combine pdfs without losing quality?

12 Answers2026-07-28
For those concerned with quality, it is not just a case of pixelating images. All PDF documents contain metadata including bookmarks, hyperlinks, form fields and layers. A true lossless merge will not only preserve the visual content of the documents but also the structure. Free tools for merging PDFs often appear to work well at first but soon reveal that all the bookmarks and hyperlinks have been stripped from the document. If you have PDFs with internal links or a table of contents then you need a more complex tool. Here, again, Acrobat Pro is the best tool but there are others on the market that are equally good and more affordable. PDF-XChange Editor is a good example of this and it does a great job of merging PDF documents whilst also preserving all of the document properties and interactive elements.

What are the best sites to download manga as PDF?

3 Answers2026-06-18
I find PDF versions of manga through a variety of means. For a start, many of the older manga are now public domain, and can be found on Project Gutenberg. You can find more modern manga as one-shots by searching for the title plus ‘filetype:pdf’ on Google. Some of the online manga readers now have download buttons, although the quality can be patchy – I tend to use MangaFox (now known as FanFox) for this. HakuNeko is also useful for downloading batches of manga and then converting them to PDF. There is also a community of manga fans on the r/manga sub-reddit on Reddit, and sometimes people will share links to Dropbox folders containing PDFs of manga. As always, be careful to scan any downloaded content for malware. I tend to avoid any sites that look like they haven’t been updated since 2005 as they are likely to contain malware.

What’s the best way to insert manga into Kindle Paperwhite?

6 Answers2025-07-05
I can’t be bothered making perfect single page images for small screens most double page spreads don’t fit. Then there’s the problem of dealing with splits or having to scroll around within a large image. I now read my manga on a very cheap Android tablet, and keep to my Kindle for novels. Whilst the contrast and resolution on the Paperwhite are good, there’s something fundamentally wrong with using it to read novels containing large amounts of detailed artwork that would normally be viewed on very large format. If you really must read manga on your Kindle, you’d be better reading manga with less complex images, or looking for titles that have already been released digitally in this format. Reading something like ‘Berserk’ or ‘Vagabond’ on a small Kindle screen is, for me, a really frustrating experience. There are times when the best tool for the job is the one you don’t have with you.

How to purchase a book on kindle with a gift card?

8 Answers2025-05-16
Will this ever change? Super-integrated-ecosystems like Apple are moving towards a model where one can not only redeem a gift card but spend money directly within the app itself. It’s possible that Amazon could follow in their footsteps but I can see why they wouldn’t want to. For one, as it is, Amazon controls the entire purchasing experience for customers who purchase on Amazon.com and are able to promote additional products on the same page. There is also the fact that Amazon would avoid the 30% cut that Apple and Google take on in-app purchases. I wouldn’t count on seeing a “Redeem Gift Card” button within the Kindle app on your iPad in the near future. This minor detour to purchase from the comfort of your iPad in the browser is a small price to pay for the enormous selection of Kindle books.

How do I check the balance on a gift card for a Kindle?

10 Answers2025-05-21
If you’re traveling, purchasing from a separate country for your registered Kindle(s), or having difficulties verifying your Gift Card balance on a particular region’s website, remember that Gift Card balances are region-specific. A Gift Card purchased from Amazon.com will not display a balance when logged into Amazon.co.uk, for example. Make sure you are checking the appropriate Amazon website for your country.
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status