Card art printing guide

What to expect when a Magic card becomes a shirt, hoodie or mug

The short version: cards with bold, high-contrast art print best. Magic card images are fairly small files, so a full card on a shirt looks like a poster-sized card seen from a normal distance, not a museum print.

Where the pictures come from

We use the card images published by Scryfall. A standard card image is about 745 by 1040 pixels. Oversized cards, such as plane and scheme cards, are about 1040 by 1490 pixels. Cards are never stretched: each one is printed in its own proportions.

How big the print is

Tees, long sleeves and the back of the pocket tee: the full card prints about 10 inches wide, which is bigger than the 2.5 inch card in your hand. At that size a 745 pixel picture works out to roughly 75 pixels per inch, so fine text on the card is soft while the art and colors look great.
Hoodie: the card prints about 8.6 inches wide on the front.
Mug: the card prints at its real size, 2.5 by 3.5 inches, twice (on the two sides facing a right-handed and a left-handed person), so it is sharper than on a shirt.
Pocket tee: a real pocket is only about 3 by 2 inches, far too small for a card, so the pocket carries our logo and your card goes large on the back.

Art only, with credit to the artist

Turn on "Art only" and we print just the illustration, without the card frame or text, with a small "Illus. Artist Name" underneath on the right. Illustrations are smaller files than a full card, so they print at a modest size, about 8 inches wide on a shirt, to stay as sharp as they can. On a mug the art is a little over 3 inches wide and looks especially crisp.

Full-art, borderless and showcase cards

On special printings, the card's title bar, text box or frame is drawn over the artwork, and no picture of the art without those overlays is published for most of them. To print the art cleanly we:

look for another printing of the same illustration in an ordinary frame, where the art is shown on its own, and use that picture when there is one; otherwise
cut the cleanest part out of the card itself, between the title bar and the text box, and tell you so on the page.

That means a few special printings show a little less of the artwork than you can see on the card. The preview shows exactly what will print.

Choosing cards that look great

Bold art and strong contrast read well from across a room. Busy, very dark art can look muddy on a dark shirt.
Match the garment color to the card. Light cards stand out on dark shirts, and dark cards on light shirts.
Check the printing and art list. Most cards have several printings, and the artwork differs between them.
Use the preview zoom. Hover over the preview (or tap it on a phone) to take a close look at the print area.

Ready to try it? Design your own.