Hand drawn design to vector images???

[Crazy Gizmo]

Ok so I've been told if you hand draw cards you then need to convert them into vector format? 
i am so new to this how would one even go about doing so?
Do i actually need to?
Are there easier ways to do so?
As you can see i don't know much about this so any help is appreciated thanks have a great day!

[Fess]

Ok so I've been told if you hand draw cards you then need to convert them into vector format? 
i am so new to this how would one even go about doing so?
Do i actually need to?
Are there easier ways to do so?
As you can see i don't know much about this so any help is appreciated thanks have a great day!

No you don't actually need vector format. A nice crazy high pixel count png or jpg would work depending on detail.

There are various graphics programs that you could use for converting to Vector art. Things like the Adobe suite stuff come to mind, I can't remember off the top of my head which one is best for that from that suite but it's not photoshop. It's another one. Corel draw also can do it I think. Programs in that general direction.

It does actually need to be converted to digital and fit into the popper dimensions etc yes.

Yes there are easier ways to do this. Hire one of the many self employed graphic artists there are around the world to convert it for you! They already know the ins and outs of what it takes to make it digital while retaining all the stuffins from the original.

[Don Boyer]

Vectored images are desired by printers because they're infinitely scalable.  But as Fess said, if you provide adequately-high resolutions to start with, you can get away without having vector art.  300 dpi would be a minimum, while 600 or even 1200 would be much better.

[NineLives]

The style of artwork may also help decide on whether vector or high-resolution bitmap works best for you. Curious to see examples

[variantventures]

I routinely convert hand-drawn images to vector images.  My method is cheap and easy but I wouldn't use it for modern playing card designs as it will lack the crispness most collectors of modern playing cards expect.

I get an electronic image of the hand-drawn image.  This can be done using a scanner or a camera.  In most cases my phone camera is superior to most low-end scanners.  All scanners are NOT created equal.  Most commercial scanners for home use have a fairly low quality image resolution.  E.G. The Brother multi-function printer/scanner/fax I have at home is crap for scanning artwork.

Once I have an electronic image I load it into GIMP (the free, open-source version of Photoshop) and I clean it up.  Since I'm working with black and white images I typically turn the contrast way up.  I also remove the white background, but that's not strictly necessary.  I save the image in .PNG or .TIFF format (these are lossless formats that support transparency).  Do NOT use .JPG/.JPEG.

I then import the file into Inkscape (again, open-source and free) and use the trace bitmap utility.  This will create a vector version of the image.  I then delete the original image I imported into Inkscape (this is important) and I'm done.  Infinitely scalable image.

This is conceptually very simple but it takes a little practice to figure out all the twists and turns.