What white do standard bicycle playing cards use?

[Ziggletooth]

I've been designing a deck of cards over the last few weeks. I got the the dimensions from a printing company and used a combination of GIMP and Adobe Illustrator to put my deck together. I plan to send it to print when I am done.

This is my first time designing a deck of cards, and using those programs. I am not an art student either, so please bare with me.

My question is an odd one but I want to get this right.

I've designed my own suits and used custom assets but I want to have a normal white background. It has occurred to me that pure white (ffffff) might be too bright. I just want the normal white background used by standard bicycle playing cards.

When I look at a standard deck of bicycle cards I don't know whether they are using pure white and that's how it looks when it's printed or they use a duller white to make it easier on the eyes. What do they use? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I haven't had anything printed before and I want it to be correct.

Thank you

[Helshawk]

The white used is just the paper stock.  There is many different types of stock used in printing and that holds true for stock used for playing cards as well.  Some stocks have artificial "whiteners" in them and, if you use a black light, it is easy to spot.  Sometimes, the whitener is added to the overcoating.  However, if you wish to dull your white areas down, just have a light tint printed over it.

[NineLives]

Hi Ziggletooth

You could get in touch with one or a few printers you are considering and ask them to send you samples of cards - if you explain that you want to see the 'colour' of the card stock hopefully they can send you samples which haven't been 'edge to edge' printed with some random photo image (like samples I got from MPC about 4 years ago.... )
Helshawk's advice is great - if you want complete control over the 'white' - add a tint. Then again, if you find a printer with paper stock you like, you can leave the 'white' transparent in your design.

[Ziggletooth]

So I should leave a transparent background rather than an opaque white background layer?

(and if I knew what card stock they use, I could manipulate the brightness with a semi-transparent tint)

Is that right?

[skinny]

Transparent and pure white are both non-printing.
Transparent means "do not print."
Pure white means "print something here: no amount of cyan, no amount of magenta, no amount of yellow, and no amount of black." That still leaves nothing printed.
In all cases that I can think of, both accomplish the same task.

Except...
If you are printing non-color (varnishes, foils, etc.), you'll often need to have transparency.
Transparent means "do not print."
Pure white (or any color or design) means "print something here" and the color doesn't matter. Varnishes and spot coatings are either on or off. This is masking as opposed to printing.

Your printing establishment knows these things and will prepare to print correctly.

If the background in your file is slightly off-white, whether it's grey or tan or pink, something will attempt to print. Light and/or subtle colors are different than what you'll see when working on the files, as your light colors are printing over stock of some color. No paper stock is perfect white.

EDIT: There are exceptions to these, of course... printing a design with white on a black shirt is an easy example. In your case, I don't think any number of exceptions will apply.

[Ziggletooth]

Thanks Skinny for that insight into the design process, it was very helpful.

I do have one more question, I'm not sure whether I should make another thread or not - but I don't want to clog the forum so I'll continue my current thread.

My design is done apart from one part, perhaps the most important part. The back of the card. I don't need anything particular, I just need a symmetrical pattern.

Is there a pre-existing selection I could use, I can then apply a colour filter over it - Or is there a good tutorial or information that someone could recommend on how to make pleasing symmetrical patterns so I can make it myself?

[Helshawk]

There are plenty of tutorials if you plug in symmetrical or radial symmetrical design into a search engine.  That way the design will be your own and you won't have to rely upon the work of another, which more than likely will cost you.

[NineLives]

Not having seen your design it is hard to give specific advice I agree with Helshawk, there are lots of tutorials online - if you include Gimp in your search you should come up with some useful and inspiring tips - and having put time and effort into the cards, you want to make the back your own