Design tips
A few simple choices make the biggest difference to how your page turns out. Here's what works best, from the test pages we made while building Cardscape.
Last updated October 23, 2026
1. Pick the right card
Cards with open scenery around the character turn out best: sky, ground, water or a room behind them gives the art room to carry on across every pocket.
In our test pages, cards with open scenery or a smaller character came out well about 4 times in 5. A big character cut off by the card's top or side edge came out well about 2 times in 5.
When you choose a card in Create, Step 1 shows a short tip under it:
- Great pick: there's open space around the character, so the scenery can flow across every pocket.
- Good pick: part of the character touches the card's edge. Your page will still look good; take a close look at the pockets beside that edge when it's ready.
- Heads up: the character fills the card and runs off its top or side edge, so the pockets beside it have to finish that part and it won't line up as neatly. It can still work, just less often.
- Do: Pick a card where the character sits inside the scene with space around it.
- Don't: Expect a big close-up whose hair, arms or wings run off the card to line up perfectly.
2. One card or more
One card on its own gives the smoothest scenery.
Two cards in the same style come out nearly as well. Very different cards, or three cards on one page, look less joined up where their scenery meets.
More cards don't make a page better, but they're a great way to show cards that belong together.
- Do: With two or three cards, pick ones with similar colours, art style and time of day.
- Don't: Mix a bright sunny card with a dark night card, or two very different art styles.
3. Placing your cards
Use automatic placement or pick the pockets yourself in Step 3. Both work, so choose whatever looks right in your binder.
Your characters don't have to face each other or face into the page. Facing made no difference in our tests, and with more than one card the order is up to you.
Switch to Binder page view to see the page the way it will sit in your binder.
- Do: Pick the pockets that look best to you in Binder page view.
- Don't: Worry about which way your characters face.
4. Creative direction
Leave it empty for the closest match. Your card's own scenery, colours and light carry on across the pockets, and swirling energy backgrounds look best this way.
Want a particular scene? Write a sentence or two about how the scenery already on your cards carries on or joins up. That works better than naming a brand new place, which can clash with your card's colours or time of day.
Every detail you type is one more thing that can turn up in the art, so keep it to the scenery and leave out anything you don't want to see.
Directions that work
- Carry the clouds and golden light from my card out across every pocket.
- The sunny meadow on my first card fades into the moonlit night of my second.
- The forest behind my first card opens onto the snowy hills of my second, in soft morning light.
Directions to avoid
- Add more characters around my card. Try instead: let the place behind them carry on, like the harbour stretching out at dusk.
- Another copy of my character in the sky. Try instead: carry your card's own sky on, like its drifting embers and smoke.
- My character fighting a villain. Try instead: spread your card's own action, like its sparks and smoke drifting across the page.
- Write my name and the game's logo. Try instead: keep your card's colours, like its gold and deep red light.
- A long story with several scenes. Try instead: one scene that fits your cards. With two or three, say how their scenery joins up.
- Just a new place, like a quiet meadow at dusk. Try instead: say how your cards' own scenery carries on or joins up, or leave it empty.
- A snowy night when my card is sunny and warm. Try instead: match your card's colours and time of day, like golden afternoon light.
- Do: Leave it empty, or describe how your cards' own scenery carries on or joins up.
- Don't: Ask for extra characters, copies of your character, battles, words or logos.
5. After your design is ready
Every creation gets a best match plus up to 2 alternatives, whether you use one, two or three cards. Compare them and pick your favourite.
Take a close look at every pocket, especially where the art meets your card.
Want a pocket refreshed? Use Touch up this design. Want a different take? Make another version.
Happy with it? Tick the box, approve it, and print only the cutting sheets at 100% / Actual Size. Standard inserts are 63 × 88 mm. Ultra Pro and Vault X use 69 × 93 mm, and toploaders are 76.2 × 101.6 mm or 85 × 105 mm.
- Do: Check every pocket before you approve.
- Don't: Approve before you've looked closely where the art meets your card.
6. Pocket Stories is a different mode
These first five tips are for Extended Art, which continues one card's scenery.
Pocket Stories is the other Create mode. Leftover pockets become a character showcase. A Gengar page should show Gengar in the artwork too.
Place the cards you already collect, leave pockets empty, and print two pockets side by side as one connected double when you want the foldable Michi Method.
- Do: Open Pocket Stories when leftover pockets should show the same character.
- Don't: Use Extended Art's Creative direction box to add extra characters.
These tips are also in Create: open Design tips.
Making a character showcase instead? Read the Pocket Stories how-to.
Ready to print? Read the print guide, or see how it works.