Playing Card

Last Updated: March 7, 2024

Playing Card

We are living in a society where playing cards become a part of people’s leisure. We easily got hooked by the game especially when we are with a group of people who also love to play card games. Card games are widespread not just for adults but for the teens and youngsters as well. You may also see fall greeting card designs & examples.

Playing a card game is also a form of bonding moment by families and friends. There are also card games which involves betting and gambling such as card tournament, match, or competition.

Playing cards are very versatile since they can be used in different ways: they are traditionally used in playing card games but they can also be used for card manipulation, such as close-up magic, card magic, and card flourishing; creating house of cards; or used in the art of card throwing. This proves that playing cards can be used in a lot of ways, mostly for the entertainment of people. You may also like birthday card designs & examples.

Card players often have their own deck of cards. Wanted to have your own now? Check out the examples below for some awesome playing card designs.

Here are some of the most awesome designs of playing cards. From customized to mock-up of playing cards, you can find all these in the examples presented below. Choose the most suitable design for you now!

Aces High Green Marijuana Theme Playing Cards

Aces High Green Marijuana Theme Playing Cards

Playing Cards Mock-Up

Playing Cards Mock-Up

What Is a Playing Card?

A playing card is made of heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic. It usually comes in deck with each piece of card marked with distinguishing motifs distinct from the others. Each card is typically palm-sized for convenience of the user. These cards were first invented in China during the Tang Dynasty around the 9th century AD resulting from the usage of woodblock printing technology. You may also see examples of musical greeting card designs.

Ages ago, there were usually 30 cards in a deck. But as of today, commonly, there are 52 cards in a deck and that is considered as the standard number of cards in a deck.

Vintage Playing Business Card

Vintage Playing Business Card

Classic Hip-Hop Playing Cards

Classic Hip-Hop Playing Cards

Playing Cards Mock-Up Design

Playing Cards Mock-Up Design

Modern Deck Formats

The format in contemporary playing cards are grouped into three broad categories: French, Latin, and Germanic. There are also regional and national variations in each categories which are called standard patterns. This standard patterns are what the manufacturers used as a basis in recreating the simple cards.

Across countries and nations, there are pattern differences in the decks of cards which can be distinguished in their numeric indices, the shape of the icon in each card, as well as the arrangement pattern on each card.

Now, we will take a quick peek on the difference of cards based on the patterns used in the face of the card. We will spot the difference among the English, French, Italian, Spanish, Swiss-German, and German cards. They have the same number of cards in a deck which is 52 but they differ in the patterns of the face of the card. You may also like  differences between a calling card and a business card.

1. English

For English deck of cards, the four patterns are heart, diamonds, clubs, and spades. These are commonly used traditionally especially the ones produced by Bicycle company.

2. French

In this deck of cards, the patterns are similar to the English deck of cards; they only differ in the names of the pattern although the heart pattern is also called heart. For diamonds, the French counterpart is tiles; for clubs, clovers; and spades, pikes. You may also check out examples of funny greeting cards.

3. Italian

This deck of cards has patterns very different from the English and French deck of cards. Instead of hearts, their pattern used is cups; for the diamonds, they used coins; for the clubs, the same name is given but with a very different image; and lastly, for the spade, they used swords. You might be interested in business thank-you cards.

4. Spanish

For Spanish deck of cards, they have pattern names similar to the Italian, but the patterns themselves are different. The four sets of patterns of cards are cups, coins, clubs, and swords.

5. Swiss-German

Another very different variation of playing cards is the Swiss-German playing cards which is composed of roses, bells, acorns, and shield: roses instead of hearts, bells instead of diamonds, acorns instead of clubs, and shield instead of spades.

6. German

The German deck of cards is closely similar to the previous one. The differences are as follows: they used hearts instead of roses, they also used bells and acorns but the pattern is different, and they used leaves instead of shields. The pattern of the leave is closely similar to spades, only that it is green in color that is not flat and stiff. You may also see examples of name card design.

Clean and Professional Playing Cards Mock-Up

Clean and Professional Playing Cards Mock-Up

Personalized Casino Las Vegas Playing Cards

Personalized Casino Las Vegas Playing Cards

Elegant Playing Cards Mock-Up

Elegant Playing Cards Mock-Up

Types of Decks

As stated above, there are different variations of cards according to the patterns drawn on the face of each card. But generally speaking, there are several types of deck of cards, all with decks distinct from the others. The types of decks are as follows: the standard 52-card deck, stripped deck, tarot deck, trading cards, transformation playing cards, and trick deck. You may also like membership card designs and examples.

1. Standard 52-Card Deck

The standard 52-card deck is the one explained in the previous section which is composed of thirteen ranks of each of the four patters or the so-called suits. The standard four patterns are clubs (?), diamonds (?), hearts (?), and spades (?). The card is designed to have a reversible court, for the convenience of the players of cards in determining the number and the pattern of the card. You may also see disney greeting card designs & examples.

However, in modern designs, they did not design it to be reversible, but the face of the card has more detailed designs in the pattern of each card.

The elements in a standard 52-card deck are as follows: face cards which are jack, queen, and king; one-eyed royals which are the jack of spades and jack of hearts, which are often called the one-eyed jacks, and king of diamonds; laughing boy or the jack of diamonds; wild cards, suicide kings which are the king of diamonds and king of hearts with a sword and ax, respectively, behind their heads, making them appear to be stabbing themselves; the man with the ax or the king of diamonds; the death card or the ace of spades, also known as the picture card or trump card; the black lady or bedpost queen which is the queen of spades; the flower queen or the queen of clubs; the deuces or the “2” cards; and lastly, the treys or the “3” cards. You may also like examples of best business cards.

2. Stripped Deck

A stripped deck of card is a shortened pack in which some cards have been removed from the whole set of playing cards. Usually, the removed cards are the pip cards or those cards numbered one to ten, with the “one” card almost always called as “ace” and is the highest card in many games.

Each pip card has an encoding in the top left-hand corner and the lower right-hand corner of the card which determined the value of the card. The center of the card has pips or patterns with the number of pips corresponding the number of the card. A lot of card games used shortened pack as decks with stripped cards are widely and commercially available. You may also check out examples of holiday greeting cards.

3. Tarot Card

The tarot card also known as trionfi, tarocchi, and tarock is a deck of playing cards used in games such as the Italian tarocchini and French tarot. It had also been used for divination in the form of cartomancy or the fortune-telling with the use of a deck of cards as well as its subset, tarotology, which is the practice of using cards to gain insight into the past, present or future by posing a question to the cards. You might be interested in printable wedding card designs & examples.

4. Trading Card

Trading card is another type of card that is usually made of paperboard or thick paper. The face of each card contains the image of a certain person, place, or thing, with a description of the picture. These cards traditionally featured sports as well as non-sports characters such as cartoons, anime, comic book, television series, and films.

In the modern generation, trading cards can also be used in tournament and competition such as those printed in the face with a certain character with their attacks, statistics, or trivia with regard to the character. There are also modern cards that contains swatches, autographs, or DNA hair samples of the characters that serve as a collectible. You may also see memorial thank you cards.

5. Transformation Playing Card

A transformation playing card is another type of card where the creator of the card incorporates an artistic design in the pip cards. Traditionally, the pip cards retain their standard position and color on the card. However, there are also variations in which the pip cards are in different size, formation, and colors. You may also like thank-you card examples.

6. Trick Deck

Lastly, the trick deck is a type of playing card that has been altered in a way to allow magicians to perform their tricks. Trick deck of cards has many subtypes, but they can be divided into two broad subtypes: standard trick decks and non-standard trick decks. You may also see greeting card designs & examples.

7. Standard Trick Decks

  • Stripper deck also known as tapered deck, wizard deck, or biseauté deck
  • Svengali deck or the deck with alternating normal-sized cards and shortened cards
  • Marked deck
  • Mental photography deck also known as the self-working deck
  • Forcing decks
  • Rising card deck
  • Invisible deck
  • Brainwave deck

8. Non-Standard Trick Decks

  • Gaff deck or those decks with faces that are changed visually
  • Reverse color decks or those decks with hearts and diamonds printed in black, and clubs and spades printed in red.

Casino Style Business Card

Casino Style Business Card

Playing Card Holders

Playing Card Holders

Photorealistic Playing Card Mock-Up

Photorealistic Playing Card Mock-Up

Simple Playing Card Mock-Up

Simple Playing Card Mock-Up

Playing Card Organizer

Playing Card Organizer

Traditional Playing Cards Mock-Up

Traditional Playing Cards Mock-Up

Colorful Playing Cards Set

Colorful Playing Cards Set

Wrap

Playing cards have different variations, patterns, and decks, all serves the purpose of entertaining the user. Whether you may be an expert of card tricks and card games or you just want to play card games occasionally, a playing card is the source of recreation and pastime for most people. You may also check out holiday card designs & examples.

In summary, the types of decks are as follows: the standard 52-card deck, stripped deck, tarot card, trading card, transformation playing card, and lastly, the trick deck with different subtypes such as the stripper deck, svengali deck, marked deck, mental photography deck, forcing deck, rising card deck, invisible deck, brainwave deck, gaff deck, and reverse color deck. You might be interested in examples of business card design.

Grab your own design now using the examples presented in the section above.

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