If you’ve ever cut out a proxy and thought “close enough,” then noticed tiny white edges all around the card, welcome to print reality. Netrunner card size is simple. Printing it cleanly is where bleed and safe zones show up to ruin your afternoon.

This is the cheat sheet i wish somebody had handed me before i wasted paper trying to fix “slightly off” scaling with scissors.

For beginner-friendly printing context, here’s the pool guide: Best Way to Build a Beginner Netrunner Card Pool Without Buying Singles. And if you’d rather outsource the cutting and consistency part, this is the service hub: Print Your Netrunner Decks & Sets.

The actual Netrunner card size (the trim size)

Let’s start with the number people actually mean when they say “card size.”

Netrunner card size is the standard poker/trading card size:

• 2.5 in x 3.5 in
• 63.5 mm x 88.9 mm (often rounded in specs)

That’s the trim size. Trim means “after the printer cuts it.” Real printers cut in the real world, not the ideal world. So you plan for that.

Bleed, trim, and safe zone (the three lines that matter)

If you remember nothing else, remember this:

• Trim line: where the card is cut.
• Bleed: extra art past the trim line so you don’t get white edges.
• Safe zone: where text and important icons should stay so they don’t get chopped.

Printers can drift a little. That drift is normal. Bleed is how you hide it.

If you design right up to the trim line with no bleed, you’re basically betting your whole deck on perfect cutting. That is a bad bet.

A practical spec that works with common card printers

A lot of card printers use a very similar approach for poker size cards:

• Trim size: 2.5″ x 3.5″
• Bleed: 1/8″ on each edge
• Safe margin: another 1/8″ inside the edge for important stuff

That means your full canvas (including bleed) is bigger than the trim size.

If you’re working in pixels, common requirements at 300 DPI land around:

• 822 x 1122 px (full image upload size for poker cards at 300 DPI)
• The safe zone is inset from the edge (don’t put rules text hugging the border)

The exact pixel math depends on the printer’s template. But the idea stays the same: art goes past the cut, text stays away from the cut.

DPI and file setup (so your cards don’t look fuzzy)

If your printed text looks soft, it’s usually one of these:

• the file is low resolution
• the file got scaled incorrectly
• the printer compressed it

The safe baseline for card printing is:

• 300 DPI
• export as PNG or high-quality PDF
• avoid resizing your final output after export (resizing is where clarity dies)

Also: if you’re printing at home, your printer driver may still downsample or do something “helpful.” Do a single test print and inspect the smallest text.

Home printing settings that stop the “tiny cards” problem

Home printing doesn’t need bleed in the same way professional cutting does, but sizing still matters. The biggest trap is auto-scaling.

Use this checklist:

• Print at 100% scale
• Turn off “fit,” “shrink,” and “borderless scaling”
• Print one page first
• Measure one printed card with a ruler
• Only then print the rest

If your printed cards are slightly too small, your sleeves will feel loose and the cards can slide around. If they’re slightly too big, they’ll protrude and look marked.

Both are fixable early. Both are annoying later.

Professional printing tips (where bleed actually pays off)

When you print with professional cutting, bleed and safe zones are non-negotiable.

A clean workflow looks like this:

1. Use the printer’s template for poker size cards
2. Put background art into the bleed area
3. Keep all text and important icons inside the safe zone
4. Export at full resolution
5. Proof one card at 100% zoom before you submit

That last step sounds obvious. It is not obvious when you’ve been staring at layout files for an hour and your brain is melted.

Quick troubleshooting (the stuff that goes wrong)

“I’m getting thin white borders”

• Your art doesn’t extend into bleed, or the cut drifted.
• Fix: extend background art beyond trim (use bleed).

“Text got clipped near the edge”

• You ignored the safe zone.
• Fix: move text inward and re-export.

“Everything looks slightly zoomed in”

• You scaled the file to the wrong size.
• Fix: match the printer’s exact template and export at 100%.

“Cards look blurry”

• Low DPI file, compression, or resizing.
• Fix: export at 300 DPI and avoid re-scaling.

The short cheat sheet version (copy this into your notes)

If you only want the quick version:

• Netrunner card size (trim): 2.5″ x 3.5″
• Bleed: extend art beyond trim so cutting drift doesn’t show white edges
• Safe zone: keep text and icons away from edges
• Resolution: 300 DPI
• Home print: 100% scale, never “fit to page”

Wrap-up

Most printing pain comes from two things: sizing and cutting drift. Netrunner card size is standard, but your files need bleed and safe margins if you want decks that look clean and shuffle without feeling “homemade in a bad way.”

And if you’re not in the mood to learn print templates this week, that’s fair. Some weeks are for playing.