Bring Your Existing Card Design into ShuffleKit

You already have a card that looks right: a frame drawn in Canva, Photoshop or Illustrator, with a space for the name, a window for the art and a box for the rules. What you want from ShuffleKit is the part those tools are slow at: putting 60 different names, pictures and texts into that frame without copying and pasting each one.

There are four ways in. The first is the one to try first, because it works with any image from any tool:

Before you start: export the frame at the right size

ShuffleKit lays cards out at 300 DPI, measured at the cut line. Export the blank frame, with no sample name, art or rules text in it, as a PNG (or JPEG) at these sizes:

Larger is fine as long as the proportions match; a 1500 × 2100 px poker frame prints at 600 DPI. Smaller is not: below 300 DPI the frame prints soft, and the Print check before a PDF export or a Print & Ship upload lists it. Uploads are capped at 10 MB per image.

For the background-image route, the cut-size export is the simpler one. ShuffleKit adds the bleed itself when a print file needs it, by stretching the card's edge outwards, so a frame that reaches every edge of the canvas is all it needs.

Route 1: the frame as a locked background

This is what support recommends first, and it works on any card size.

1. Open the collection and switch to Design. If the header doesn't show your card's size (for example 750 × 1050 px), click it, pick the size under Card Size, and leave Fit the design to the new size on. Set the size now: changing it after the frame is placed stretches the frame with the card.
2. Open Library in the left rail. Click the upload button beside Search uploads (its tooltip reads Upload images), or drop the file onto the panel.
3. Click the uploaded picture. It lands in the middle of the canvas at no more than 60% of the card's size.
4. With it selected, open Position in the toolbar above the canvas. Under Position and size, set X and Y to 0 and W to the canvas width. Images keep their proportions by default (Proportions locked), so H follows; if your frame's proportions match the card, it lands on the canvas height exactly.
5. In the same panel, under Arrange, click Send to Back. From the keyboard it's ⌥⌘[; on the canvas, right-click the frame and use Layer › Send to Back.
6. Click Lock in the small toolbar just above the frame (or right-click › Lock). A locked layer can still be selected but no longer moves when you click and drag over it, which is what you need once text sits on top.

If a hairline of empty canvas shows along one edge, the frame's proportions are a little off. Choose Stretch from the image's Fit / Fill / Stretch control so it fills the box exactly.

If you only have a version with bleed, place it so the bleed hangs past the canvas: for a poker card, X and Y -38, W 825, H 1125.

Put the data on top

1. Open Elements and click Text. Drag the new box into the frame's name space and size it to fit.
2. Click the Connect data pill at the left of the toolbar over the canvas and pick the column for that space, such as Name. If the column doesn't exist yet, type its name in the list and choose Create “…”.
3. Repeat for each text space: rules text, cost, type line.
4. For the art window, click Image in Elements, size it over the window, and connect its Image source to your image column.

Connecting Properties covers the Connect data panel in full, and Elements & Styling covers fonts, colours and alignment for the text you place.

If your frame has a transparent hole for the art rather than a painted box, the art belongs under the frame. Select the art image and use Send to Back on it too, so it ends up below the frame. Because the frame is locked, the easiest way to reselect the art later is to click its row in Layers. See Layers & Groups.

Route 2: upload it while making a new project

When you create a project, either in first-time onboarding or with New project in the project picker, the layout step on the Create with AI and Start empty paths has a bar above the starter layouts: Have a card design already? with an Upload image button. It isn't offered on the Import from CSV path.

1. Press Upload image, or drop the file on the bar. It takes PNG, JPEG or WebP.
2. ShuffleKit reads the frame for empty space and says what it found, for example We found an artwork window, a name bar and a text box and connected your columns there. If it finds nothing, the image goes in as the background and you add the boxes yourself in Design, as in Route 1.
3. The next line gives the card size it matched. An image within 3% of a standard card's proportions takes that size, and one exported with 1/8 in of bleed is recognised and placed so its edge hangs past the cut. One that matches nothing gets a card of its own proportions, 1050 px on the long side.
4. If the image is under 240 DPI at that size, a warning gives the width to export at instead.
5. Beside it, Columns you'll start with (We'll fill these columns on the AI path) lists the name, art and text columns it will make. Press Create layout & finish, or Generate cards & finish on the AI path.

The result is the same structure as Route 1: your image as a locked layer named Your design, with connected text and art boxes on top. Open Design afterwards to move a box or add more fields.

Route 3: finished cards from a PDF or Illustrator file

If your cards already exist with their text and art filled in, one card per page, ShuffleKit can turn the file into a whole project. In Data, open File and choose New project from a PDF or Illustrator file....

1. Import Design File: drop the PDF or .ai file, then click Analyze with AI. A print sheet with several cards per page isn't split up; export one card per page first.
2. AI Analysis lists the properties it detected with their types, the card count and size, the layout elements and the artwork area. Click Review & Import.
3. In Review & Import, set the Project Name, rename or untick properties, and untick pages that aren't cards, such as a back or a rules page.
4. Click Import, then Open Project.

The first page, with its values cleared, becomes the layout's background; the values on every page become cards; and each card's art is cut out if an artwork area was found. This makes a new project and leaves the one you're in alone, so it counts towards your plan's project limit. Details are in Import & Export.

Route 4: a layered Photoshop file

In Design, open Designs, click Add a front design (or back) and choose Import from PSD…. Name a text layer {{Name}} in Photoshop and it comes in connected to the Name column, which is created if the project doesn't have it. A group named __flatten__ comes in as one picture, which suits decorative groups with layer effects. The review step shows the size, the detected connections and any Missing fonts; set Layout name and Side, then Import N layers.

The layout takes the PSD's own pixel size, so build the PSD at 750 × 1050 px for a poker card, or whichever cut size above you need.

Check it with real cards

Click Preview mode in the Design header. The canvas fills with real cards and a bar at the bottom steps through them: ‹ CARD 1 OF 16 ›, with the card's name under it. Step through the longest name and the longest rules text: that is where text runs out of the frame's space. Make the box smaller or the font size lower until the worst card fits, then Exit. Component Preview & Details explains what Preview mode counts.

For the card back, click the Back tile under the canvas (a dashed + tile if the back has no design yet) and place a back image the same way. A back with no data needs nothing more than the image.

Before a print run, export a few cards with File → Card Images (PNG / JPEG / SVG)... and look at them at full size. Text that reads fine in the editor can be too small in hand.

Related tutorials

• Layout Editor: A Full Tour
• Connecting Properties
• Elements & Styling
• Layers & Groups
• Import & Export
• Account & Onboarding
• Print & Ship