Have any of you ever printed custom playmats. Like using a blank playmat and printing your own image onto it? Where did you go to do it, how much did it cost and what type of blank playmat did you use. I've heard that Kinkos does this but I'm not sure about how, and for what price. Thanks
I was actually going to go buy some fabric to make my own this weekend, although I was just going to use a Sharpie. I never thought about having someone print something on it as I've never heard of a store that does that.
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I would imagine any store that does shirt printings and such things of that nature would also be able to achieve the same effect on a material that can be used for play mats as well. I am unsure as to what the quality of such a printing would be, but I imagine such a printing is possible.
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If your thinking about screen printing, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work very well, unless you have some very fancy stretchable ink.
I was talking about the same type of printing that is done for T-Shirts, and other fabrics. I would imagine that they use a fairly stretchy type of ink to accomplish that goal, otherwise the ink would not work very well on T-Shirts that need to be able to go through washing machines and be folded on occasions (such as when they are packed for travel purposes).
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -- Varsuvius, Order of the Stick
I work/used to work (not sure right now) at a print shop. After thinking about it for a while, I suppose you could get it to be stretchy enough, especially after additives. You would probably max out at 6 colors unless someone has a really expensive press. If you tried to order one (one mat that is), it would cost like... 150$ or more, and they probably wouldnt do it anyway, as it would be a massive waste of time to make 6 screens for 1 item. You could do some pretty cool stuff, but i dont know if it would be worth your time to screen print.
That is a rediculous statement. The entire point of playmats is to get cards off of tables that could potentially have various things from soda spills to grease of various sorts all over them so as to protect the cards and or the sleeves.
I personally prefer to have a playmat at all times, but will occassionally play without them when I am in a hurry. However I usually as of late play with a playmat unless I am at home and know what the surface I am playing on has on it.
As for your assertions, I have to disagree. There are print shops that are designed explicitly for the purpose of printing on fabric. Kinkos may not be one such place, but a place that primarily does printings on T-Shirts or other cloth materials should be able to do them.
Further, just because a print shop cannot do a custom printing on a playmat does not mean you cannot commission an Artist to do art work on a playmat. I know for a fact that honest to god Magic the Gathering Artists themselves are willing to do custom artwork on playmats for people during major events, and some will even do them if you mail your playmat to them. Granted these usually take the form of sharpie drawings, but still, they are custom playmats after that has occurred.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -- Varsuvius, Order of the Stick
I don't work at Kinko's... lol. It's a screen printing/embrodiery company, that mainly screen prints on shirts.
The "Table is doing just fine" is just a joke that i say once in a while. If i had a playmat yeah, I would use it, but I'm not going to out and buy one. Maybe if I was playing high level Vintage...
I just dont think the playmat material would work very well with screen printing. Usualy the ink on shirts cracks after time, and a playmat would not take it any better.
I am going to say if you can get custom mouse pads made, then you can probably get custom playmats made since they are essentially made out of the same materials for the most part.
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Those mousepads seem to have like a thin vinal (spelling) layer on top, which the image is printed on.
that is entirely possible. I think that is what my professionally made playmat has done with it to allow the image it has on it to stay on the playmat (though it seems to be a fairly substantial thickness when I think about it, but it is still thin non the less).
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -- Varsuvius, Order of the Stick
Have any of you ever printed custom playmats. Like using a blank playmat and printing your own image onto it? Where did you go to do it, how much did it cost and what type of blank playmat did you use. I've heard that Kinkos does this but I'm not sure about how, and for what price. Thanks
Theres almost allways a guy who will do it at conventions like A-Kon and such, but since thats not until next year. i recomend odering one online yugioh custom mats.com does mats for all card games so i would look there first.
I have been looking into this as well, the ONLY place online I could find is customemousepads.com and they make you pay for 25 of them :(. A play mat is just a big mouse pad, and could be printed on. Kinkos was useless. Completely overrated place.
The only thing I can think of at the moment is getting really really REALLY thing transparency paper and print on it it, but then most printing pressing don't deal in 14x24.
If I could get 25 people who want tolarian academy on a 14x24 soft and flexible mouse bad we could each get one for 4.99 LOL. though shipping them to everyone would be brutal afterwards. No love for the custom side of thing.
Honestly, I'm not so fond of the mousepad-ish material, so count me as keen on finding out about alternatives.
Depends on the mousepad, standard ones, are too thick, but there are thins ones. Play mats are made from the exact same stuff. That cloth top on a thin rubbery material.
I am still checking with staples, office max, and office depot, will report back.
Depends on the mousepad, standard ones, are too thick, but there are thins ones. Play mats are made from the exact same stuff. That cloth top on a thin rubbery material.
I know. I'm primarily dissatisfied with how the top fabric started to peel almost immediately off of my Windwright Mage playmat. Taking care of the thing has slowed the peeling quite a bit (even today it's just a little bit around a couple of the fringes), but as long as they're made in the two-part fabric/foam rubber mousepad sort of material that's going to be a problem. I just want something with the set of "pros" (squishy texture, non-slip bottom, heft) with superior build quality/durability and two or three more inches of width and length.
My LGS owner has been producing custom playmats for about 6 months now. He contacted a mat company (dunno the name), and commissioned artwork from the likes of John Avon and Daarken. For example, this is the playmat I'm rocking:
It is of much thicker material than your standard UP playmat and is much more durable, i.e. the edges don't fray as badly. The $15 is well worth the money. He has a brand new angel one I'm going to pick up probably this Friday.
Back to topic... I asked him about making custom playmats. He said that his manufacturer has to make a minimum of 500 to make money sense. I was wanting something with an eagle on it. Oh well.
I believe you can get one here. They are performing site maintnance now, so you'd have to email them, but if I remember correctly it was $50 (don't remember if that included shipping though).
your best bet in my opinion is to go to a sign shop with a flat bed large format printer. You'll want dye sublimated or solvent inks. they both imbed the ink into the fabric. you will want to take whatever it is you want printed on (ie your blank white playmat) and a nice large digital file for the art.
Its local for me, but this is what the replied when I asked.
Thanks for your request. We can print on vinyl, laminate it and then apply it to your pad. If you already have the artwork done and you bring us the pad we could do it for $35 plus tax. Let me know. Thanks
They call them bar mats, but they are pretty much play mats with a thicker bottom. The tool you use to set the artwork works really well and they make good products. The medium one is slightly smaller than most normal playmat, but suits me just fine. I imagine the larger one is probably a little bigger than normal playmat.
Shipping can take a little while since it's coming from China, but they make a lot of other things and give away freebies so when I order I order a couple of different items like dice bags, and I use the custom playing cards to make my own tokens.
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They call them bar mats, but they are pretty much play mats with a thicker bottom. The tool you use to set the artwork works really well and they make good products. The medium one is slightly smaller than most normal playmat, but suits me just fine. I imagine the larger one is probably a little bigger than normal playmat.
Shipping can take a little while since it's coming from China, but they make a lot of other things and give away freebies so when I order I order a couple of different items like dice bags, and I use the custom playing cards to make my own tokens.
That is awesome, question though, every picture I try to upload to it they say it is too low dpi. I even tried the super high res, wall papers from the wizards site and they are still maxing out at 129 dpi. Do you recall what picture you use for yours and what dpi it was listed as? (if you can, can you upload it as if you were going to make another mat and tell me the dpi) because if they say they want 150 dpi but say 129 dpi still looks great, then I won't worry about it and jump on one.
Yeah, I've printed stuff that it claims to have too low of a DPI. Generally, it will say this when using something that isn't a photo ie cool magic art or a graphic from an anime or something. I have only really ever had one thing turn out pixely and it was a way too small image that I used to make a coaster (yep they make coasters too).
The image I uploaded for my mat image had a dpi 131 and I uploaded it to the medium mat. I also made a small mat that turned out good with an image that had a dp of 69. As long as you're not stretching the image at all, it will probably print well.
If you want I can PM you a picture of the mat I made with the 131 image.
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I was talking about the same type of printing that is done for T-Shirts, and other fabrics. I would imagine that they use a fairly stretchy type of ink to accomplish that goal, otherwise the ink would not work very well on T-Shirts that need to be able to go through washing machines and be folded on occasions (such as when they are packed for travel purposes).
Besides, the table is doing just fine.
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That is a rediculous statement. The entire point of playmats is to get cards off of tables that could potentially have various things from soda spills to grease of various sorts all over them so as to protect the cards and or the sleeves.
I personally prefer to have a playmat at all times, but will occassionally play without them when I am in a hurry. However I usually as of late play with a playmat unless I am at home and know what the surface I am playing on has on it.
As for your assertions, I have to disagree. There are print shops that are designed explicitly for the purpose of printing on fabric. Kinkos may not be one such place, but a place that primarily does printings on T-Shirts or other cloth materials should be able to do them.
Further, just because a print shop cannot do a custom printing on a playmat does not mean you cannot commission an Artist to do art work on a playmat. I know for a fact that honest to god Magic the Gathering Artists themselves are willing to do custom artwork on playmats for people during major events, and some will even do them if you mail your playmat to them. Granted these usually take the form of sharpie drawings, but still, they are custom playmats after that has occurred.
I don't work at Kinko's... lol. It's a screen printing/embrodiery company, that mainly screen prints on shirts.
The "Table is doing just fine" is just a joke that i say once in a while. If i had a playmat yeah, I would use it, but I'm not going to out and buy one. Maybe if I was playing high level Vintage...
I just dont think the playmat material would work very well with screen printing. Usualy the ink on shirts cracks after time, and a playmat would not take it any better.
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Trades = http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=4602991#post4602991
that is entirely possible. I think that is what my professionally made playmat has done with it to allow the image it has on it to stay on the playmat (though it seems to be a fairly substantial thickness when I think about it, but it is still thin non the less).
Theres almost allways a guy who will do it at conventions like A-Kon and such, but since thats not until next year. i recomend odering one online yugioh custom mats.com does mats for all card games so i would look there first.
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The only thing I can think of at the moment is getting really really REALLY thing transparency paper and print on it it, but then most printing pressing don't deal in 14x24.
If I could get 25 people who want tolarian academy on a 14x24 soft and flexible mouse bad we could each get one for 4.99 LOL. though shipping them to everyone would be brutal afterwards. No love for the custom side of thing.
Depends on the mousepad, standard ones, are too thick, but there are thins ones. Play mats are made from the exact same stuff. That cloth top on a thin rubbery material.
I am still checking with staples, office max, and office depot, will report back.
I know. I'm primarily dissatisfied with how the top fabric started to peel almost immediately off of my Windwright Mage playmat. Taking care of the thing has slowed the peeling quite a bit (even today it's just a little bit around a couple of the fringes), but as long as they're made in the two-part fabric/foam rubber mousepad sort of material that's going to be a problem. I just want something with the set of "pros" (squishy texture, non-slip bottom, heft) with superior build quality/durability and two or three more inches of width and length.
http://www.amazon.com/Artists-Magic-Premium-Playmats-Artwork/dp/B004MVAYA4/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1309289328&sr=8-9
It is of much thicker material than your standard UP playmat and is much more durable, i.e. the edges don't fray as badly. The $15 is well worth the money. He has a brand new angel one I'm going to pick up probably this Friday.
Back to topic... I asked him about making custom playmats. He said that his manufacturer has to make a minimum of 500 to make money sense. I was wanting something with an eagle on it. Oh well.
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Its local for me, but this is what the replied when I asked.
Thanks for your request. We can print on vinyl, laminate it and then apply it to your pad. If you already have the artwork done and you bring us the pad we could do it for $35 plus tax. Let me know. Thanks
They call them bar mats, but they are pretty much play mats with a thicker bottom. The tool you use to set the artwork works really well and they make good products. The medium one is slightly smaller than most normal playmat, but suits me just fine. I imagine the larger one is probably a little bigger than normal playmat.
Shipping can take a little while since it's coming from China, but they make a lot of other things and give away freebies so when I order I order a couple of different items like dice bags, and I use the custom playing cards to make my own tokens.
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That is awesome, question though, every picture I try to upload to it they say it is too low dpi. I even tried the super high res, wall papers from the wizards site and they are still maxing out at 129 dpi. Do you recall what picture you use for yours and what dpi it was listed as? (if you can, can you upload it as if you were going to make another mat and tell me the dpi) because if they say they want 150 dpi but say 129 dpi still looks great, then I won't worry about it and jump on one.
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The image I uploaded for my mat image had a dpi 131 and I uploaded it to the medium mat. I also made a small mat that turned out good with an image that had a dp of 69. As long as you're not stretching the image at all, it will probably print well.
If you want I can PM you a picture of the mat I made with the 131 image.
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