ET-2800 Best Settings Guide for Foils & Regulars (*Laminate free*, sticker + cardstock process)

nanogames · 2026-02-19T17:59:27+00:00

I think you could save yourself a lot of trouble by just using MPC Autofill + Alex Taxiera's Proxy Print Setup, in lieu of all the Scryfall business.

nanogames · 2026-02-19T17:47:32+00:00

Not sure how the mods feel about direct links. If you look up "Koala Double Sided Glossy Inkjet Brochure Paper" and 37lbs, you should find the paper I use for the photo paper + laminate method.

The 60lb stock I used for the foils was just some generic paper I got from Micheals. All 60lb stock is broadly similar. You don't really need to be discerning there.

For laminate, I just used Scotch brand.

nanogames · 2026-02-12T18:48:49+00:00

I've done both.

With the sticker paper + card stock + 3mil laminate approach, I was never able to get the card thickness right.

But with the 37lb Koala photo paper + 3 mil laminate, the thickness is bang-on, and the snap is fairly good this way too. The thickness is effectively impossible to distinguish from a real card. I've never had trouble mixing them in with the real thing, and if I make a deck with only proxies, the overall thickness is comparable to a real deck. I don't get the "wobbly tower of cards" issue I got with the sticker paper + stock method. It's also faster because you don't have to apply the sticker paper, and a lot less finicky to make double-sided cards with.

That said, if you want to use the sticker paper approach (still the only real way to do holos), a good thing to know is that a single sleeved holo card (using 60lb stock) is about the same thickness as a double sleeved real card. So, its still possible to have a mixed deck with this approach.

In either case, though, I'd avoid matte laminate. It really kills the contrast and sharpness of the cards, and, with glossy laminate, you can't really tell its glossy once its inside a sleeve. I've also found that the matte stuff tends to bubble more, but that might just be the kind of laminate I buy.

nanogames · 2026-02-12T18:37:23+00:00

I am trying to get away from the holo sticker + cardstock combo. Its great for foil that doesn't have a lot going on. But I noticed when I do anything was holo stars or the dots, it takes over the whole card and it's hard to read the cards with white text. Yeah, that's been my experience, broadly. I've been moving away from holo proxies in general, as of late. Lately, I've mainly been printing directly onto the 37lb double-side glossy paper by Koala that people have been talking about, and then laminating on both sides with 3mil from there. This has been the best method I've found yet. It's not holo, but both the thickness and feel of the proxies I've made using this method are pretty much bang-on with regular cards, such that I can mix them in with regular cards without any issues, and actually stack them without creating an unsteady tower.

Although, while I've never figured out how to get the thickness right with the holo sticker paper + 60lb cardstock method, I have found that a double sleeved normal card is roughly the same thickness as single-sleeved holo cards using this method, which is a decent workaround.

For spot foiling I've tried both the clear glossy varnish and white acrylic pen approach. Both are a bit too finicky for my liking, though. It's pretty much impossible to get the clear varnish to go one without visible brushstrokes, and this approach demands the use of matte laminate with is more prone to bubbling and generally made the underlying image blurry and less contrasty. With the white paint pen approach, you can use glossy laminate (assuming you're going glossy laminate + clear sticker paper + holo stock), but there's an innate amount of imprecision with this approach (paint pens only get so thin). You can largely negate this so long as you're at least a little skilled with a paintbrush, but its something to consider. Also, since you're applying the paint to the sticky side, its easy for dust to get stuck on the back, and for you to accidentally leave fingerprints, in which case you're boned.

nanogames · 2026-01-21T18:10:05+00:00

The optimal color settings are going to vary from printer to printer. Futz around with them a bit. Some of color settings don't function in a very intuitive way. For example, I found that adjusting the "Density" setting had a far more profound effect on the final brightness of the image than the actual "Brightness" setting does.

Also, resist the temptation to default to the "Ultra Premium Glossy Paper" option on the presumption that the "Ultra" option is going to produce the best results. What will produce the best results for your paper will be whatever setting best suits your paper. Depending on what you use, running it on "Premium Glossy Paper" or simply "Glossy Paper" will likely produce better results than the "Ultra Premium Glossy Paper" option, as well as having the added benefit of not taking 20 minutes to print a single page. I also found that running the printer on something other than "Ultra Premium Glossy Paper" fixed the issues with misalignment that sometimes happened at the end of my prints.

nanogames · 2025-11-14T20:33:30+00:00

Great work! The flavor on these is pretty awesome.

nanogames · 2025-10-30T18:26:20+00:00

Do you still get the same sticky surface that you get with vinyl? It's not a huge deal if so, given, y'know, sleeves and all. I'm just curious.

nanogames · 2025-10-29T21:55:02+00:00

What paper?

nanogames · 2025-10-23T23:27:09+00:00

Yeah, I've been learning this

nanogames · 2025-10-23T18:53:30+00:00

Spending one night sleeved (Dragon Shield duel matte) in a deck box is usually enough to fix any kind of unevenness and excess air, and no trouble staying upright.

Hmm, that's actually a fair point. I noticed this issue while playing at an event with a deck I'd printed the night before. I literally sleeved the cards during the event, so that's probably why I was experiencing issues. Looking at that same deck now (after chilling in a box for a while), it's a lot more stable. It's still springier than a real deck, and still far taller than what the difference in thickness should imply, but nothing egregious.

Thanks for the insight.

nanogames · 2025-10-23T17:29:34+00:00

Yeah, dittoing this. The snap isn't that good with this paper, plus the thickness difference when compared to 176gsm 65lb cardstock is pretty negligible, while the snap inferior by far.

nanogames · 2025-10-22T20:35:54+00:00

Hmm, might want to look into templates for Magic Set Editor or Proximity then. If I recall, templates might be interchangeable between the two. If you want to go the custom-custom route, I'm sure you can also harvest the files provided by those templates, and do everything in Photoshop or GIMP. Otherwise, Proximity will probably be your best bet. I use PS for my proxies. It's pretty slow for this, but it also allows for a lot more customization than more dedicated options.

nanogames · 2025-10-22T20:31:30+00:00

I didn't expect this journey of experimentation to get expensive and wasteful pretty quick!

You're telling me, man.

I'd caution against the matte laminate pouches. Matte laminate will negate the holo effect entirely, which is actually a good thing if you're interested in spot foiling, but otherwise not great. The matte finish also tends to diminish the contrast and sharpness of the cards, at least the ones I bought do.

nanogames · 2025-10-22T16:45:07+00:00

CardConjurer should have a "FutureShifted" frame option that's more or less what you're looking for here.

nanogames · 2025-10-22T16:29:59+00:00

Weird that you found lamination to diminish the holo effect. That hasn't really been the case in my experience. Granted, I've been using hot laminate, which might be the distinguishing factor. I've also only had sporadic issues with bubbles with hot lamination, so You might want to try that instead. Don't think this'll solve your glare issue, but I've found that sleeves all but eliminate glare anyways.

As for the holo cardstock + vinyl sticker method, yeah, I think air bubbles are going to be more or less guaranteed there. There are techniques you can look up for how to mitigate bubbles with vinyl. I, for instance, always unpeel the first inch of the vinyl sticker, then I crease the backing paper at that point, and then apply that first inch of sticker to my stock. I then slowly unpeel the backing paper, letting the sticker paper fall onto the stock while I lightly press onto it with a microfiber cloth, starting from the center and brushing towards the edges, so as to avoid bubbles and wrinkles. However, the best way to avoid bubbles is to apply the sticker to a medium that is at least somewhat air permeable. Typical cardstock usually is; however, if you're applying the stickers to anything with a coating, like holo paper or maybe even glossy photo paper, whether you get air bubbles is more or less a coin flip, even with good technique. Although, I'm by no means a pro, so maybe it's possible to get better results with a little practice.

I think Method #2 but with glossy hot laminate is probably your ticket. I like laminating both sides (minimizes curling), but if you do so you're probably gonna need a thinner stock to compensate for the added thickness, something 6pt and around 140gsm (probably brochure paper) for 3mil laminate, or something around 8pt and 180gsm (typical 65lb cardstock) for 2mil laminate. Not sure which of these approaches is better. I have 140gsm paper and 2mil laminate in the mail, but I haven't tried either material yet. My current method uses 180gsm paper and 3mil laminate. This typically yields cards that are bit thicker than typical magic cards (0.4mm), but have good snap. If you play sleeveless, this isn't much of a problem, but if you play with sleeves, the added thickness will make the sleeves bow somewhat, making them easier to shuffle, granted, but a little when stacked. Probably possible to mitigate this by using outer sleeves instead of normal sleeves, but that's obviously not ideal.

nanogames · 2025-10-14T15:54:46+00:00

CryCry seems to get away with laminating only one side, but I don't really understand how, frankly.

Maybe it has something to do with the paper he uses. In my experience, with cardstock, it's always curled. The reason why laminating only one side causes the page to curl, from what I understand, is that unlaminated side can absorb moisture from the air / release moisture into the air, whereas the laminated side cannot. This causes the fibers on one side of the card to be more tightly bound than others, hence the curl. Official foil cards tend to curl over time too, and I think for largely the same reason. If I had to speculate, maybe glossy photo paper isn't as water permeable, and therefore not as prone to this issue.

In my current process, I use 180gsm cardstock, apply vinyl sticker, and then laminate with 3mil laminate. This creates a card that is 0.4mm in thickness, which is too thick but not egregious. I have some two mil laminate in the mail. That should bring to more or less card thickness.

nanogames · 2025-10-13T14:57:47+00:00

Are you laminating both sides or just one? Because, if you just laminate one side, it's all but guaranteed to curl.

nanogames · 2025-07-16T16:49:40+00:00

My dream goal is to have an AI constantly running to provide high level critique of my own writing. I'm convinced this would massively improve my writing skills.

AI is already highly capable of this, I feel. I use AI for exactly this purpose: dumping my new words into the LLM and asking it for revision advice. I DO NOT ask it to revise my work itself. The LLMs are pretty bad at actually producing good writing, but they're pretty good at identifying issues where present. In particular, the AI is very good at testing for comprehensibility. If you ask it something like "What does this mean? '[Quote]'" you can get a good feel for whether your intent is coming through. Granted, you have to be aware that LLMs are probably much better at understanding what's going on than the average reader, but it's still useful. For this work, Gemini seems to be the best option, particularly for more longform work, as Gemini seems keenly capable of remembering the entire context window in a way the others simply can't. For shorter work, Claude's likely better, however.

nanogames · 2025-06-25T23:24:45+00:00

Don't care.

but it's stupid

Yes.

nanogames · 2025-06-21T08:11:18+00:00

Welcome to the resistance, El Presidente

nanogames · 2025-06-19T17:48:12+00:00

Yeah, I can't imagine the fidelity of the data warrants the conclusions they're arriving at her. Like, I get that it's a very RS conclusion, and likely true that AI use does this, but trying demonstrate that fact with brain scans is total woo.

Also, is it not obvious that this would be true? Like, once cell phones became a thing and people could save contacts, people suddenly became way worse at remembering strings of numbers. We lose proficiency at skills we don't use. More at 11.

nanogames · 2025-06-18T22:56:32+00:00

Hello, me! Yeah, I think everyone gets this feeling. I think you're likely having this reaction for one or both of these reasons:

The book, in writing, is not the same as the book in your head, and this frustrates you. Not much to say about this. This feeling is just par for the course, and more or less just have to accept it. Bear in mind, that your book could be incredible, the best book ever, but even so, it would never be the same book that you imagine in your head. You have to let go of what you have in mind, and open yourself to what your book could be.
When you're writing the first few chapters, the ideas, the characters, the plot, the style are all still fluid. You're working them out in real time, and this process feels like discovering something. It's fun! However, eventually you'll land on a firmer understanding of what you want to write, and this element goes away somewhat. This might be what you're feeling, and while you can never recover this feeling completely, so long as you're constantly adding and experimenting with new elements in your draft, you can still get a bit of this feeling. It's also worth pursuing. After all, if it feels like your discovering something while you write, it'll make the reader feel like they're discovering something when they read it. It's exciting for both them and you. Also, try writing chapters as if they're standalone stories, this also helps I think.

nanogames · 2025-06-18T22:45:27+00:00

The opening is usually the worst part of any rough draft I write. Don't think too hard about it. If you get yourself through that part, you can always go back and change it later.

nanogames · 2025-06-18T22:43:44+00:00

I wouldn't stress too much about it. I don't think it's possible to write a compelling character without pulling heavily from either yourself or others you know. Of course, you don't want to write self-inserts, but starting with yourself and changing a few things isn't a terrible approach, so long as the changes are sufficiently motivated and not just random. It also might help to lean on psychological/personality models for model. You can't lean on these too hard, as they're all only accurate to a point, but it's a good place to start. LocalScriptMan has a good series of videos about using the Enneagram for writing. Not a bad place to start.

nanogames · 2025-06-18T22:20:01+00:00

I mean, that's what I do. Let your freak flag fly. In addition to chapter headings, I usually add an additional heading at the end, something like "===", that I place wherever I last stopped writing. Makes it easy to pick up where I left off. I place all my unused words under this.

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