Four Steps
The print dialog is the only step most people get wrong. Do these four in order and your first card sleeves up looking the part.
Step 1: Get the Image at the Right Size
Use the Builder. Paste your card name, let it pull the art, and it handles sizing: every card laid out at the correct 63.5 mm × 88.9 mm on a print-ready sheet. That's the reason to use a tool rather than hunting loose images: the dimensions are already right.
If you ever go manual: 63.5 mm × 88.9 mm. Get that wrong and everything downstream is wrong.
Step 2: The Print Dialog
Two settings determine whether your card is the right size or subtly off.
Scale: 100% / "Actual size." Not "Fit to page," not "Shrink to fit." Those silently resize your cards so they won't match real ones and won't sleeve correctly. This is the most common first-print mistake.
Paper type / quality: set to match your stock. The printer lays down ink or toner differently based on this setting.
Print one test page first. Lay a real card against it. If the size matches, print the rest.
Step 3: Cut
Cut just inside the crop lines for a clean border. Use a rotary or guillotine trimmer for straight edges every time. Then round the corners with a corner punch. Square corners are the biggest immediate tell. Take your time on the first few cards; speed comes naturally.
The most common beginner mistake isn't the printer. It's leaving "Fit to page" on. Lock scale to 100% and half of all proxy problems disappear.
Step 4: Sleeve
Drop the cut card into a sleeve. The sleeve hides edge imperfections, evens out the thickness, and makes a home-printed card feel right in hand. For thin stock, add a backer card or double-sleeve for body.
That's a proxy.
Your First Test Print
Print these five, a mix of art styles and colors to test your output before committing to a whole deck:
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Counterspell
1 Cultivate
Run all four steps. Once these look right, you're ready to print a deck.
