How to Use the Villages Cardsmith Kit

The Villages Cardsmith Kit is an online tool you can use to create your own custom Villages cards.

Table of Contents

Standard Options
Using Custom Images
Exporting Your Card
Advanced Options

Standard Options

When you first open the kit, it will show you a blank red unit card. Filling in the information on the left side of the page and pressing Build will update the card image on the right. Press Clear to remove all changes and start over with a new card.

• Name: This is the name of your card. It will appear in large text at the top of the card, as well as in the top-left and bottom-right corners.
• Type: This is where you can choose which type of card you’d like to create. The three current options are Unit, Animal, and Building. Choosing Animal or Building will automatically change your card color to gray.
• Color: This is the color of your card. Animals and buildings are always gray, but units can have up to 2 colors. For dual-color cards, there is a set order to which colors are used first on the card border. For consistency with other official Villages cards, we recommend choosing colors in the following order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, dark.
• Image: This is where you can choose a main image for your card. In the drop-down list, all unit images from the Villages base game, alternate base game artwork, Distant Lands, Ghost Town, Holiday Pack, Super Villagers, and Royalty Pack are available to choose from. There is also a base64 option, which requires you to paste a code into the text field on the right in order to create a custom image. See the Using Custom Images section below for more details.
• Exp. Icon: This is the optional expansion icon that appears in the top-right corner of the card border. Icons for Distant Lands (dl), Ghost Town (gt), Holiday Pack (hp), Royalty Pack (rp), and Super Villagers (sv) are available. You’re also able to use the base64 option to import custom artwork here. See Using Custom Images below for more details.
• Ability: This is the main ability text of the card. A card can fit up to 6 lines of text and will be arranged in the same way you enter it into the text box, including hard returns (pressing Enter on your keyboard to start a new line). The box’s default size is roughly the same as the text area on the card. After pressing Build, if some of your text extends into the border area, you’ll probably need to include a hard return somewhere in that line.
• Power: This is the base power shown at the bottom of the card.
• Gold: This is the base gold value shown at the bottom of the card.
• Cardsmith: Sign your name here or include a short message of your choosing. It will appear in the bottom left corner of the card, along with a small hammer icon.

Using Custom Images

The current version of the Cardsmith Kit doesn’t support traditional image uploading. Instead, you’ll need to convert your images into a special text format called base64. There are many ways to do this online, but we recommend using the simple and safe base64 encoder from opinionatedgeek.

To use this tool, press the Browse button to locate the image file on your device, then scroll down and press Encode. An Encode Result will be displayed. Highlight the entire code, copy it, return to the Cardsmith Kit, choose base64 from the drop-down list next to Image or Exp. Icon, and paste the code into the text field on the right side.

Exporting Your Card

When you’re finished building your card, you can right-click or press and hold on the card image to save it to your device. There are two size options when saving a card.

• The full border version is the one you’ll need to upload when ordering a custom-printed Villages card.
• The cut border version more closely resembles the final size of the card and can be useful for printing your own cards at home using our downloadable card template.

Advanced Options

• Side Name: This option can be used to display a different card name on the top-left and bottom-right corners of the card.
• Language: This option will translate the basic card text (color, type, power, and gold) into the chosen language.
• Gender: This option is used by some languages to display the correct word for the card’s color or other properties.