Playing cards' colors

[phantom1412]

Why are playing card's colors usually white-black, blue, red, and green?

E.g. SM series, Artifice series, crown series, tally-ho

[john]

Black is cheap, red and blue are just standard colors now adays, and green, well i barely see any green decks beside crowns and artifice (that is in fairly large amounts of green)

[phantom1412]

Black is cheap, red and blue are just standard colors now adays, and green, well i barely see any green decks beside crowns and artifice (that is in fairly large amounts of green)

I'm sure you have seen SM v4. But have you ever seen the green tally ho? It's kind of rare, cause it's sold in Japan only. And kind of expensive.

[john]

Well thats 4 decks opposed to the thousands of red/blue and black decks out there.

[phantom1412]

I just meant that green came out more than others color in playing cards series, excluding white-black, red , blue.
There is no yellow, orange, pink or purple, right?

[john]

I just meant that green came out more than others color in playing cards series, excluding white-black, red , blue.
There is no yellow, orange, pink or purple, right?

It isn't that their isn't any but it is their aren't alot, there are different colored bikes and Hoyles but as far as custom decks it is normally Black and red/blue with the rare exception of ...(merz 67's decks and bmpokerworlds premier backs). But yeah normally you don't see colored decks.

Also i believe their is like a statistic where darker colors are used more than secondary when printing playing cards.

[xela]

The more ink you use the more it costs to print the decks. This is why you don't see lots of color combinations - and it's why I'm being charged through the roof for the Vortex deck.

From the aspect of color theory, red and blue is the obvious choice for coloring. Let's look at the color wheel:



Red is opposite to blue, which is not only contrasting but also very vivid and visual. It is easy to see blue and easy to see red because they are the extremes in the light spectrum. This ideology goes beyond playing cards. Teams are often labeled "red" and "blue" and anything opposing is given red vs. blue color dynamics.

This works far worse for other color combinations. For example, purple and yellow. The two colors are very different, but on paper yellow is visually difficult to see. In fact, it blends with white far too easily. In gaming, "yellow" is VERY often mistaking for "white."

So what else would you use to contrast a green deck? Blue is far too similar, and red actually -does- work but red + green has symbolic meaning in the United States which is where mainstream decks are made. Also, red tends to overpower green since red is a strict warm color while green is halfway between warm and cool.

Oddly enough, the most visually striking color to the human eye is neither red nor blue. It's this shade of yellowish-green: http://www.webdesignideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/fold-your-shirt.gif


Color combinations within a deck of cards itself are rare because like I said - money is the issue. Orange is rarely used because it has to be contrasted to black otherwise it has no impact. Lots of black ink costs money.

Yellow must be contrasted with blue or black only.

Green is very versatile, but in terms of pleasing the eye does not work with orange, yellow, certain reds and certain purples.

Pink is very hard to match correctly, but does wonders with whites, purples, certain blues and certain reds.

Color theory is a very interesting subject to get into. I spend hours some days reading up on it. If any of you are interested in any kind of design I recommend getting into it.

[Xntrix]

People seem to have forgotten Lee Asher's Fournier series, in Heritage Green & Brown. The Red and Blue colors were the most striking colors USPCC were able to print in the 19th century. The cards that were usually printed were actually green or brown until they perfected the higher contrast colors you think of when you hear the name 'Bicycle'.

It is no cheaper to print a deck in black ink than it is to print them in lilac, cherry-cola or cerulean. That's a fallacy. The expense comes with the number of colors, and types of ink (metallic, iridescent, UV-sensitive) etc.

Dr Leon's have a Yellow deck.
El Duco Rugbacks had Gold, Green, and White. (The Anglo Poker 09's & Rainbow's have expanded on this)
Propoganda's were Baby-sick color.
MJM Lions were Gold & Maroon
Golden Nuggets had Green, Orange & Purple
Wynn's had brown.
'96 Atlanta's were Green & Gold.
Green Santa/Xmas Backs
Desert Inn Joshua Tree's were White with Green, Purple or Brown logos.
Steamboats were Tartan/Plaid

That's off the top of my head. I'm sure there's plenty more decks that are colors other than 'the obvious' especially if you venture into the major custom card market side of things - Magic Makers' crap and Merz's decks and stuff.

-Jake

 

[phantom1412]

Oh, thanks for the color theory @Alex.
And I have never of many decks you mention @Xntrix.
I gotta do some digging. Thanks a lot!

[John B.]

so yea thanks very much, with the back design i am working on it would use 4 colors so this is good to know.