The complete guide
to PrintPlay Studio

PrintPlay Studio is completely standalone and runs entirely in your browser. Therefore, all your work lives locally on your device. The feature to manage your projects and save them to cloud are coming soon!

1. 1
   Click Start designing free by navigating the Game Studio
2. 2
   Give your project a descriptive name like "Zombie Survival Deck" or "Math Flashcards 2026".
3. 3
   Select the type game you want to create.
4. 4
   Your new project is immediately saved to your browser's local storage database (IndexedDB). As you work, it will auto-save continuously.

A game isn't much fun without art. PrintPlay Studio handles assets entirely locally, meaning your 50MB of high-res card art never has to upload to the cloud.

The "Data" panel is where you manage the content of your game. Instead of typing text onto every single card, you can import a list and let PrintPlay Studio generate your deck automatically.

1. Importing via CSV

The easiest way to get started is by uploading a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file from tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or Notion.

• Click the "Import CSV" button in the Data panel.
• The Studio will automatically detect your column headers and data types.
• Smart Detection: Numbers, Ratings (1-5 stars), and Image paths are recognized automatically based on their content.

2. Importing from Google Sheets

You can also link directly to a Google Sheet for a more dynamic workflow.

• Click "↑ From Google Sheet" and paste your sheet URL.
• Important: Your sheet must be set to "Anyone with the link" via the Share button in Google Sheets.
• Syncing: To update your data after making changes in the Google Sheet, click the 🔄 Sync button in the Data panel toolbar. Your cards will not update automatically; you must click this to refetch the latest version.

3. Linking Data to a Deck

In PrintPlay Studio, Datasheets are independent. To use data on a specific card deck:

• Select your Card Deck artboard on the canvas.
• In the right-hand panel, use the "Linked Datasheet" dropdown to select your imported data.
• Once linked, any element inside that deck can be mapped to a column via its own "Link Data" property.

4. Row Management & Duplication

You can edit your data directly inside the Studio's data editor:

• Duplicate: Click the duplicate icon (❐) on any row to create an exact copy. This is great for cards that appear multiple times in a deck.
• Delete: Use the trash icon to remove rows you no longer need.

5. Visual Meta Columns (Per-Row Styling)

Want a specific card to have a different font size or color? You can override styles directly from your data using specialized column suffixes:

PrintPlay Studio comes with a pre-built library of layout templates so you don't have to manually measure out standard card sizes.

1. 1
   The top bar, has options to create diffenet elements like Card Deck, Board, Tokens and Dice
2. 2
   Select from options like Standard Poker Cards (63x88mm), Flash Cards, or full Board Game grids. Tokens and Cards can also be created with custom sizes (Diameter or Width/Height) directly in the creation wizard.
3. 3
   Clicking a template automatically adds an artboard to your canvas with the exact dimensions perfectly mapped to A4 and US Letter print outputs.
4. 4
   You can create multiple card decks, tokens and dice.

The canvas in PrintPlay Studio works similarly to tools like Figma or Illustrator. You add elements (layers) onto an artboard, position them, and style them.

PrintPlay Studio provides multiple ways to get your game out of the computer and into your hands. Once your designs are ready, use the Export ▾ button in the top right.