Guide
How this is different from an AI image
There are plenty of tools that will generate a picture of a trading card. Ask one to put a specific name and a specific stat line on it and you find the problem quickly: image models cannot spell reliably, and a misspelled name on something you paid to print is not a small defect. So we drew a hard line through the middle of the product.
The line: a model never draws your words
Every name, number, position, team, stat, badge and caption on the card is real vector text, positioned by code. Not generated. Not traced. Not 'usually correct'.
Type +2 and the card says +2. Type a GPA of 3.9 and it prints 3.9. Type TREATS: ∞ and you get ∞. What you see on the screen proof is the same layer that goes to the printer, because it is the same code drawing it.
So what is automated?
The photo — and only the photo. Cutting the subject away from their background, sharpening, relighting them to match the new scene. That is genuine image work and it is where the automation lives.
- Automated: background removal, sharpening, relighting, composition
- Never automated: the name, the number, the stats, the badges
- Never touched: the face, the body, the skin tone
The stage is drawn, not generated
The arena behind a hockey card is not a generated photograph. It is vector: a depth gradient, a key light, an out-of-focus crowd, a floor plane, all drawn at render time in the team's colours.
That has practical consequences. It costs nothing per card, it looks identical every time, and it stays sharp at print resolution instead of softening the way an upscaled generated background does.
Likeness is the first quality test, not the last
A result that is visually impressive but does not look like the person is a failed result. That ordering is deliberate and it is enforced before anything is shown: results that fail on likeness, on visible defects, or on placeholder text never reach you.
If something does slip through, remaking it is free. Quality failures are ours, not yours, and they never consume an included revision.
Why this matters more on paper
A generated image that is 95% right is fine on a screen you scroll past. It is not fine as an object someone keeps on a shelf for a decade, or hands to a kid at the end of a season.
Printing is unforgiving in a way screens are not. That is the whole reason the text layer is deterministic — the card has to survive being looked at closely, for years.
Questions
So is any of this AI?
Yes — the photo editing. Background removal and relighting use image models. The text, layout, frame and stage do not, and never will.
Will the card look like a real photo of a real event?
It will look like a properly staged photo of the real person. We are not claiming the moment happened somewhere it didn't — we are replacing a cluttered background with a designed one.
Can it get my stats wrong?
Only if you type them wrong. Nothing is inferred, looked up, or invented — every figure on the card is one you entered.
Do you verify achievements?
No, and we're explicit about that. You supply and approve the information. We present it well; we don't certify it.
Ready when you are
Pick what you're celebrating, or jump straight in — nothing is charged until you approve a proof.