Glossary
Court cards | The Kings, Queens and Jacks. The "royal family" of cards. |
Faro | Weaving two halves of the deck together, interlacing the cards. |
Finish | The type of coating used on the cards. |
Gaff | A card made in a non-standard way in order to be used in magic effects. |
Index/Indices | The letters or numbers in the corner of the cards designating their value. |
Ink/Stock Ratio | The amount of ink versus the thinkness of the card stock on a scale of 1 to 5. |
Inverted | In playing cards, this is used to describe a back design that is reversed in colours from another back design. |
Number/numbered cards | See "Spot cards". |
One-way backs | The top and bottom halves of the back design are not mirrored against each other. Obvious one-way backs are cards with a photo on the backs. Subtle one-way backs are often used by magicians, making sure the selected card is placed the opposite way of the other cards. |
Pips | The suit symbols on the cards. Can be more specifically described as center pips and corner pips. |
Reveal | A way of revealing a selected card as part of a magic effect. |
Spot cards | The cards from 2 to 10. May sometimes include the Aces. Also called number/numbered cards. |
Stock | The paper used in the deck printing process. The stock usually varys in thickness. |
Traditionally Cut | Means that the cards are cut faces to backs, and therefore the cards faro front to back (most cards can faro both ways after breaking in regardless of the cutting method, but that depends on the stock and/or finish). |
Thickness | The way we measure thickness of decks on this site is a single, positive or negative, number which is the amount of cards a deck differs from a deck of Ohio Rider Backs when stacked next to each other. |
Two-way backs | The top and bottom halves of the back design are identical, mirrored against each other. |
page revision: 13, last edited: 24 Jun 2012 23:00