Makeables cards

Keep new lettering, logos, shapes and imported patterns as separate editable layers. A raster reference remains raster; do not flatten newly authored text into that image. For a coordinated kit and its mockup, load the kits guide.

A card is the shared layered design document with "product": "card". Create and render artwork in the terminal, or use the live Makeables studio for shaders, materials, light and manual editing. No account is needed. Card artwork does not require a portrait, participant name, card number or banking details.

Read the art direction section below before creating or restyling a card: it sets the visual language, the physical stock and the foil and relief finishes, with real references and a quality review.

Default credit-card art direction

For a new credit-card design, deliver a complete, editable banking identity across both faces. Include an issuer name and wordmark or symbol, chip, contactless and payment-network mark by default. Treat this as a bank brand designer's composition: the functional marks belong to the design from the first draft.

• Use the bank and brand assets the user supplies. If no issuer is specified, invent a fictional bank with an original name and visual identity suited to the brief; state that choice briefly and proceed. Do not pick a random real bank. The issuer is distinct from Visa, Mastercard or another payment network. Honor a requested network; otherwise choose one supported network deliberately.
• Establish a clear visual direction, restrained palette, typographic hierarchy and recognizable brand motif. Coordinate the wordmark, chip finish, contactless ink and network treatment with the artwork. Use supported brand, white or black network variants for contrast; keep marks legible and recognizable.
• Compose spacing and hierarchy with the actual marks visible. Give the issuer a clear position, balance the chip and contactless symbol, and reserve room for the network and Wallet number area. Resolve collisions by adjusting the composition instead of shrinking every element.
• Design the reverse as part of the same identity, with its own layout and hierarchy. Carry through typography, palette and a brand motif; avoid a blank back or a duplicate front. Do not invent account numbers, cardholder names or security codes to make the design look finished.
• Choose materials and effects to support the direction. Protect critical type and marks from material color shifts where needed; keep contrast readable under lighting. Use editable layers for branding, marks and decoration, and preserve their roles with meaningful names.
• Before presenting, inspect both faces at full size and thumbnail size with the marks enabled. Refine color balance, spacing, hierarchy and contrast; also inspect the material preview when using live materials. Save the complete editable document and describe the issuer and visual direction briefly.

Explicit user direction takes precedence. Artwork-only requests do not require bank branding. For a focused edit or remix, preserve the existing identity, original SVG elements and requested scope; do not redraw source artwork, rebrand it or add duplicate marks to satisfy this default. Add missing banking elements when the user asks to develop that artwork into a complete credit-card design.

Editable styles

makeables styles list --product cardmakeables new card --style pearl --out card.jsonmakeables material set --file card.json --params '{"surface":"chrome","roughness":0.2,"iridescence":0.4,"speed":0.3}'makeables layer list --file card.jsonmakeables layer set --file card.json --id title --params '{"text":"YOUR DIRECTION"}'makeables render --file card.json --out card.png

There are 23 styles, each with front and back. pearl, noir and sol use native layers. The other 20 preserve their actual gallery SVG elements and groups: afterimage, blue-hour, checkpoint, crafter-station-private, dream-sequence, electric-bloom, extra-life, form-study, garra-29, hunter-license-1999, hunter-license-2011, hunter-license-green, interval, moon-rabbit, side-quest, soft-signal, solstice, streak-guardian, system-dialog and vibecoders. Each has a distinct, editable reverse.

Typography, shapes, graphics, gradients, live effects and card marks remain editable. Inspect makeables schema --json before composing complete layers in the JSON; validate after changes. Save the entire document, not just a screenshot.

Original SVG elements

Curated fronts use kind: "svg" layers with readable names, inert SVG nodes and a sourceBox. Shared gradients, filters, masks and source credits live in svgSource. Keep these definitions and original image bytes when editing. Change x, y, w, h, rotation, opacity and visible on the layer; its original geometry is transformed relative to sourceBox.

The colors map replaces a source paint, including referenced gradient stops, only in that layer:

makeables new card --style solstice --out solstice.jsonmakeables layer set --file solstice.json --id source-16 --params '{"colors":{"#ffd98a":"#a8eaff"}}'

The web inspector exposes group palettes, child-element selection, SVG text, fill, stroke, opacity, geometry and original path data. Edit text only on actual SVG text nodes; outlined lettering is a path. Embedded raster illustrations remain images with editable placement and size, not invented vector parts. protectMaterial: true preserves a layer's ink colors under the material; false lets the coating affect it. No front is redrawn or flattened to make it editable.

Each card sits on a physical stock: omit it for coated print, or use metal, holographic or soft-touch. Any layer can take finish: "foil" (both faces) or finish: "raised" (front only); the flat artwork does not change, only the live material. See the art direction section for when to use each.

Coated surfaces are satin, prism or chrome, with roughness 0–1, iridescence 0–0.65 and speed 0–1. Effect layers support ribbons, contours, orbits, grain and chromatic-flow, each with three colors, scale and opacity.

Live materials and natural-language revisions

Follow the core guide's preview order: embedded Makeables MCP App, built-in browser, then CLI + inline image. For the built-in browser path, start makeables studio start --product card --no-open --json and open its local session URL with the host's actual browser-panel capability. Keep that process and tab alive for revisions. For a checkout use --site http://127.0.0.1:<port>.

Discover studio tools, inspect state and catalog, then edit with the returned revision. The shared tools retain their badge_ names for both products: badge_inspect returns the card styles and card constraints; badge_edit selects a style, patches material/backgrounds/layers or replaces the card document; badge_view changes face and motion. badge_library saves locally and badge_export downloads JSON or a material preview PNG. The Preview canvas must be visible before exporting its material. Import a terminal JSON through the UI, or use badge_edit replace after inspecting its schema and revision.

In the editor, Edit provides handles and the number guide; Preview uses the shared WebGPU material renderer, with pointer lighting and tap-to-flip. Artwork PNG downloads flat full-bleed artwork. Preview PNG includes the material and studio framing. GPU-unavailable devices show a labeled static fallback. Never promise animated materials in Wallet or in a PNG.

Check both faces, text contrast, card marks and the number area after edits. Keep the same preview open and save JSON after each accepted direction.

Gallery artwork and stickers

makeables designs listmakeables new card --design checkpoint --out card.jsonmakeables layer add --file card.json --sticker petdex:bobamakeables layer set --file card.json --id source-59 --params '{"colors":{"#35e3b0":"#a8eaff"}}'makeables render --file card.json --out card.png --overwrite

After every render, open card.png with your image viewer and look at it before describing it. Show the ready preview and offer the three choices below. For an iteration, adjust with layer set and render again.

A card for a person or brand

makeables new card --blank --name "Builder" --out card.json   # chip, contactless and network onlymakeables layer add --file card.json --sticker refs/logo.png --relative-to cwdmakeables layer add --file card.json --kind text --params '{"text":"Builder","font":"display","size":96,"x":80,"y":560,"w":700,"h":120,"align":"left"}'

Catalog styles carry their own issuer, copy and credits; use them only when the user picks one. Check every rendered word against what you wrote.

Full-bleed art and the back

Both faces work the same way. A face's base color is a background op; art that covers the whole face is an image layer with fit: "cover" and background: true, boxed to the full card, placed first so later layers draw on top. --render renders both faces and returns their .view.jpg in one call:

node make-image.mjs --fit card.json --prompt "..." --out art.png      # framed to the card; prints its opmakeables layer batch --file card.json --render --ops '[  {"add":"sticker","src":"art.png","params":{"id":"art","x":0,"y":0,"w":1200,"h":756,"fit":"cover","background":true}},  {"background":"#05060f","side":"back"},  {"add":"sticker","side":"back","src":"art-back.png","params":{"id":"art-back","x":0,"y":0,"w":1200,"h":756,"fit":"cover","background":true}},  {"add":"text","side":"back","params":{"id":"tagline","text":"Power up. Ship it.","color":"#ffffff"}}]'

Look at both views it returns before the next change. Images over 2 MB are shrunk to fit; JPG, PNG, WebP and SVG all work.

Canvas and rules

• The card is 1200 × 756 units. x/y is a layer's top-left corner and w/h its size. Pass negative numbers with =, as in --rotation=-12.
• The lower-left card-number area (x 64 to 470, y 615 to 715) is reserved for Wallet's masked number. New or moved foreground layers must avoid it. Original SVG layers may keep their exact original placement, and full-bleed backgrounds may cover it; conversion never moves source artwork to satisfy the guide.
• layer list shows every layer; later layers draw on top.

Stickers

• petdex:<slug> uses a bundled Petdex sprite such as boba, cache-capy or prompt-penguin. New stickers go in the next free corner.
• A local PNG, JPG, WebP or SVG (larger than 2 MB is shrunk to fit; SVG is rasterized, so a brand logo goes in as-is) is embedded in the document, so card.json opens anywhere, including the web studio at makeables.dev/make/card.
• Remote URLs are refused; download the image first and credit its author.

Card marks

Pearl, Noir and Sol include chip, contactless and network card-mark layers with ids chip, contactless and network. Curated SVGs keep their existing source marks without adding duplicates; the Card details panel can add native marks. Change native marks with layer set --params:

• slot: chip middle-left or upper-left; contactless upper-right or middle-right; network lower-right or upper-right. The box follows the slot.
• color (chip, contactless): one of #d9b875, #c7d0d9, #c77955, #ffffff, #202024, #447bd1, #cf4b54, #50a581, #9b72c6.
• network: mastercard, visa, amex, discover; colorMode: brand, white, black; visaVariant: boxed, plain.
• Hide a mark with {"visible":false} or delete it with layer remove.

The exported PNG is artwork only. It never changes a real card, and it must not contain account numbers or cardholder names.

From a prompt, reference image or existing SVG

Keep this workflow in cards; there is no separate remix skill. Use the user's source and requested scope. A faithful reference adaptation preserves its composition, identity and marks. Remove personal card numbers, cardholder names, expiry dates and security codes from artwork; do not strip a requested chip or logo merely because the input is a reference.

• Existing SVG: keep its original paths, groups, definitions and embedded image bytes. Import it without retracing: makeables new card --file reference.svg --name "Card title" --out card.json. Supported elements become SVG layers; collective effects and linked elements stay grouped to preserve rendering. Unsupported SVG elements produce a clear error: edit the source instead of silently flattening or redrawing it.
• Raster reference: inspect the source, crop deliberately and preserve its proportions. new card --file reference.png --out card.json embeds an editable image layer using contain; its pixels are not separately editable vectors. For a measured rebuild or selective trace, load makeables skills get images for the bundled local preparation, measurement, glyph and comparison tools. Trace only the content that benefits from it; photos and gradients may stay embedded when fidelity matters more than a pure vector result.
• Prompt alone: establish a direction and create an original design. For an identifiable reference object, use supplied references first. Research only when needed, permitted and supported by available tools. A no-web request or unavailable search is not an error loop: continue from supplied materials, disclose uncertain provenance and ask only for a missing essential reference.
• Portrait objects: compose the whole object upright on 756 × 1200, then use makeables image rotate --file portrait.svg --out card.svg. Its top goes left by default; --params '{"top":"right"}' switches sides. Preserve the full composition rather than stretching it into landscape or cropping to a logo.
• Attribution: retain supplied credits; record owner/source/permission for added assets. Label fan concepts accurately. Do not invent official origins for an unverified colorway, affiliation, exact glyphs or missing details.

Validate SVGs with makeables validate --file card.svg --out preview.png; validate editable documents with makeables validate --file card.json. makeables image compare --file card.svg --ref reference.png --out compare.png creates a side-by-side comparison. Inspect proportions, colors, lettering, patches, boundaries and both faces. Design a coordinated reverse as part of a new card brief; preserve the requested scope for a focused source edit.

Finish with a choice

When the first card preview is ready, show it and the editable file, then ask naturally in the user's language: “¿Quieres seguir iterando, publicarlo en la galería o instalar el diseño en tu celular?” Do not offer only more edits. If the user already chose one of those actions for this exact version, follow that choice without asking again.

• Iterate: keep the current document and preview, make the requested change, then save and show the updated faces.
• Gallery: run makeables submit --file card.json --dry-run, then makeables submit --file card.json --yes after the user's approval. Layered cards, original SVGs and portable Makeables packages use the same reviewed workflow as badges. Add --title, --credit, --credit-url or --category when needed. makeables studio save preserves stored assets from the editor. The browser alternative is https://makeables.dev/submit. Keep all layers, source vectors and both faces; do not rasterize the card into an SVG wrapper. Report pending as awaiting review and approved as public. Recover with makeables submit status --file card.json using the same metadata flags.
• Install on the phone: load makeables skills get wallet at that moment and follow it with the chosen document. It applies artwork to an existing Wallet card using a Mac and a USB-connected iPhone. Creating a card does not itself authorize a device write. Keep the complete artwork and its original backup.

Art direction

This sets the visual bar and the physical finish. The sections above keep the functional rules: marks, the number area, both faces and the finish choice.

The visual language

A great card reads as one object with one idea from across a room. Pick a single motif that belongs to the subject: a sun on a dune, a licence emblem, a moon with one rabbit, an arch and a column. Give it a clear position, usually off-center, and leave most of the card calm. The card is a small canvas held in a hand. Density reads as noise at 85.6 mm.

• Three to five major shapes. Remove anything that does not explain the motif.
• One palette of two or three inks plus the stock. Tie every color to the subject; never reach for a default fintech gradient.
• The issuer wordmark is drawn, not typed. It gets a deliberate weight, size and position, and it is the first thing you finish with foil or relief.
• Small type is a detail, not a layout. At most two supporting lines.
• The reverse continues the identity with its own composition: one motif from the front, reframed, plus quiet functional text. Never a copy of the front.

Avoid: generic purple-blue gradients, glassmorphism panels, random waves, stock "circuit" patterns, fake numbers or names, every element centered, decorative filler added to fill space, and sparkle across the whole card.

Choose the physical card first

The finish is part of the idea, not a coat of paint added at the end. Decide the stock with the motif, then mark which layers catch the light.

A stock is only the starting material. Tune it to this one design with material.optics, so the light behaves the way the subject does:

Write the reason in one line next to the recipe. If two cards share the same optics, one of them is not finished yet.

makeables material set --file card.json --params '{"stock":"holographic","optics":{"diffraction":"radial","center":{"x":0.65,"y":0.64},"spectrum":["#ff3d9a","#ff8a3d","#ffd166"],"sheen":0.35}}'

Then assign finishes to layers with finish:

• foil: mirror ink in the layer's own color that flares as the light moves. Use it on one to four elements: the wordmark, a rim or frame, one motif highlight such as a sun, a heart or a star. Works on both faces.
• raised: embossed relief with a lit and a shadowed edge. Use it on the main shape or the wordmark. Front face only.
• Leave everything else as print. A card where everything is foil has no foil.

Keep critical marks legible: the chip, contactless and network marks stay protected ink (protectMaterial), and the lower-left number area stays calm.

makeables material set --file card.json --params '{"stock":"metal","roughness":0.3}'makeables layer set --file card.json --id wordmark --params '{"finish":"raised"}'makeables layer set --file card.json --id sun --params '{"finish":"foil"}'

For original SVG layers, set finish on the named layer; the source vectors stay untouched and the flat artwork does not change.

Real references

Every curated card has a physical recipe you can study and reuse. Open it with makeables new card --style <slug> --out ref.json, then layer list, or see its flat art at https://makeables.dev/designs/<slug>/preview.webp. Pick by the idea, not the colors:

• crafter-station-private: black brushed metal, gold foil rims, raised wordmark.
• vibecoders: aluminium, raised display type, foil brackets.
• hunter-license-1999: vermilion anodized metal, gold foil surround, raised emblem.
• solstice: holographic diffraction radiating from the sun in its own magenta-to-gold spectrum, foil sun and dune rims, raised dunes.
• hunter-license-2011: black steel with rings turned around the emblem and ice-blue light.
• moon-rabbit: a halo of light ringing the pearl-foil moon, twinkling stars, a raised rabbit.
• form-study: soft-touch paper, raised Bauhaus shapes, one foil intersection.
• moon-rabbit: coated satin, foil moon and stars, raised rabbit.

When a model generates artwork, attach two or three of those preview images as references and label their role. A text-only description of a style is not a reference.

Prompt scaffold

Replace every bracket. The finish plan is written before the image exists.

Use case: flat artwork for a landscape bank card, 1200 × 756, full bleed. Images 2–3 are references for composition and restraint only; do not copy their text, brands or motifs. Idea: [one sentence: the single motif and why it belongs to this subject]. Composition: [motif position, calm areas, where the wordmark sits]. Leave the lower-left area (x 64–470, y 615–715) quiet for the card number. Palette: [stock] plus [two or three inks tied to the subject]. Restraint: three to five major shapes, flat color, clean edges, no filler. Flat head-on artwork, no perspective, mockup, hand, shadow, text other than "[exact issuer name]", fake numbers, names, chip or network logo. Avoid: generic gradients, glassmorphism, random waves, sparkle everywhere, busy textures, baked lighting or reflections.

Then add the chip, contactless and network as card marks, and the finishes as layer settings. Do not paint shine into the artwork: the live material draws it.

Acceptance before showing the result

• The idea reads at gallery thumbnail size, about 270 px wide.
• At full size the wordmark, marks and number area are clean and legible.
• In the live preview, foil flares when the light passes and settles back; relief shows one lit and one shadowed edge; the stock reads as what it is.
• Tilt fully in both directions: no text disappears into a highlight.
• Both faces share the identity and each has its own composition.
• The flat Artwork PNG still looks finished without the material.

If a check fails, make the smallest change and look again. Taste is not guaranteed by a prompt; comparing against the references is part of the work.