BinderArt makes pages for the three common binder sizes: four pocket (two by two), six pocket (two by three) and nine pocket (three by three). The layout changes more than the number of pieces you cut. It changes the shape of the picture, how much of the page is card and how much is scene, and where the card can sit. Here is how we think about each.
Nine pocket: the landscape
Three by three is the layout the trend was built on, and for good reason. The card is one ninth of the page, so eight ninths is scene, and the page is close to square in proportion. Scenic Illustration Rares with a horizon fill it naturally.
Card in the centre is the default and the safest. The page becomes a frame around the card, and the expansion is symmetrical, which hides drift.
Card in a corner turns the page into a view. The scene opens away from the card in two directions, and the card reads as the near foreground. This works best when the card's own composition already leans one way: a Pokémon looking left wants the right-hand column open in front of it.
Card on an edge, centre top or centre bottom, is the layout for sky cards and water cards respectively. Lapras in the bottom centre with two rows of sea and sky above it is one of our favourite pages.
Six pocket: the portrait
Two by three is taller than it is wide, and the card is one sixth of it. This is the layout for vertical compositions: a Pokémon on a cliff with the sea below, a tree, a waterfall, anything where the interesting direction is up and down.
The centre is not a pocket in a six-pocket page, so the card sits either in the middle row on the left or right, or in the top or bottom row. We find middle row gives the most balanced page, and bottom row gives the most dramatic one, with two rows of expansion rising above the card.
Six-pocket binders are also common for larger-format collectibles, so if your binder is one of those, this is your layout regardless of the art.
Four pocket: the close-up
Two by two gives you a page that is a quarter card. There is less scene, and each printed piece is a large share of the picture, so this layout rewards cards with a strong subject and a simple environment. Portrait-style Special Illustration Rares that feel too tight for a nine-pocket page often look right here: the expansion adds a margin of scene rather than a landscape.
With four pockets the card is always in a corner. Put it diagonally opposite the direction the Pokémon faces, so the subject looks into the page.
Thinking in spreads
A binder is open to two pages at a time. Planning facing pages together is the difference between a binder with nice pages in it and a binder that is itself the object.
Mirror spreads
Two cards with related scenes, cards placed in mirrored positions: left page card in the right column, right page card in the left column, so the two cards sit near the spine and the scenes open outward. Espeon and Umbreon, Latias and Latios, Zekrom and Reshiram.
Continuous spreads
Two pages from the same card, generated twice with the card in different positions, so the scene appears to continue across the gutter. It will not match perfectly, but a shared horizon and palette carry it. Best with sky and sea cards where there is nothing specific to mismatch.
Evolution spreads
A three-stage line across a spread and a half: Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard from 151 are all in the catalogue and were illustrated to be seen together. Place the cards at the same height on each page so the eye travels along a line.
Palette spreads
Ignore the Pokémon and match the colours. A warm page facing a cool one; two night pages together; a run of dawn cards. Prismatic Evolutions is built for this, and we wrote about it in a set built for binder pages.
Small ideas that make a difference
- Leave the first page plain. A binder that opens on an expanded page has nowhere to go. Start with a normal page of cards and let the first spread be the reveal.
- Print the card's pocket for pages you will show. The default leaves the pocket empty for your real card. For a display binder that gets handled, printing the pocket as well means the page is whole when the card is out for a trade or a photo.
- Match the paper to the binder. Matte paper in a matte binder. The pages should look like they belong.
- One card per spread is enough. Nine-pocket pages are rich. A binder of nothing but expanded pages can be tiring to look through. Alternate them with regular pages.
- Photograph it open, in daylight. If you share it, and we hope you will, the spread is the shot.
Start with one
Everything here is easier to see than to read about. Open the builder, search a card you own, and switch between layouts while looking at the preview. When one of them makes you sit up, that is your page. For choosing cards, see which cards make the best binder pages, and for getting it onto paper, the printing guide.
