What is the Size of a Playing Card?

January 12, 2023December 30, 2023 by Egle Goleckyte

Playing cards first surfaced in Europe in the 1370s. The first card decks were hand-crafted. Since the introduction of playing cards, hundreds of games have used the cards as the basis of their play. The wide adoption of playing cards has created diversity in the kinds of decks used in card games. Even recreational cards have witnessed quick changes in the sets used for the game (skip straight to the playing card size chart).

Following the extensive use of playing cards, we’ve also witnessed a lot of changes in the sizes of cards over the years. The poker size is different from bridge sizes and these sizes have also varied widely from every other card used in games and magic tricks, including the paper cards used at home.

What is the Size of a Playing Card? size-charts.com — _{Image Source: Ambassador}

The sizes of these cards play a critical role in their use. Everyday users of cards won’t understand how the card affects its use. However, magicians and casino houses depend on the sizes of cards for the efficiency of their operations. The card sizes used by casino houses are some inches smaller than everyday cards. The sizes enhance the use of the cards in shuffling machines. Again, magicians depend on the sleekness and size of their cards to make it easy to conceal the cards for their tricks.

We’ve provided the quick highlights of card sizes below, covering questions that pop up about the subject, and we’ve also provided the size charts of different decks of cards commonly used in most games.

Jump right into the Frequently Asked Questions

The Size Of A Playing Card

Related: Poker Chip Size Guide

Cards	Length (in)	Length (cm)	Width (in)	Width (cm)
Jumbo playing card	5 in	12.7 cm	3.5 in	8.9 cm
Bridge playing card	3.5 in	8.9 cm	2.25 in	5.7 cm
Poker playing cards	3.5 in	8.9 cm	2.5 in	5.7 cm
Paper cards	3.5 in	8.9 cm	2.5 in	6.35 cm
Magic tricks card	4 in	10.2 cm	3 in	7.6 cm

Learn more about playing card size and different types (video)

_{Top 12 Playing Card Decks of 2022 – The Card Guy}

Frequently Asked Questions

What size is playing cards in CM?

The average size of a playing card is a length of 3.5 inches and a width of 2.5 inches. Every playing card is in existence over that range. You’ll find their length anywhere from 3 inches to 4 inches. The largest playing card is the jumbo card and it has a size of 5 inches in length, which is an outlier.

What size is playing cards in the UK?

Playing cards sizes in the UK has a length of 3.5 inches (88.8 mm) and 2.5 inches width (63.5 mm). Playing card sizes is an international standard since the rule of most card games is the same worldwide. Their sizes in the UK are the same as the sizes in any other country of the world.

Are all playing cards the same size?

No. The size of cards in the same kind of deck is the same, but the different decks contain different sizes of cards. For example, the size of a regular poker card is different from the size of a bridge card. However, the sizes of the sets in the two poker decks would be the same. Jumbo cards also have different sizes from every other card.

Also, casino houses order special sets of cards for different purposes. When you operate a commercial recreational house that depends on the use of cards, the size of the card you adopt would gravely influence the outcome of games played at your location. It’s critical to understand the kinds of cards that best serve the purposes you need them for, especially when it involves shuffling and maneuvering.

How long is a standard playing card?

The most popular deck of cards is the Poker cards. It has a length of about 3.5 inches. However, there is another deck of cards that’s common with casino houses called the Bridge card. The set of cards contained in the deck is the same as the cards of poker.

The only difference is the width size. A bridge card has a width of 2.25, which is slightly lesser than the width of poker cards. Therefore, the standard size of playing cards ranges between 2.25 inches and 2.5 inches.

Are Uno cards standard size?

Uno uses a special type of card that’s different from the regular set used in casinos, poker, and at home. The cards have a 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) width and 2.2 inches (5.6 cm) length.

How big are the biggest playing cards?

The biggest playing card is the jumbo playing card. The card is mostly employed for special purposes. The Jumbo playing card is a special bridge card that measures 3.5 inches wide and 5 inches long. The deck of jumbo cards contains the same set of cards as any other regular cards.

The only difference is the extra large size. However, there are record-holding cards that are several times bigger than the jumbo card. The biggest playing cards in the world have a 62.3 inches length/height and 41.1 inches width. It was designed and created in Sweden by Claes Blixt.

What size cards do casinos use?

Casino cards, called bridge cards, are smaller than regular cards. The regular cards measure 2.5 inches in width and 3.5 inches long. The bridge card measures 2.25 inches wide and 3.5 inches long.

On some special occasions, casinos could use the jumbo playing cards for different purposes. There are other sizes of cards used in casinos that are not quite common. The bridge and the jumbo cards are the most common ones at casinos. Jumbo cards are not used often. They are mostly used in special situations.

Are casino cards different than regular cards?

Yes. The bridge cards are the card that is popular with casino houses. They are generally different from the ones used by the public. The first noticeable difference is the material used in producing the cards. While public playing cards make use of paper, the casino makes use of plastic cards. This helps preserve the quality of the cards and sustain durability.

Besides the quality of the cards, the size of casino cards is slightly different from the ones used by the general public. The width of casino cards is 0.5 inches smaller than regular cards used by at home or for recreational purposes. Besides these subtle differences, most features of the casino card are the same as those of the cards used in everyday locations.

Do magicians use playing cards?

Magicians often use playing cards, including poker size cards or bridge size playing cards for their tricks. However, most magicians use phoenix playing cards over poker-sized ones. The cuts of Phoenix cards are different bridge-sized, standard card sizes, plastic playing cards, poker-size playing cards, or any other standard playing cards used anywhere. They are narrower cards than jumbo cards and these make it easy to conceal.

Card manufacturers give special attention to the crafting of the phoenix playing cards, which makes them more appealing to magicians than the common playing cards. The phoenix cards have a similar set as standard playing cards and are packed in card game boxes, just like paper or plastic playing cards or other types of cards.

Magicians also use jumbo cards extensively. They use the cards to create an obvious view and influence the perspectives of the audience.

Conclusion

There is a wide variety of card games in our world today. Therefore, Playing cards are not leaving our world any time soon. They’re going to be around for as long as we have magicians, casino houses, and household card games.

Cards are not only present in our physical environments, they’ve found their way into our electronics and digital devices. The size charts above provide information about the sizes of various decks. if you still have any questions about the sizes of cards that are not already covered above, leave them in the section below and remember to share the article with others across the internet.

It helps others get access to the information covered in the articles.

Picture in this post is by Angshu Purkait on Unsplash