Templates

Beginner · 5 min read · By Chitmunk Team · Updated Oct 18, 2026

A blank card is the slowest way to start. Chitmunk ships with 160+ card design templates covering 31 component sizes, from fantasy creature and spell cards to party, strategy, tarot, utility, and component templates. Apply any template with one click; every element stays editable, so you can swap colors, fonts, and placeholder images. Template text that is named after a spreadsheet column fills from that column automatically. This guide covers picking, applying, customizing, and saving your own templates.

Opening the Template Library

There are two ways to access templates:

• In the editor: Open the Game menu in the band at the top and choose Starter templates. A brand-new game also offers templates from its empty-state card.
• Catalog: From Game Home, the Catalog tab in the band has a Templates page that lists every starter template.

The Template library has two tabs, Built-in and My templates. Click a template to preview it on the right. By default, the built-in tab shows templates that match your current card size; click All sizes to browse all of them, or type in the search box (for example "tarot" or "resource").

Available Templates

Chitmunk ships with 160+ starter templates covering 31 component sizes: from poker and bridge cards to tarot, hex tiles, player mats, standees, tuck boxes, booklets, boards, tokens, and more.

Templates are not limited to poker-sized cards. You will find templates for hex tiles (terrain and resource tiles), tarot cards (character portraits and story cards), bridge cards (event decks and action cards), and board layouts (player mats and game boards). The template picker filters to your current component size by default, so switching your component type shows the relevant options.

Here are a few of the poker-sized templates:

• Creature / Monster: Name, cost, art area, type line, description, and ATK/DEF stats. Great for combat-focused games.
• Item / Equipment: Gold-bordered card with cost, art area, type line, description, and stat bonuses. Works for equipment, spells, and loot.
• Character / Role: Portrait area, a four-stat grid, and ability text.
• Scoring Reference: Four labeled sections and no art, for pure readability. Ideal for rules reference cards.
• Defuse / Counter: An art-dominant card with a compact description, for art-forward designs.
• Trivia Card: Category badge, question, four color-coded answers, and a point value.
• Resource / Currency: A large centered value with decoration. Clean and iconic.

Applying a Template

1. Open the Template library from the Game menu (Starter templates).
2. Click a template to see a larger preview.
3. Click Use this template to apply it.

Customizing After Applying

Templates are not locked or special: once applied, every element is fully editable. You can:

• Change text: Click any text element and edit its content, font, size, color, and alignment.
• Replace images: Select an image element and upload your own artwork or generate AI art.
• Move and resize: Drag elements to new positions, resize them, or rotate them.
• Delete elements: Remove anything you do not need. Decorative shapes (glows, plates, rules) are locked so a click selects the text above them; unlock one in the layers panel to edit it.
• Add elements: Add new text, images, shapes, and backgrounds to extend the layout.
• Change colors: Select elements and adjust their colors to match your game's visual identity.

Think of templates as a starting point, not a constraint. The goal is to save you the time of building a basic layout from scratch so you can focus on making it your own.

Templates and Your Spreadsheet

Template text comes with sample words, and each text box has a name such as Name, Cost, or Description. When your game has a spreadsheet, Chitmunk links every unlinked text box whose name matches a column (ignoring capital letters), when you apply a template and when you load a spreadsheet under a design. A message such as "Linked 4 of 15 fields by name" appears with an Undo button, and anything you linked yourself is never changed. Some templates also offer to load sample data when your game has none.

If your column names differ from the template's, link the rest yourself:

1. Select the text box.
2. In the inspector, choose the column in Fills from.

See the Data merge from a spreadsheet guide for the details.

Changing Component Type

Templates are available for many component sizes: poker, bridge, mini, tarot, hex, square, domino, jumbo, player mats, standees, tokens, boards, booklets, tuck boxes, and more. The library shows the ones matching your current card size first. You can change the card size after applying a template: open the Game menu and choose Card size. Your elements are kept, though you may need to reposition or resize some to fit the new dimensions.

Save Current as Template

If you have designed a card layout that you want to reuse across projects, you can save it as a custom template in the template library:

1. Open the Template library from the Game menu (Starter templates).
2. Click Save current as template at the bottom of the library.
3. Enter a name, pick a category (RPG, Strategy, Party, Abstract, or Other), add a description if you like, and click Save Template.

Your template appears under the My templates tab. It captures the current card's design, including all elements and styles. Custom templates are stored in this browser and are available across all your games. The tab also lets you import and export templates as files and delete ones you no longer need.

Next Steps

• CSV Data Merge: Connect your template to a spreadsheet to generate a card per row.
• AI Image Generation: Generate unique artwork for each card using AI.
• Custom Fonts: Upload your own fonts to customize the template's typography.