How to Measure Centering on Full-Art, Alt-Art and Borderless Cards

On a full-art, alt-art or borderless card you measure centering from the physical card edge to the nearest printed element that is fixed in the design and symmetric on both opposite sides: a thin frame line, the text box, the name plate's inner frame or the holo window. You never measure to the artwork, because the art is deliberately asymmetric. Then you do exactly the same arithmetic as on a bordered card: left gap ÷ (left gap + right gap) gives the left percentage, and the larger number is written first.

The reason is simple once you see how a card is made. Centering is not a property of the printing; it is a property of the cut. The design is printed on a large sheet and the cutter decides where the 63.5 × 88.9 mm (2.5 × 3.5 in) rectangle falls on that design. A bordered card simply makes the cut easy to read because the border width shows you the offset. A borderless card has the same offset, you just need a different ruler mark to read it.

One honest caveat before the details: no grading company publishes a specific official rule for borderless or full-art cards. PSA's official text says it compares "the measurements of the borders from left to right and top to bottom"; Beckett defines centering as "the alignment of the card within its borders". ACE Grading is the only company that has published a method for cards where a border is missing (more on that below). Everything else here is the practical method collectors use and that our own measurements follow. If you want the general procedure first, read how to measure card centering at home and come back.

Why the card edge is always one end of the measurement

Think of a sheet of cards coming off a press. Every card design on that sheet sits at a fixed place relative to every other printed element: the text box is always the same distance from the intended card outline, the frame line is always the same distance, and so on. When the cutter is slightly off, the whole printed design shifts relative to the new card edges by the same amount on every element.

That gives you a rule you can rely on:

• Any printed element works as a reference as long as it is the same element on both opposite sides and it was designed to sit symmetrically.
• The millimeter shift you measure is the same whichever element you use.
• The percentage is not, because the percentage is the shift divided by the gap width, and different elements sit at different gap widths.

That last point is the single biggest source of confusion in forum threads. Two collectors measure the same alt-art, one uses the frame line and gets 62/38, the other uses the text box and gets 53/47, and both are "right". They measured the same 0.3 mm shift against a different denominator. When you share a number, say what you measured to.

Picking the reference element by card type

The table below is the practical starting point. Always confirm on your specific card that the element is present on both opposite sides and is parallel to the card edge.

Why the artwork is never the reference

On an alt-art the illustrator composes the picture so the subject sits where the text box is not. The "empty" side of the art is not an off-center border; it is design. If you measure from the left edge to the left edge of a character and from the right edge to the right edge of the character, you are measuring composition, and the number is meaningless for grading. The only printed elements that carry centering information are the ones that were placed symmetrically in the layout file.

Step-by-step: measuring a borderless card

1. Take the card out of the sleeve and lay it flat. A flatbed scan at 600 dpi, or a photo taken straight down with the card filling the frame, is best. Any tilt changes the apparent gap on one side, which matters far more on a 1 mm frame line than on a 3 mm yellow border.
2. Pick the reference for each axis separately. Left/right and top/bottom can use different elements. For each axis the element must appear on both opposite sides and must be parallel to the edge.
3. Measure each gap at two points along the edge, for example 15 mm from each corner, and average them. If the two readings on the same side differ by more than roughly 0.2 mm, the card (or your photo) is skewed, and you should check for a diamond cut or re-shoot.
4. Compute the ratio per axis. Left % = left gap ÷ (left gap + right gap) × 100. Repeat for top/bottom. Write the larger number first.
5. Measure the back normally if it has a printed border. The back has its own tolerance at every grader (PSA 10 allows 75/25 on the reverse against approximately 55/45 on the front, for example) and is a separate reading, not a stand-in for the front.
6. Sanity-check against the worst axis. PSA designates centering "as the percent of difference at the most off-center part of the card", and TAG's Pristine rule is a "single measurement" limit, so the worse of your two axes is the one that counts.
7. Record the millimeter shift too. Shift = (larger gap − smaller gap) ÷ 2. It is the number you can compare across reference choices.

You can do steps 4 and 6 in the browser with the free card centering calculator, which lets you drag guide lines onto the card edge and onto whatever reference you chose, then maps the result to PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC and TAG standards. On a full-art card expect to set the lines by hand; automatic detection needs a visible border.

Worked examples with real numbers

Example 1: alt-art with a thin frame line

You measure from the card edge to the outer frame line:

• Left 1.3 mm, right 1.1 mm → 1.3 ÷ 2.4 = 54.2% → 54/46 left/right
• Top 1.5 mm, bottom 0.9 mm → 1.5 ÷ 2.4 = 62.5% → 62.5/37.5 top/bottom

Worst axis is top/bottom at 62.5/37.5. Against PSA's published standards that is outside the approximately 55/45 for a 10 and the approximately 60/40 for a 9, and inside the approximately 65/35 for an 8. The physical shift is only (1.5 − 0.9) ÷ 2 = 0.3 mm, which shows how unforgiving a 1 mm reference is.

Example 2: the same card measured to the text box

Now suppose you ignore the frame line and measure from the card edge to the text box, which sits further in:

• Left 4.8 mm, right 4.6 mm → 4.8 ÷ 9.4 = 51.1% → 51/49
• The text box only has a bottom gap, so you cannot form a top/bottom ratio from it at all.

Same card, same 0.1 mm left/right shift, but 54/46 became 51/49. That is why the reference must be stated, and why the most visible symmetric element (the frame line a grader's eye actually reads) is the better choice when both exist.

Example 3: GX double border

Outer silver border: left 2.0 mm, right 2.6 mm → 2.0 ÷ 4.6 = 43.5% → 56.5/43.5. Shift 0.3 mm.

Inner art frame: left 4.1 mm, right 4.7 mm → 4.1 ÷ 8.8 = 46.6% → 53/47. Same 0.3 mm shift, because the inner frame is printed at a fixed distance from the outer border. Use the outer border; it is the element every grader describes as "the border", and it is what makes the card look off at arm's length.

Example 4: three borders visible (ACE method)

ACE Grading, which measures centering by microscopy to 1/1000 mm and prints the percentages on its report, explains that on cards where only three borders are visible it calculates "the average border size with the known pair (left and right)" and uses that to work out what the missing border should be. In practice:

• Left 2.1 mm, right 1.9 mm → average 2.0 mm, so the design intended a 2.0 mm border on the missing side too.
• Top (visible) measures 2.4 mm. Treat the hidden bottom as 2.0 mm → 2.4 ÷ 4.4 = 54.5% → 54.5/45.5 top/bottom.

This assumes the design has equal nominal borders all around, which is true for most standard frames and not true for asymmetric layouts, so use it only where the three visible borders are clearly the same design element.

Borderless sports cards: the team-name vs inner-border problem

Chrome and Prizm-style designs usually offer two candidate references on each axis: the inner border of the design and the edge of the team or player name plate. They are both printed, so both give the same millimeter shift, but they sit at different gaps and produce different percentages. One collector's analysis of 104 PSA-graded 2025 Topps Chrome slabs found the two references regularly disagreed and that PSA appeared to accept the card if either reading passed, with top/bottom the stricter axis in practice. Treat that as one dataset, not a rule, but it matches the general pattern: measure both, report the one you used, and pay extra attention to top/bottom. There is a dedicated walk-through in sports card centering on Prizm and Topps Chrome.

When the front has no usable reference at all

Some cards genuinely leave you with nothing symmetric on the front for one axis: a full-bleed art with an asymmetric text layout, a card where foil obliterates the frame line, or a dot-code card with two borders missing. Three fallbacks, in order of preference:

1. Compare to a reference copy. Measure the same gaps (edge to name plate, edge to text box) on a copy you know is well centered, ideally a graded 10 you own or a high-resolution scan, and subtract. The difference is your shift in millimeters. Convert it to a ratio against the card's visible frame width if it has one, or just quote the shift.
2. Use the back, with a caveat. On many TCGs the back has a symmetric printed border. Collectors report using the back border lines when the front is ambiguous. The back tells you where the cut fell relative to the back print, which is usually, but not always, registered the same as the front; front and back are printed in separate passes, so treat it as a strong hint, not proof.
3. Judge eye appeal like a grader would. PSA's published standards include a note that "at the grader's sole discretion, a small variance may be permitted on occasion based on the card's overall eye appeal", and its eye-appeal section says graders "reserve the right, based on the strength or weakness of the eye appeal, to make a judgment call". On a card with no measurable border, eye appeal is a larger share of the decision, not a smaller one.

What this means for your grading odds

A borderless design does not change the published tolerances: PSA still lists approximately 55/45 front for a 10, BGS 9.5 still wants 55/45 both ways on the front, TAG's Gem Mint band is approximately 55/45. What changes is how a given physical shift translates. A 0.3 mm cut error is invisible on a 3 mm yellow Pokémon border (53/47) and glaring on a 1 mm frame line (65/35). That is the real reason full-arts feel harder to gem: not because the standard is stricter, but because the reference most people (and most graders' eyes) read is thinner.

Two practical consequences:

• When you shop for a full-art to grade, screen by millimeter shift, not by whether the listing photo "looks centered". Your own measurement at 0.1 mm resolution beats a seller's eyeball.
• When a full-art measures well on the frame line, it will measure well on every other reference too, so the frame line is the conservative test. If it only passes on a wide reference like the text box, it is borderline and the eye-appeal clause is doing the work.

For how these references apply across yellow-border, silver-border, gold and full-art Pokémon designs in one place, see the Pokémon card centering guide; for the app-vs-scanner accuracy question that matters most on thin references, see do card centering apps actually work.

Bottom line

• Centering is set by the cut, so the card edge is always one end of the measurement; the artwork is never the other end.
• Use the same symmetric printed element on both opposite sides: frame line, outer border, text box or inner window, chosen per axis.
• The millimeter shift is the same whatever element you pick; the percentage depends on the gap width, so always say what you measured to.
• For three-border cards, estimate the missing border from the known pair (the ACE method); for two-border cards, compare to a reference copy or use the back as a hint.
• The worse axis counts, top/bottom is usually the problem, and thin references make small shifts look dramatic; screen by mm shift before you submit.

Frequently asked questions

How do you measure centering on a card with no border?+

Measure from the physical card edge to the nearest printed element that is fixed in the design and symmetric on both opposite sides, such as a thin frame line, the text box or the inner art window. Never measure to the artwork itself, because the art is deliberately off-center on most full-art designs. Take the gap on both opposite sides, add them, and divide each by the total to get the ratio.

Is centering on full-art cards measured by the cut or by the artwork?+

By the cut. Centering describes where the factory cut fell relative to the printed design, so the card edge is always one end of the measurement. The artwork on alt-art and full-art cards is intentionally asymmetric and tells you nothing on its own. Collectors report that graders judge full-art cards by the cut relative to consistent design elements, and no grading company publishes a separate official rule for borderless cards.

How do I measure centering on GX or Tag Team cards with a double border?+

Use the outer silver border, the one that touches the card edge, on both axes. The inner art frame is printed at a fixed distance from the outer border, so it gives the same millimeter shift but a different-looking ratio because its width is different. Measuring both and getting different percentages is expected; the outer border is the conventional reference and the one that matches how graders describe borders.

What if only three borders are visible on the card?+

Use the two borders you can see on the same axis to estimate what the missing border should be, then compare the single visible border on the other axis against that estimate. ACE Grading describes this approach for three-border cards: it averages the known pair and uses that to work out what the hidden border size should be. It assumes the design intended equal borders, which is true for most standard frames.

Can a centering app measure a borderless card?+

Automatic border detection needs a visible, high-contrast border, so on borderless and full-art cards you should expect to place the guide lines yourself. The free web calculator at /tool supports manual guide lines for exactly this situation, and the math is identical once the lines sit on the card edge and your chosen reference element. The result is only as good as the reference you pick, so choose the same element on both opposite sides.

Why does the same full-art card give different centering percentages depending on what I measure to?+

Because a percentage is a ratio of two gap widths, and the gap depends on which printed element you chose. A 0.3 mm cut shift reads 53/47 against a 5 mm text-box gap but 65/35 against a 1 mm frame line. The physical shift is the same in both cases. Record the millimeter shift as well as the ratio, and when comparing with other collectors, state which reference you used.

Sources & further reading

• PSA Grading Standards (official)
• ACE Grading - Centering: An ACE Explanation (three-border method)
• ACE Grading Scale (official)
• Beckett Grading Scale (official)