proxdex

The librarian for making Pokémon proxies. proxdex keeps every card's assets in a predictable place keyed by its set + collector number (ex3-90), tracks which pipeline stage each card has reached, corrects thin card frames, and records what you've actually printed — so a growing collection stays easy to search, and you never reprint a card you already have.

It uses cardbleed (border extension) and Upscayl (upscaling), and imposes the print sheet itself — so it owns the whole path to paper.

Think of it as author a master, then reproduce it: the four card stages produce a device-independent, trim-size master (what the card should look like); the sheet step reproduces it faithfully on a specific printer + medium (colour-correct + add bleed outside the trim).

Pipeline

Each card's stored file is the actual trim-size card — no bleed. Four stages, one file per stage:

build runs 2→4 in one go. Cut bleed and medium colour-correction are not baked into the card — they're applied at sheet time, extended outside the trim, so the master stays a clean, resizable, device-neutral card. Where do effects go? Author the look in grade (after upscaling, WYSIWYG); frame expansion goes before upscale in border; bleed + medium reproduction happen in sheet. See uniform prints.

Layout on disk

<library>/
├── proxdex.toml                     # config + library marker
├── INDEX.md                         # generated: search hub + print status
├── back.png                         # shared card back (optional; trim-size)
├── cards/
│   └── ex3-dragon/
│       └── ex3-90_dragonite-ex/
│           ├── ex3-90_1_original.png
│           ├── ex3-90_2_bordered.png   # only if the frame needed expanding
│           ├── ex3-90_3_upscaled.png
│           └── ex3-90_4_edited.png     # trim-size master (no bleed)
└── print-batches/
    └── 2026-07-18_dark-deck/
        ├── fronts.pdf
        └── batch.toml               # cards, printed?, paper/printer, notes

Install

uv tool install proxdex        # global CLI in ~/.local/bin  (or: pip install proxdex)
uv tool install .              # from a local checkout
uv tool upgrade proxdex        # later

cardbleed ships as a dependency, so it's bundled in proxdex's own venv — no separate install, and proxdex finds it there even though it isn't on your PATH.

Library vs. tool

The tool is installed once; your library (cards, config, batches) is just a folder. proxdex locates it, git-style:

1. --root DIR, else
2. the nearest proxdex.toml searching up from the current directory, else
3. $PROXDEX_ROOT (set this in your shell profile to run from anywhere):

export PROXDEX_ROOT=~/Documents/Pokémon\ Proxies
proxdex where     # confirm which library + config is active

Config lives in <library>/proxdex.toml (created by init), so it travels with the data and each library can differ. New config keys added by a tool upgrade fall back to defaults, so old libraries keep working. INDEX.md is regenerated automatically after any command that changes state (no need to run index by hand).

Usage

cd ~/Documents/Pokémon\ Proxies
proxdex init                   # one-time: create the library here

proxdex search entei ex        # find a card by name, pick which print to fetch
proxdex fetch ex3-90 ex6-105   # or download directly by id

proxdex build                  # border → upscale → grade, for cards that need it
proxdex sheet dark-deck        # colour-correct + bleed + impose → print PDF + batch
#   ...print the PDF (colour management OFF), then:
proxdex printed dark-deck      # mark the batch printed

proxdex ls                     # every card, stage progress, printed?

That's the whole loop: search → build → sheet → printed. The individual stage commands (border, upscale, grade) exist for granular control, and import files loose images (Upscayl-GUI output, or --id an arbitrary scan):

proxdex import ~/upscaled/*.png         # ex*_upscayl_*.png → stage 2
proxdex import scan.png --id ex6-105    # arbitrary file → looks up + files it

Commands accept card ids to scope them (proxdex build ex6-105); with none, they act on the whole library. proxdex searches up from the current directory for proxdex.toml, or pass --root DIR.

Print sheet

proxdex sheet <name> [ids...] colour-corrects each master, extends cut bleed outside the trim (cardbleed), imposes onto pages, and writes print-batches/<date>_<name>/<faces>.pdf plus a manifest. proxdex renders the PDF itself, so the print path is fully determined — print with your printer's colour management OFF so a calibration holds.

• Any input size → exact card size. Whatever resolution a card is, it's scaled to the configured card dimensions ([card], default 63×88mm) at sheet DPI. fit = cover fills the card preserving aspect (matching-aspect cards lose nothing); contain pads; stretch forces it.
• Fronts, backs, or duplex (--faces or [sheet] faces). Duplex emits a front page then a mirrored back page (duplex_flip = long|short), so double-siding lines up. Backs come from a shared [sheet] back_image or a per-card <id>_back.png.
• Offsets nudge the whole image (mm): front_offset_* and, crucially for duplex registration, back_offset_* (e.g. 0.4, 0.35).
• Cut guides: guide_style = full (grid lines) / corners (crop marks) / none, with placement, length, color, width, and independent guides_front / guides_back (cut from the front, so backs default off). Optional printer reg_marks. All under [sheet].

The PDF is lossless (Flate-embedded, never JPEG) and rendered at [sheet] dpi (default 1400, --dpi to override) so the printer never upsamples; only one page raster is held in memory at a time.

Card backs

proxdex back sets the shared back used by sheet --faces backs|duplex:

proxdex back --tcg mtg              # Scryfall's standard MTG back
proxdex back --file my-back.png     # your own scan (any TCG)
proxdex back --url https://…/back.png

It runs the back through the same medium colour-correction as the fronts and adds bleed with cardbleed, then saves back.png (auto-used by sheet). Per-card backs: drop <id>_back.png in a card's folder. Note: there's no reliable Pokémon-back API (the back is one image, owned by TPC) — supply your own high-res scan via --file/--url; MTG has a clean source via Scryfall.

Finding cards

Don't know the id? proxdex search queries the TCG API by name — every word must appear in the card name — and shows each match's set, release year, collector number, rarity and artist so you can tell prints apart:

$ proxdex search entei ex
#  ID       Name            Set                       Year     No.  Rarity        Artist
1  ex4-91   Entei ex        Team Magma vs Team Aqua   2004   91/95  Rare Holo EX  Ryo Ueda
2  ex7-97   Rocket's Entei  Team Rocket Returns       2004  97/109  Rare Holo EX  Ryo Ueda
3  bw5-13   Entei-EX        Dark Explorers            2012  13/108  Rare Holo EX  Shizurow
Fetch which? [numbers/ranges/ids · 'all' · blank to cancel]: 1

Type 1, 1,3, 1-3, an id, or all. Narrow with --set base1, --rarity holo, --year 2004; skip the prompt with --select 1,3 or --fetch; add --open to preview result images in your browser.

Upscaling

proxdex upscale drives Upscayl's engine (upscayl-bin) directly — no GUI round-trip — and mirrors the app's own options: any of the seven built-in models, an output scale, and optional Double Upscayl (runs the model twice, so 2× doubled = 4×, up to 16×). The command construction matches the app exactly, including only passing -s when the scale differs from the model's native 4×. On macOS the bundled binary and models are auto-detected inside Upscayl.app; elsewhere set the paths under [tools].

Set defaults once in proxdex.toml:

[tools]
upscayl_model  = "digital-art-4x"  # + upscayl-standard-4x, upscayl-lite-4x, high-fidelity-4x,
                                   #   remacri-4x, ultramix-balanced-4x, ultrasharp-4x
upscayl_scale  = 2                 # 1, 2, 3, or 4
upscayl_double = true              # run the model twice (default on → 2× becomes 4×)

Override per run: proxdex upscale --model ultrasharp-4x --scale 4 --double. Prefer the GUI? Skip this step and proxdex import its output instead.

Border correction (frame expansion)

Real cards have a uniform frame on the top and both sides and a thicker bottom (set symbol, ©). Some scrydex scans are cut into the frame, so the card's own border is too thin. proxdex measure reports the top/side thickness (the bottom is never measured); proxdex border expands a too-thin frame up to the target — before upscaling — using cardbleed to continue the existing pattern rather than smear pixels. Cards already at size are left untouched (within tolerance_mm). This is frame correction, distinct from cut bleed (which sheet adds outside the trim).

By default the target is symmetric (pad thin edges up to the sides). Once you've eyeballed a known-good card, set a real-card ratio in proxdex.toml:

[border]
target_side_ratio = 0.045   # side frame ≈ 4.5% of card width

Uniform prints

A mixed collection — crisp digital art next to warm, flat scans — won't print uniformly if you just apply the same multipliers to everything, because each card starts from a different place. So grade works in two steps:

1. normalize (per card, dynamic) — white-balances the shared card frame to one target colour and evens out black/white points, so every card lands on the same baseline regardless of how it was made. The target defaults to the library's own median frame colour, so the collection converges on its own consensus; pin it if you prefer.
2. look (uniform) — one identical recipe on top. Because the baseline is now shared, your intended saturation lands the same way on every card.

[grade]
normalize = true          # step 1
match_border_target = []  # [] = library median; or pin e.g. [252, 214, 46]
saturation = 1.10         # step 2 — the intended look
contrast   = 1.06
brightness = 1.03         # printers + matte paper dull the image

Calibrate the look with a test strip: print one sheet, compare to screen, nudge the numbers, reprint. Run proxdex grade --no-normalize to apply only the recipe (skip step 1).

Printing media (washed-out foil)

Some media shift colour — transparent plastic foil especially, where the ink is semi-transparent so prints come out lighter and less saturated than the screen. sheet applies a media profile at print time to cancel that, while your edited master stays neutral (switch media → just re-run sheet with a different --profile, no regrade):

[print]
profile = "foil"    # "none" | "paper" | "foil"

foil boosts saturation and ink density (saturation 1.38, contrast 1.16, brightness 0.95, gamma 0.88). These are a solid automatic starting point; calibrate once with a test print and override any value:

[print]
profile    = "foil"
saturation = 1.45   # push harder if prints still look washed out
gamma      = 0.85

Override per run with proxdex sheet <name> --profile foil.

Calibrating to your printer (closed loop)

If you have a scanner, proxdex can measure a per-medium correction instead of guessing at a preset — print a chart, scan it, and it fits the colour transform that makes prints true to the original. Each medium is its own profile (e.g. paper on white, foil-holo for foil on a holographic backing), so they can carry different corrections.

proxdex calibrate target --profile foil-holo --pdf  # emit a patch chart (as a PDF)
#   → print it on that medium, scan it (auto-correction OFF), then:
proxdex calibrate fit --profile foil-holo --scan chart_scan.png
#   → measures a degree-2 polynomial correction; `sheet` now applies it.

# verify / iterate:
proxdex calibrate target --profile foil-holo --corrected --pdf   # chart with fix baked in
proxdex calibrate check --scan corrected_scan.png
#   → prints the residual error; reprint & re-fit until it plateaus.

--pdf sends the chart through the same renderer as your card sheets, so the correction is measured on the exact path it's applied to. Then proxdex sheet applies the measured correction — it supersedes the manual foil preset for that profile.

Honest limits: the scanner is the measuring device, so this makes prints true as your scanner sees them — excellent for proxies, but not colorimetric (that needs a reference target or a spectrophotometer). Some saturated colours are simply outside a medium's gamut and can't be fully reached. And you must turn off the scanner's auto colour/contrast, or it fights the loop.

License

MIT