52 Reasons I Love You

How to make a 52 reasons deck

1. Write. One reason per line. Tap a sentence starter (“The way you …”, “I’ll never forget the time you …”) and finish it with something only the two of you know. The card on the left follows the line you are typing. Fewer than 52 is fine: 13 reasons print as the ace to king of spades, 26 as spades and hearts.
2. Pick a back and add their name. The back shows how many reasons there are, your words (“reasons I love you” unless you change them) and “for Sam”.
3. Download the PDF and print it at 100% (“Actual size”, not “Fit to page”), double-sided, flip on long edge. Each fronts sheet is followed by its backs sheet, laid out mirror-image, so every back lands behind its own card.
4. Cut along the thin grey lines; the short marks in the margin line up with them. Cards sit edge to edge, so each straight cut frees two cards. Nine cards fit on a sheet, so a full deck is 6 sheets of card, printed on both sides.

Every card is a real poker-size playing card, 63 × 88 mm, with its index in the corners, so the finished deck also shuffles, deals and plays. A long reason shrinks to fit its card instead of running off it: 100 characters print at 15 pt, 400 at 9 pt and 800 at about 6 pt. Past roughly 1,300 characters the page warns you and the end is cut with “…”. Jar slips are smaller, so there a reason of about 150 characters is the comfortable limit.

Questions

How do I print the cards double-sided so the backs line up?

Choose Double-sided (the default), print at 100%, and in the print dialog pick “Print on both sides” with flip on long edge (Windows calls it “Flip pages on long edge”, macOS “Long-edge binding”). Most home printers shift the back by 1 to 2 mm, which is why every back has a white border: a small shift disappears into it. Print one sheet first and hold it against a window to check. If your printer has no duplex, choose Fronts only and buy plain-backed blank playing cards, or print the backs on a second run and turn the stack over by its long side.

What card stock should I use?

For cards that feel like a deck, 200 to 250 g/m² matte card (about 80 to 92 lb cover in the US) goes through most inkjet and laser printers on the manual feed tray. 300 g/m² feels best but many home printers jam on it. Plain 120 g/m² paper glued onto thin card also works. A corner-rounder punch (3 or 4 mm) makes the corners look bought; the frame on each card is drawn with 2.4 mm round corners as a guide.

Ideas for a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife?

The reasons that land are specific: a moment (“the way you held my hand the whole flight to Lisbon”), a habit (“you hum off-key when you make coffee”) or something they did for you. “You are kind” is true but forgettable; “you drove an hour in the snow to bring me soup” is the card they keep. A useful split for 52: about 13 memories, 13 habits you love, 13 things they taught you or did for you, and 13 about the future. Choose Partner for starters about first dates, home and growing old together.

What do I write for my mum, dad or a best friend?

Switch to Mum or dad for starters about childhood, recipes and lessons (“You never missed my …”, “I still use your recipe for …”), or Friend for shared trips, inside jokes and the times they showed up. Change the words on the backs too: “reasons you’re the best mum” or “reasons you’re my person”. A deck for a parent makes a good Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or birthday gift; 13 cards (one suit) is plenty for a child to write.

How do I make a reasons why I love you book?

Switch to Book and choose how many reasons: 10, 20, 30, 50 or 100. The book is A5 (148 × 210 mm; half-Letter in the US), printed two pages to a side on A4 or Letter turned sideways. It has a cover with “Why I love you” and their name, one reason per page under a large “Reason 7”, and a back cover with your sign-off. A booklet needs a page count divisible by four, so 10 reasons make 12 pages (3 sheets) and 20 reasons make 24 pages (6 sheets): the 22 pages it needs, plus 2 ruled “one more reason” pages you can fill in by hand. The PDF is already in booklet order. Print it at 100%, double-sided, flip on short edge, then nest the sheets with sheet 1 on the outside and the last sheet in the middle (each sheet’s number is printed small in its bottom margin). Fold the stack in half along the short marks at the top and bottom, then put two staples through the fold on the marks on the outside, or sew it with needle and thread if you have no long-reach stapler. Up to about 20 reasons (6 sheets) folds neatly on 80 to 100 g/m² paper; a 100-reason book is 26 sheets, so fold it as two or three smaller sections or use thin 80 g/m² paper. Pick fewer reasons than you have typed and only the first ones print; pick more and the rest stay blank, numbered pages to write by hand.

Can I make a reasons jar instead?

Yes: switch to Jar slips. Each reason prints on a 96 × 29 mm slip of three panels, 18 slips per sheet: a numbered heart, the reason, and a closing panel with “for Sam, love, Alex”. Fold the closing panel onto the reason, then both behind the heart, and you have a little 32 × 29 mm note with the heart outside and the reason hidden. Fill a jam jar and the recipient opens one a day or one a week. Ordinary 80 g/m² printer paper folds better than card for this.

Is it free, and where do my words go?

It is free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no paid version. The cards are drawn and the PDF is made in your browser; nothing you type is uploaded. Your draft is kept in this browser’s local storage so it is still there tomorrow, and Clear everything deletes it. Until you type anything, the page shows an example deck so you can see the result; as soon as you write, only your own words are printed. The PDF uses the built-in Times and Helvetica fonts, so letters outside Western European alphabets and emoji cannot print and are left out (the page tells you when that happens).