Set symbols are one of the most easily identifying parts of any set, but not all of them are created equal. In Magic Set Editor (MSE), a downloadable tool with which you can create custom cards and organise sets, there is a tool with which you can create your own set symbols. To access it, simply double click the “Symbol” field in the “Set info” tab (in this case where the bells are, for you there are probably squares)This tool is what this article will focus on. In MSE, if you want to make a unique set symbol for your set, you not only have to keep in mind how small they will appear on cards in general, but beyond that also how low resolution (the standard mainframe) templates of MSE are.

A good set symbol wants to be three things: Uniquely identifiable, visually pleasing, and most importantly (because both other goals are close to impossible without this): Readable at card size. The coolest symbol does not help if it looks like a garbled pile of pixels on your card.

I have spent a considerable amount of time in MSE’s symbol editor and have made set symbols for over forty (released and unreleased) sets. In this article I will not tell you how to use the basic functions of the symbol editor, but I will tell you some of the nitty gritty tips and tricks I have picked up for the last couple of years that have consistently led to better looking set symbols.

1. Symmetry

Let’s start with something simple. One of the easiest ways to make something look pleasing is to make it symmetrical along one or more axes. Thankfully, the MSE symbol editor has a tool for this! Simply click on the symmetry option in above your list of layers, and then on “add” and you will get a symmetry folder which other layers can be dragged into. It lets you both reflect and rotate shapes within a symmetry folder among any number of axes. This makes things a lot easier, allowing for simple symmetry and also complex rotated shapes (which always comes in handy for cube set symbols, see the example). 

This tool is truly one of the most important functionalities of the editor and I suggest getting familiar with the intricacies of how the symmetry folders work. (Important note: The “duplicate” function does not work while the selected layer is in a symmetry folder. Luckily you can just move it out of the folder with drag and drop, duplicate it, then move it back in.)

2. Line Width 

Line width is one of the best things you can manipulate to make a set symbol pop and even become more readable. Generally, to make an outline thicker, you want to duplicate the shape it is outlining, change the duplicate to a “border” layer at the top of the program, then scale that border layer up until it is enveloping the original shape. To access border layers, just resize the editor window until you see them in the layer options on the top. This can be extremely helpful to separate a shape from a shape below it, or most importantly define a shape’s outline. 

Look at the example. While the left symbol is fine, the black stars are much stronger than the outline and so, pull focus away from the shield and its form. In the second example, I have added a border layer below the shield and scaled it up so it appears as a thick black outline. This makes the whole symbol pop out of the card and pulls the focus back onto its shape as a shield. I have also changed the shape to further accentuate the top some parts and change the “weight” of the form a bit. Overall this leads to a symbol with much more character and a more pleasing design. (Here specifically, it also helped to have the shape better fill out the assumed square set symbols occupy, without changing the basic shape of the shield.)

3. Less is More 

This is a basic design principle, but it is even more tantamount here, where you are working with limited space, size and pixel definition. Say you want your set symbol to depict a boat. A classic sail boat has up to 4 sails of course, all connected to the boat by ropes. Now, cutting out the ropes is simple, but, if you are for example depicting a specific kind of ship, you might find something like cutting details like the number of sails harder, depending on how much you care about closely depicting what you want to depict. But I can only encourage you to at least try to truly break down your design to your bare essentials and see if it still works. From my experience, it has always improved the design and made it much more readable than it was before.

Looking at the example, does the mouth of this creepy face really need this many tooth lines? Should they be positioned this close together? Trying it with fewer lines answers those questions and results in a much cleaner design. Simplifying is of course not just about the number of objects. It can also mean making a curve a line, a hexagon a pentagon, or a parallelogram a square. The fewer objects you have, and the simpler they are, the bigger you can make them within the symbol and the better they will be understood by someone looking at them.

5. Patch Holes 

Holes in your symbol (partly or fully enclosed parts where the card peeks through), in my experience, basically never look good and make symbols look much more complex than they need to. This is very easily fixed by our friend the border layer. Simply put one under the other layers so the holes are fully covered. You’ll find that across the rarities your symbol will look more cohesive, compact, and readable.

6. Shading

Once again, the border layer comes to our rescue. Shading is one of the most basic techniques to make a drawing look more high quality. While making symbols, while slightly less widely applicable, it allows you to add or remove detail to parts of a symbol,draw focus to certain parts or enhance the shape of it. This is closely related to point 2, but while that focused on border layers for lines, this is about the borders for whole shapes. In the example, you can see a symbol depicting an origami crane. On the right, I have taken some surfaces that would be further back on the real object and have replaced them with border layers. This gives the image some depth and makes clear that these are flat surfaces of paper folded and stacked on top of each other. You can see how much less muddled the neck looks in the symbol employing border layers. On the left version of the example, the renderer basically has to display the change between “layer, border, layer, border, layer” within just about 3 pixels of space. Using some border layers as shading, this is simplified to “layer, border, layer”, producing a much more clear image.

Now you might be asking “But layer borders are always rendered behind all other layers! How could I get it on top of a shape to add shading to it?” Well, there are two easy solutions. Most widely applicable is to simply duplicate the border layer, then move the duplicate below it and change it to a subtract layer. This way, the subtract layer erases what is below it, and the border layer on top is rendered instead. The other way to accomplish this is to put most of your symbol inside a symmetry folder. Then you simply drag the border layer above that symmetry layer, and instead of going behind the layers, it now sits on top of all layers in that folder!

7. Subpixel Changes

Finally, the most esoteric sounding topic here. Subpixel changes are changes made in the editor that do not translate to an entire pixel on the card changing from black to transparent. This mostly becomes relevant when you work on slopes or curves. You might create some shapes, look at the outlines and see that they look muddled or unclean. This is, of course, because MSE applies some antialiasing to symbols to make them look good despite the small definition of them on the cards. However, this means that sometimes you catch that antialiasing in a way that it almost doesn't render a whole line or falsifies the shape of that line. Look at the example images, with the editor view on top and the rendered symbol at the bottom. 

See how in the first rendered image, the outline is slightly frizzy, especially visible on the left side? In the second image, it instead becomes a clean, almost straight line. And this was from a miniscule change in the editor, as can be seen above. At this point, turn off grid snap and truly start fiddling around with stuff. Maybe making that curve just a little steeper pushes the pixels from one line to the second, maybe angling it slightly means it's at an angle where the pixels can better represent it. Changing angles and even ever so slightly rotating things can be a huge boon here. It is simply a matter of testing things out and seeing how the card renderer interprets it. Playing with things yourself will give you an idea of how the renderer interprets things. Just keep this point in mind, it’s likely that at some point you will notice that you’ve found yourself in a situation where it applies.

8. Expand the View 

At some point while working on a symbol you will work with curves and points. And when you are working with these, you will also work with the handles that control them. (In the example images I have redrawn them in light blue to make them more visible.) Now, maybe you make a shape and then pull the handle as far as possible to the edge of the screen. Then you scale up the whole shape, but, oh no! By scaling the shape you have moved all of its points and suddenly the handle (which has kept its vector) is off the grid! You can't move it anymore! (see the top example). 

Well, luckily there is an easy trick to get it back on the screen or to get it off the screen on purpose (if you need an extra long vector). Simply resize the editor window! If something is too far away horizontally, just squish it vertically, if it's too far vertically, squish it horizontally and viola! As can be seen on the second example image the handle is now back on the screen (in the bottom left), ready for you to pull it however you want. The only thing you need to be careful with is pulling it beyond the four corners, as there is no way to resize the window to get to those parts. Who knows what kind of set symbol rejects lurk there. Scary.

9. A Common Mistake

When you are making a set symbol, it is always important to keep in mind that unless you are making the symbol for a rarityless set, the set symbol will have to look good in not just one color scheme, but 4 of them. Always test the symbol on at least one card of each rarity, as for example, the more intense coloring of a mythic symbol can easily clash with some designs, where rare symbols can often look a bit muddled (simply due to how some parts of the pattern it applies are darker or lighter at certain parts).

For commons, this is a bit easier. Not only do they have the best contrast, they also have two options they choose from! The normal one and the inverted one. Which you choose depends on personal preference and the specific symbol you are working on. I’ve found that symbols with large border shapes often look very strange with the normal common, whereas ones that use border layers only for thin lines look better in it. As I tend to use more border layers rather than fewer (see points 2, 5 and 6) I gravitate to the inverted common. Just be aware that it can end up looking too similar to the uncommon symbol, especially if the white parts are rather small. In the example, I think it works as the white parts are large and blocky and so the difference between white and silver is more easily seen. Simply be aware of the options you have and the down and upsides both of them have, and you will have no problem making your symbol work at any rarity.