Getting the best from Madge

Madge is quick, tireless and full of ideas. She is also a computer program, and some things are still beyond her. This page covers what she does best, what she can't do yet, and the way around every limit: take the picture into your own editor and bring it back. That is always free.

New to the Studio? Start with Working with Madge, which walks through the eight steps.

Getting the most from her

• Change the plan before she paints. Every change on the plan card is free, so it is the cheapest place to get things right.
• Get the first picture of each group right. She paints your set one group at a time: the dots, the bams, the winds and so on. Each group is painted from its first picture, and you get two free tries at that one before the rest follow it. Spend your attention there.
• If a note could mean two things, she asks first. Before anything is spent on a note, Madge may ask which of two readings you meant. Tap the one you meant, or send it as you wrote it. A question never costs a do-over.
• Say one thing at a time. "Take out the cloud" works better than a paragraph. If you want three changes, ask for them one by one.
• Pick the right fix. Keep it, just fix one thing changes only what you name. Start this one over paints a new take. If your note asks for a different picture altogether, she will check which one you meant before spending anything.
• Point at a tile you like. Name it in your note, for example "make it like the 3 bam", and she will offer to copy it exactly, or to copy its layout in this tile's own colors.
• Show her a picture. You can share up to five while you talk to her. A picture says more than a paragraph about a style you love.

What Madge can't do (yet)

The 2 to 9 are copies of the 1. On the dots and bams, the 2 shows two of your 1, the 3 shows three, and so on, as separate pictures. She cannot paint one picture that grows a part per number, like a milkshake that holds one more straw each time or a bough with a sprig per number. We tested it hundreds of times. With eight or nine of something in one picture, today's painting tools lose count far too often. If you want that look, you can make it yourself and upload it. The steps are below.

Counts need a second look. She counts every dot and bam she paints and repaints a miscount herself, free. Still, count them on your True Size Proof before you order.

Words can come out misspelled. She reads the words on the winds and on the Joker and Flower frames, but a painted word can still slip. Check every word on your proof.

The corner numbers take their suit's color. The craks are red, the bams are green and the dots take your set's cool color, the way a player expects. A note can't change a number's color.

Fine lines don't print well. A thin outline around a tile is the hardest thing for our press, so she doesn't paint one. Bold borders print beautifully.

Two pictures are never quite twins. Each picture is painted fresh, so two tiles painted separately differ in small ways. When you need a match, use "make it like" (above) or copy the picture in your own editor.

No licensed characters, brands or real people's faces. A name painted on an apron is fine; a likeness of a real person is not. Classic stories that belong to everyone are fine too, like Alice in Wonderland as the book tells it. The details are on our copyright page.

Every tile has a thin white border. We can't print on the rounded edge of a tile. Uploading your own artwork explains what that means for a picture.

Take a picture into your own editor and bring it back

Any picture Madge paints can be edited by you, in any editor you like, and put back on your set. Uploading costs no do-over.

1. Open the picture. On the wall, tap the picture you want.
2. Download it. Press Download this artwork. You get a PNG file, usually on a see-through background.
3. Edit it. Use whatever you are comfortable with: Canva, Procreate, Photoshop, or Photopea, which is free in a web browser. Keep about the same size you downloaded.
4. Save it. Save as PNG or JPEG, under 4 MB. A plain white background is fine, because we cut it away for you.
5. Bring it back. Tap the same picture on the wall and press Upload your own version. It goes on exactly as you made it.
6. Save again. If you had already pressed Save my pictures, the wall will tell you a picture has changed since you saved. Save again so your tiles get the new one.

Want your edited picture to match the set's painting style? After it lands, Madge can repaint it in the set's style and keep everything in it. That one costs a do-over.

Example: a milkshake with eight straws

Say your bams are milkshakes, and you want the 8 bam to be one milkshake with eight straws.

1. Get the 1 bam the way you love it: one milkshake, one straw.
2. Download it and open it in your editor.
3. Copy the straw seven times. Bend some, shorten others, tilt them however you like, until there are eight.
4. Upload it onto the 8 bam with Upload your own version.
5. Do the same for the 2 to 9, adding one straw each time.

Do this once the 1 bam is final. A picture you uploaded stays exactly as you made it, even if the 1 is repainted later.

Before you order

Print your True Size Proof and look at every tile at its real size: the counts, the spelling, the pictures you uploaded. The steps are in The reference card and the True Size Proof.