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SetPulls

Pokémon card centering checker

Take a photo of your card, line it up, and drag four lines onto the edge of the printed frame. The checker turns the borders into left/right and top/bottom ratios and shows the best PSA and CGC grade those ratios allow under each company's published centering limits.

Check your card

Your photo never leaves your device: it is opened and measured in this browser tab, and Clear photo removes it.

PSA and CGC centering limits

Each limit is the worst split a grade allows, larger side first: 55/45 means the wider border may be at most 55% of the two borders together. Read from the PSA grading standards and the CGC card grading scale, checked October 14, 2026.

A made-up card with borders of 33 px left, 27 px right, 26 px top and 24 px bottom: 33 ÷ 60 gives 55/45 left/right and 26 ÷ 50 gives 52/48 top/bottom.
Illustration: SetPulls, on a made-up card. Source: the same arithmetic the checker does on the lines you set.
Centering limit by grade, front and back (checked October 14, 2026)
GradeFrontBackWording
PSA 10Gem Mint55/4575/25“The image must be centered on the card within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse.”
PSA 9Mint60/4090/10“Centering must be approximately 60/40 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.”
PSA 8NM-MT65/3590/10“Centering must be approximately 65/35 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.”
PSA 7NM70/3090/10“Centering must be approximately 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.”
PSA 6EX-MT80/2090/10“Centering must be 80/20 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.”
PSA 5EX85/1590/10“Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.”
PSA 4VG-EX85/1590/10“Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.”
PSA 3VG90/1090/10“Centering must be 90/10 or better on the front and back.”
PSA 2Good90/1090/10“Centering must be 90/10 or better on the front and back.”
PSA 1.5Fair90/1090/10“The centering must be approximately 90/10 or better on the front and back.”
CGC Pristine 10Pristine50/50not published“A Pristine 10 is a virtually flawless card to the naked eye. The centering is 50/50, and the card has flawless color and registration.”
CGC Gem Mint 10Gem Mint55/4575/25“Centering is not to exceed approximately 55/45, and reverse centering is not to exceed 75/25.”

PSA says “approximately” for most grades and adds a centering note: “At the grader's sole discretion, a small variance may be permitted on occasion based on the card's overall eye appeal.” PSA 1 has no centering limit, and CGC publishes its limits below Gem Mint 10 for sports and non-sports cards only, so neither is in the table or the checker.

Bar chart of the worst front and back split each grade allows: PSA 10 55/45 front, 75/25 back, PSA 9 60/40 front, loosening to 90/10 at the lowest PSA grades; CGC Pristine 10 and Gem Mint 10 at the top.Bar chart of the worst front and back split each grade allows: PSA 10 55/45 front, 75/25 back, PSA 9 60/40 front, loosening to 90/10 at the lowest PSA grades; CGC Pristine 10 and Gem Mint 10 at the top.
Chart: SetPulls. Source: PSA grading standards and CGC grading scale, read October 14, 2026. PSA 1 and CGC below Gem Mint 10 publish no Pokémon limit.
Three card outlines comparing left and right borders at 50/50 for CGC Pristine 10, 55/45 for PSA 10 and 70/30 for TCGplayer's limitThree card outlines comparing left and right borders at 50/50 for CGC Pristine 10, 55/45 for PSA 10 and 70/30 for TCGplayer's limit
Illustration: SetPulls. Source: CGC grading scale, PSA grading standards and TCGplayer Card Conditioning Standards.

How to photograph a card for centering

  • Lay the card flat on a plain surface that contrasts with its border: a dark desk for a yellow border, white paper for a dark one.
  • Shoot from straight above with the card filling most of the frame. If you can't hold the phone level, the Straighten step fixes the tilt, so get all four corners sharp instead.
  • Use daylight or a lamp off to the side. A flash or a light straight overhead puts a glare spot on the border, and the frame line disappears under it.
  • Take the card out of a toploader or a slab if you can. The plastic edge can hide the card edge, and its reflection blurs the corners.
  • Measure the back as well: its limit is looser than the front's, but a badly shifted back still caps the grade.

What centering does not tell you

Centering is one line in each grade definition. Corners, edges and surface (whitening, scratches, dents, print lines, gloss) are judged on their own, and any one of them can hold a well-centered card below its centering cap.

A photo can't show surface flaws that only appear when the card is tilted under light, and it can't show a soft corner the way a loupe does.

The result is the most centering would allow, never a prediction. The checker will never say a card is a PSA 10.

Questions about centering

What centering does a PSA 10 need?

PSA's grading standards ask for approximately 55/45 or better on the front and 75/25 on the back (read October 14, 2026). PSA adds that a grader may allow a small variance for a card's overall eye appeal, so treat 55/45 as a guide rather than a hard line.

Does CGC use the same centering limits for Pokémon cards below a 10?

CGC's scale gives Pokémon and other TCG cards a centering limit only at the top: 50/50 for Pristine 10 and about 55/45 front, 75/25 back for Gem Mint 10. Its limits for 9 and below are written for sports and non-sports cards, so the checker doesn't apply them to a Pokémon card.

Does centering change the condition of a raw card?

Much less than a grade. TCGplayer's Card Conditioning Standards say a card may have up to 70/30 centering without any impact on its condition, so a card that misses a PSA 10 on centering can still sell as Near Mint raw.

Our take

A PSA 10 and a CGC Gem Mint 10 print the same limit, about 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back, so one measurement answers both; only CGC's Pristine 10 asks for a perfect 50/50.

Below the 10, PSA's front limit loosens by five points a grade, from 60/40 at PSA 9 to 70/30 at PSA 7, so a card that measures worse than 60/40 has lost the 9 before a grader looks at a corner.

We'd measure every card before paying to grade it, and only send the ones whose centering still allows the grade the fee is betting on.

Last reviewed .