A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper or featherweight card, figured with distinguishing motifs and attached as specific of a established for playing card games. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling and since the median 20th century have Photo Playing Cards sometimes been manufactured from plastic.

In the late 14th century, the applicability of playing cards spread rapidly throughout Europe. Documents mentioning cards date from 1371 in Spain, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in lousy with locations including Florence, Paris, and Barcelona . A 1369 Paris ordinance [on gaming?] does not mention cards, but its 1377 update does.