Card centering calculator
Add a photo of your card, line up the edges, and see its centering and the best grade each grading company allows for it. Your photo never leaves your device.
Checked September 29, 2026
Side of the card
Add a photo of the card's front
The whole card in frame, on a plain, darker background. Angled photos are fine: you'll straighten it next. Your photo stays on your device.
or drop an image here
Centering
Add a photo to measure it
Start with the front. Add the back too: PSA, Beckett and CGC grade it separately.
How to measure centering
- Photograph the whole card on a plain, darker background. It doesn't need to be perfectly square to the camera.
- The calculator finds the card's four corners (yellow dots). Check each one and drag it onto the corner, then choose Straighten: the card is flattened into a true rectangle, undoing any tilt or angle. Scans that are already straight can skip this.
- It then finds the card's edges (blue) and the edges of the printed image (pink). Drag any that are off; a magnifier shows the edge up close while you drag.
- Do the same for the back. PSA, Beckett and CGC hold the back to a looser limit, but a badly off-center back still costs a grade.
Centering is the width of one border as a share of both. A left border of 3 mm and a right border of 2 mm is 60/40. The calculator reports the worse of left/right and top/bottom, which is what graders go by.
Centering standards by grading company
The loosest centering each company allows at each grade, front and back:
PSA
| Grade | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 55/45 | 75/25 |
| 9 | 60/40 | 90/10 |
| 8 | 65/35 | 90/10 |
| 7 | 70/30 | 90/10 |
| 6 | 80/20 | 90/10 |
| 5 | 85/15 | 90/10 |
| 3 | 90/10 | 90/10 |
BGS
| Grade | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Pristine | 50/50 | 55/45 |
| 9.5 | 55/45 | 60/40 |
| 9 | 55/45 | 70/30 |
| 8 | 60/40 | 80/20 |
| 7 | 65/35 | 90/10 |
| 6 | 70/30 | 95/5 |
| 5 | 75/25 | 95/5 |
SGC
| Grade | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Pristine | 50/50 | — |
| 10 | 55/45 | — |
| 9 | 60/40 | — |
| 8 | 65/35 | — |
| 7 | 70/30 | — |
| 6 | 75/25 | — |
| 5 | 80/20 | — |
CGC
| Grade | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Pristine | 50/50 | — |
| 10 | 55/45 | 75/25 |
| 9 | 60/40 | 90/10 |
| 8 | 65/35 | — |
| 7 | 70/30 | — |
| 6 | 75/25 | — |
PSA and CGC figures are from their published grading scales. Beckett and SGC figures are as widely reported; SGC publishes no separate limit for the back. Every company treats these as approximate and allows its graders some discretion, and PSA allows extra leeway on the front for grades of 7 and up.
Centering is a ceiling, not a grade
Perfect centering doesn't make a gem: corners, edges and surface are graded too, and any one of them can pull the grade down. What centering tells you is the best a card can do. If the front is 65/35, it won't come back a PSA 10 however clean the corners are. Before paying to grade, check whether the grade you can realistically get covers the cost with the is it worth grading? calculator.
Questions sellers ask
- What centering does a PSA 10 need?
- About 55/45 or better on the front and 75/25 or better on the back, per PSA's grading standards.
- What does 60/40 centering mean?
- One border is 60% of the two borders' combined width and the other is 40%: for example 3 mm on the left and 2 mm on the right.
- Is my photo uploaded?
- No. The photo is read by your browser and never sent anywhere.
- How accurate is this?
- As accurate as the corners and lines you set. With the corners on the card and the lines checked in the magnifier, it's within a percent or two. Cards without a printed border, like full-art cards, are harder to measure, and a card that's bent or warped won't straighten perfectly.
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