Yes — tarot decks exist with each card's meaning printed right on its face, upright and reversed. We make them in three languages: German, French and now English. The English Learning Tarot Deck prints the card name, a one-sentence core meaning, four upright keywords, four reversed keywords and a question to ask yourself on all 78 cards. It ships from our U.S. warehouse to the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.
Not sure you can learn 78 cards? Read how to read tarot without memorizing the cards. Weighing a booklet against a guide file? See printed booklet vs PDF guide.
Meanings on every card
A tarot deck you can read on day one
English Learning Tarot Deck — 78 Cards With Meanings on Every Card
Classic 1909 artwork, with the card's meaning, upright and reversed keywords and a question printed on each card. A full PDF learning guide comes with every set by personal link; there is no printed booklet in the box.
★ 4.9 from 20,000+ positive reviews on our Etsy shop.
See the Learning DeckIf you read English, start with the English Learning Tarot Deck: the meaning sits on the card, so you never stop mid-reading to look something up.
If you would rather keep the artwork clean and look meanings up in a guide, the deck we'd point you to is the Borderless Vintage Tarot — 78 cards of the 1909 classic Pamela Colman Smith art, with an electronic guidebook (PDF) that covers every card's meaning, upright and reversed. See the Borderless Vintage Tarot deck.
The full deck
Want to hold all 78 cards and learn them?
Borderless Vintage Tarot Cards — 1909 Classic Art
The Borderless Vintage deck is the full 78 cards plus an electronic (PDF) guidebook that explains each one.
See Borderless VintageWhat "meanings on the cards" actually looks like
On a printed-meaning deck, a short keyword sits in a band at the bottom (sometimes the top) of the card, usually inside a thin rule that separates it from the artwork. The upright keyword reads one way; a second, smaller word nearby covers the reversed meaning, so you don't need to memorize two readings for every card.
The artwork keeps most of the card. The text band is deliberately small — a word or short phrase, not a paragraph — because the point is a prompt you can read at a glance mid-reading, not a replacement for the full card meaning.
Our own learning decks follow this pattern: the German Learning Tarot Deck ("Deutsches Tarot-Lerndeck") prints a German keyword on all 78 cards, upright and reversed, and the English Learning Tarot Deck does the same in English, with one more line: a question to ask about your own situation. electronic (PDF) guidebook is sent by personal link after purchase, and the free online guide to all 78 cards on our site covers the longer version of each meaning.
Who it helps and who it does not
It helps a beginner who hasn't memorized seventy-eight meanings yet and wants a prompt without stopping to open a book. It helps anyone reading for someone else — a friend, a client — who needs a fast, confident answer rather than a pause to look something up.
It gets in the way for a reader who wants to build their own relationship with the imagery. Your eye goes to the printed word before it goes to the picture, and that shortcuts the part of learning tarot that comes from sitting with the art and noticing what it suggests to you specifically.
It's also worth saying plainly: the printed keyword is a summary of one common meaning, not the full reading. Two readers can draw the same card and land on different, equally valid interpretations that no single printed word covers.
Meanings on the card vs an electronic (PDF) guidebook vs an app
| What matters | Printed on the card | electronic (PDF) guidebook | App |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the meaning lives | On the card face | Separate PDF guidebook | Your phone |
| Speed to see it | Instant | A few seconds to find the page | Depends on signal and the app |
| Upright + reversed covered | Yes, both printed | Yes, both written out | Usually yes |
| Keeps the art uncluttered | No — shares the card face | Yes — card stays full artwork | Yes |
| Works with no battery or signal | Yes | Yes | No |
| Our decks that use this | English, German and French Learning Decks | Every other deck we sell | No |
None of the three is wrong. The honest trade-off is artwork versus convenience: a printed keyword buys you speed at the cost of the artwork's full visual field; a guidebook keeps the card clean but costs you a few seconds and a free hand.
Which language the deck is in
Every deck we sell states its language, and a printed-meaning deck is only useful if you can read the language printed on it. We make the meaning-on-the-card decks in English, German and French.
The English Learning Tarot Deck ships from our U.S. warehouse to the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. It comes with a full PDF learning guide, sent by personal link after purchase and printable at home; there is no printed booklet in the box.
The German Learning Tarot Deck and the French Learning Tarot Deck each print the meaning on every card in their own language, with the same PDF guide approach and a free online guide to all 78 cards on our site. They are sold in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, the wider EU and the UK. Neither ships to the US, Canada, Japan or Australia, and the English deck does not ship to the EU, because it is stocked in our U.S. warehouse only.
A German or French keyword on the card won't help you mid-reading if you read English, so match the deck's language to yours.
Our stock picks
Practicing? Here's where to start.
Moon Magic Tarot Cards
A 78-card lunar reinterpretation of the classic tarot system, with a matte anti-scratch lamination and an electronic (PDF) guidebook.
See Moon MagicHow to use one without becoming dependent on it
- Look at the artwork first and say your own read out loud before you check the printed keyword or the guidebook page.
- Treat the printed meaning as a check on your instinct, not the starting point — compare the two, don't just copy the word.
- For practice draws, cover the keyword band (or skip the guidebook) and write one line of your own, then reveal it and compare.
- Once you can call most upright and reversed meanings without looking, use the printed word only as a tie-breaker on cards you still mix up.
- Keep the guidebook or keyword as backup for full spreads, where you're holding several cards' meanings at once — that's where a quick prompt earns its place.
FAQ
Do any tarot decks print the card meaning on the card itself?
Yes. Some decks print a short keyword directly on each card face, usually in a small band near the artwork, with separate wording for the upright and reversed meaning. Our English, German and French learning decks all work this way.
Does Dark Forest sell an English deck with the meaning printed on the cards?
Yes. The English Learning Tarot Deck prints the card name, a one-sentence core meaning, four upright keywords, four reversed keywords and a question on every card, and ships from our U.S. warehouse to the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. In the EU our other English decks keep the full 1909 classic artwork and put every card's meaning in the electronic guidebook (PDF) that comes by personal link.
Does the English learning deck come with a printed booklet?
No. The full PDF learning guide is sent by personal link right after purchase, so you can read it on a phone or print only the pages you want. There is no printed booklet in the box.
Are the German and French learning decks available outside Europe?
They ship to Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, the wider EU and the UK, but not to the US, Canada, Japan or Australia. The meaning printed on the card is in that deck's own language, so it suits a reader of German or French.
Will a printed-meaning deck stop me from learning tarot properly?
Only if you lean on it for every card, every time. Used as a quick check after you've already looked at the art, it speeds up early readings without replacing the work of actually learning the cards.
What's the real difference between a guidebook and a deck with meanings printed on the cards?
A guidebook is a separate PDF you flip through card by card; a printed-meaning deck puts the keyword on the card face, so you never open anything. Both cover the same ground — upright and reversed meanings for all 78 cards — just in a different place.
Whichever route suits your reading, our guidebook decks ship with their electronic (PDF) guidebook sent by personal link after purchase, while our learning decks carry the meanings on the cards themselves, with a free online guide to all 78 cards on our site. Browse our full tarot deck collection to compare them side by side.
Where to go next
Not ready to buy? Take the free Your First Reading (first four parts of the course). Ready to read on your own? The full course is $29.99 — enter code COURSE50 at checkout. The code works until 8 November 2026.
