Images

Four sizes of every card, at addresses that never change.

Every printing that has art carries image_urls with four sizes. A card carries its default printing's. A double-faced printing carries the reverse under back.image_urls. Images are served from api.kairosarchive.net/images/, are not rate-limited, and may be hotlinked with credit to Erik's Curiosa.

Sizes keep the card's aspect ratio, so a rendition may be a pixel narrower than nominal. Keep the proportions, use a 63:88 placeholder when there is no image, and never stretch art to fill a slot. Sites are served upright even though they are played sideways; rotate them in your own layout if you want the printed orientation.

Image status

image_status says how good the source was.

ok

The publisher's file was full size.

lowres

All four sizes exist, but the larger ones were upscaled from a small source and look soft.

missing

No image yet. image_urls is null; show a placeholder.

if (card.image_urls) {
const image = document.createElement("img");
image.src = card.image_urls.normal;
image.alt = card.name;
image.width = 488;
image.height = 680;
image.style.maxWidth = "100%";
image.style.height = "auto";
image.style.borderRadius = "4.75% / 3.5%";
document.body.append(image);
} else {
// Render a labelled 63:88 placeholder.
}

Addresses never change

An image address is the printing ID plus an art-version key: /images/P000937.ab12cd34ef56.normal.webp. New art, or a new encoding, gets a new key and a new address. The bytes at an old address never change, so cache them forever.

Index consumers can construct rendition paths from a printing’s printing_id and image_hash: /images/{printing_id}.{image_hash}.normal.webp. A reverse adds .back before the rendition. For originals, use the supplied URL because the format may differ.

Credit and corners

Images are © Erik's Curiosa, hosted here as the official API's own guidance asks. Hotlink them with credit; see usage and attribution.

WebP keeps the corners transparent where the source had them. Round them in CSS with border-radius: 4.75% / 3.5%, which lands on the physical corner at any size.

Reference: registry API contract and published object definitions. Report a data or documentation issue.