How did stenciling influence the design of French-suited playing cards?

In the 1480s, the adoption of stenciling in France significantly influenced the design of playing cards by necessitating a shift toward a distinctively simplified aesthetic.1

Prior to this, early European cards were hand-painted luxury goods. The use of stencils to apply color to wood-block printed outlines allowed for more efficient, lower-cost production, which in turn facilitated the standardization of the suitmarks now known as the French-suited deck: pique (spades), coeur (hearts), carreau (diamonds), and trèfle (clubs). This transition from intricate, hand-painted designs to the streamlined, stencil-friendly imagery helped establish the iconic, simplified visual style that remains the international standard for playing cards today.1