Designing QR cards, posters & print templates

To help guests reach your gallery in seconds on site, this page produces all of your print material: the QR code as a PNG, invitation cards, posters, task cards (Print Tasks) and achievement cards. Everything ends up as a print-ready PDF. For designed cards you can use either a simple editor or the Design Studio – a Canva-style canvas editor with layers, a front and a back side, and multi-language support.

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The “Print Templates” page: invitation code control with QR download on top, the three tabs below.

Note

This page is meant for the host (event owner) or admins. The QR code and the cards guide your guests into the gallery – how they join is covered in Access the event and on the guest page Join an event.

How to reach this area

1. Open your event’s admin area (the gear / “Manage event” – guests reach it via the profile menu top right under Management).

2. In the left sidebar, click Print Invitations (icon: an open envelope). Route: /admin/templates.

3. The “Manage Print Templates” page opens. At the top sits the invitation code control with a direct QR download; below it are the three tabs Fast Editor, Print Tasks and Print Achievements.

Caution

Visibility & unlocking: In branded events the menu item only appears when at least one QR download feature is unlocked. Without it you see a premium lock over the page (or, in branded events, you are redirected to the dashboard). See Upgrade & pricing to unlock features.

Invitation code control & direct QR download

This card always sits on top, above the tabs. Here you decide which permissions your QR code grants when scanned, and you download it as a PNG.

1. Include invitation code in QR (toggle): When it is on, the QR carries a specific invitation code and your guests join with the matching permissions without typing a password. If the toggle is greyed out, a small hint below explains why (for example, there are no matching codes).

2. Select a code (only when the toggle is on): In the “Select which invitation code to use” dropdown the codes are grouped by role – Viewer, Contributor, Moderator, Admin – each with a role emoji and a colored badge.

3. Watch the warnings:

   • Yellow warning “Non-default invitation code selected!” – you picked a specialized code. The QR then grants exactly its permissions. Make sure that is intentional (e.g. a deliberate moderator code).
   • Red warning “Warning: Creating QR without invitation code for invite-only event!” – the toggle is off although your event is invite-only. Guests would then have to type the password manually. In that case, always embed a code.
   • Error “Error generating QR code” – wait a moment and check the code selection.

4. Download the QR: Under “Direct QR Code Download” you see a small QR preview. Click Download QR Code to save it as a PNG (file name photoquest-qr-code, with the code appended if one is embedded). While generating, the button shows “Generating…”; without a finished QR it is disabled. A badge “Invitation code included: CODE” confirms which code is embedded.

Tip

The look of the QR code (colors, pattern) comes from your event styling settings. Adjust it under Style & design. For open events the toggle off is enough; for invite-only events always embed a code. Manage invitation codes and roles under Invite guests and Roles & permissions.

Tab 1 – Fast Editor: design invitations

The first tab is the invitation designer. An orange star on the tab means the invitation QR download feature is not unlocked yet (premium gate).

Simple or Advanced?

At the top of the tab you choose between two modes:

• Simple – the easy rich-text editor (described below). Fast, ideal for classic invitation text with a QR.
• Advanced – opens the Design Studio as a full-screen editor. Full creative freedom with elements, layers and a front/back side.

The simple editor

The header reads “Advanced Invitation Designer” with a role badge (e.g. “Viewer QR”) and the embedded code. The editor walks you through three steps:

1. Step 1/3 – Design: A rich-text editor with a toolbar. You can set headings (H1–H3), a font (around 20 faces such as Playfair Display, Lora, Montserrat, Dancing Script, Great Vibes, Bebas Neue …), a size, text and background color, and lists. Two special elements: Insert QR code (placeholder “QR Code will appear here”, replaced by the real QR when printed) and a decorative line as a divider. Undo/redo and “clean” (remove formatting) are included too. On the right you see the save status (“Saving…” / “Unsaved” / “Saved”). Changes autosave locally after ~0.5 s and to the server after ~3 s. Reset restores the default text (with confirmation).

2. Step 2/3 – Choose background: Pick a background image for the card.

3. Step 3/3 – Live preview (desktop only): Shows the finished card as a PDF preview with the real QR. If no QR is available yet, it reads “No QR code available for preview”.

4. Download: Click Download Invitation at the bottom – this produces a PDF (invitation-ROLE-CODE.pdf). Without a QR the button is disabled (“QR Code Required”). The download block is premium-gated.

Tip

For multi-language events a language bar appears above the editor: separate text per language, with missing translations flagged.

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The simple editor in the “Fast Editor” tab: a rich-text toolbar with font, size, colors, insert QR code and a decorative line.

The Design Studio (Advanced)

Advanced opens the canvas editor as a full-screen dialog. It has four zones: the toolbar on top, the add panel on the left, the property panel on the right, and the canvas in the middle with the side switcher below it.

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From the Fast Editor tab you open the Design Studio via “Advanced”.

A) Toolbar (top)

• Edit / Preview (pencil / eye): Preview shows real event data instead of placeholders.
• Paper size (dropdown, desktop): A-series or Custom with width×height in mm; Swap orientation flips portrait/landscape.
• Undo/redo, Zoom (−/%/+), View with Grid, Ruler and Snap as checkbox options.
• Browse Presets (spark icon) opens the preset browser.
• File menu: “Save as new design”, “Import design (JSON)”, “Export design (JSON)”.
• On the right: the editable design name (click to rename – the autosave draft becomes a named design), Fullscreen, Export (opens the export dialog) and Close (X).

B) Add panel (left)

The “Add” section offers tiles for:

• Text, Image, QR and Background (a full-bleed background image – opens the properties directly).
• Data fields – context-aware dynamic fields such as event name, event date, invitation code and QR (for tasks/achievements also title and image). Only fields with real data in the preview are offered; they are filled automatically when printed.

C) Property panel (right)

The panel adapts to the selected element:

• Nothing selected: a language switcher plus the hint “Pick an element on the canvas, or add one to start.”
• Element header: the type label plus Duplicate, Lock/Unlock and Delete. Below it, Align within the canvas (left/center/right, top/middle/bottom).
• Text: a language bar with a Translate button (translates the text into all other event languages in one click; a badge shows how many are still missing). Content type Static or Linked (a dynamic field); when linked, a field dropdown, and for the event date a date format. Plus Auto-fit, full typography (font by group, size, bold/italic/underline/strikethrough, alignment, letter spacing, line height, capitalization), Fill color, Highlight, and Shadow and Outline as toggleable effects.
• Image: Static or Linked, Choose image (media picker) or Upload image (with a progress bar), Object fit (cover/contain/fill/none), Border, Filters (blur/brightness/contrast/saturation), Color overlay and Radius.
• Shape: Fill, Stroke (color + width), Radius.
• QR: invitation code settings (toggle/code) as above, a QR style dialog (colors/pattern) and QR frame presets – “SCAN” frames such as a speech bubble, top badge, arrow left, hand-drawn or scan corners, each with a frame and text color.

D) Canvas & side switcher

Below the canvas you manage the front and back side:

• No back side: a Front chip plus a menu Add back side → “Empty back side” or “Copy background from front”.
• With a back side: a Front | Back segment switch plus a menu “Copy background from front” and “Remove back side” (with confirmation – its content is lost).

Note

Saving & limit: There is no manual save – your changes autosave as an event design preset. On the first edit an “Untitled” draft is created (badge “Autosave”); via the design name or “Save as new design” it becomes named. When you reopen, your most recently edited design continues automatically. Each event allows up to 100 designs – delete old ones once you hit the limit.

Browse presets

The preset browser has two areas:

• My Designs: your saved designs. Filter chips Matching vs. All (by context), context tags (invitation/task/achievement) toggleable per design, New design (with a “x / 100” counter), load via Load, delete via the trash icon.
• Templates: curated global templates; Start empty or fork a template into your own design via Use as starting point.

Export a PDF (Design Studio)

The export dialog “Export PDF” walks through three steps:

1. Options: a live preview of the front; Quality Draft/Standard/High (150/300/600 DPI – higher = sharper, larger, slower); Single card (original size) or multiple copies per sheet. With a back side: Print back side (double-sided). For multi-up: Sheet size (A-series/Custom mm) and orientation, a layout note “columns × rows = copies per sheet”, Margin, Spacing, Cut marks, and with multiple records Fill remaining page.

2. Generate: a progress run (loading records → resolving images → processing images → generating pages → finalizing) with rotating print tips.

3. Done: “Your PDF is ready!” with the file size and Download PDF (a deliberate second click). Back lets you change the options again.

Tab 2 – Print Tasks: task cards

The second tab produces print cards for your photo challenges (tasks) – each with its own QR. A star on the tab means the feature is not unlocked yet.

• Feature missing: a premium lock.
• Tasks not enabled: a “Tasks Not Enabled” hint – enable tasks first under Settings → Features (Features).
• No active tasks: a “No Active Tasks” hint with a Go to Task Manager button (opens the Task manager).
• Active tasks present: an overview with the count and a feature list (QR per card, customizable design, A4 & A7, task preview images). Create Printable Task Cards opens the card wizard – it too offers, alongside the simple mode, an Advanced → Design Studio with dynamic task fields and a multi-record export for all tasks at once.

For details on creating tasks, see Task manager.

Tab 3 – Print Achievements: achievement cards

The third tab works like “Print Tasks”, but for achievements. The same rules apply: a star means not unlocked; a hint appears if achievements are not enabled; a Create Printable Achievement Cards button and a Go to Achievement Manager link. For details on creating them, see Achievements.

Premium & roles

• The menu item only appears in branded events when at least one QR download feature is unlocked; without it (and without branding) you see a premium lock over the whole page.
• Each tab may show its own star: Fast Editor (invitation QR), Print Tasks (task QR), Print Achievements (achievement QR). Individual download buttons are gated as well.
• Demo mode: server-side autosave is disabled (“Demo Mode”); local changes persist and the Design Studio still works.

Unlock under Upgrade & pricing.

Troubleshooting

• QR missing / button disabled: the QR is still generating (“Generating…”) or an error occurred – wait a moment and check the code selection.
• Invite-only without a code: a red warning – embed a code, otherwise guests must type the password.
• Image missing in the PDF: an oversized image (above ~10 MB is skipped) or an expired/blocked image URL – pick a smaller image or re-upload it.
• “You’ve reached the limit of 100 designs”: delete old designs in the preset browser.
• Card too large for the sheet: then only “Single card” is possible, multi-up is disabled.
• Changes gone? In demo mode nothing is saved to the server; in a real event wait for the “Saved” status.

Best-practice tips

• Before a bulk print, print one test copy and scan the QR with your phone.
• Print on 200–300 g/m² card stock, laminate optionally, round the corners.
• For multi-up, keep the cut marks on – they help you trim cleanly.
• For multi-language events use Translate and fill in missing languages (the amber pills).
• The “Scan me” QR frame preset boosts your guests’ scan rate.
• Build a design once and reuse it via context tags for invitation, task and achievement.

Related help pages

• Guest: Access the event and Join an event – how guests scan the QR.
• Style & design – QR look and branding colors.
• Invite guests and Roles & permissions – invitation codes and permissions.
• Task manager and Achievements – create content for the cards.
• Upgrade & pricing – unlock premium features.