When you create a template you're offered a gallery of presets. Each one is a complete starting point - a sensible field layout, a suitable pass layout and a barcode already configured - so you're editing rather than building from nothing.
Everything in a preset is editable afterwards. Picking one commits you to nothing.
The eight presets
Event ticket - for a dated, seated, one-off admission. Fields lean towards event name, date, time and seat.
Booking - for a reservation: a table, an appointment, a room, a class. Similar shape to an event ticket but worded around a booking reference and a time slot.
Membership card - for an ongoing relationship rather than a single date. Member name, number, tier and renewal date. The most general-purpose preset, and the best fallback if nothing else fits.
Access pass - for getting through a door: a site pass, a gym entry, a co-working membership.
ID card - for identifying a person rather than admitting them: staff badges, student cards, contractor identification.
Coupon - for a discount or an offer, with the terms of the offer and an expiry.
Gift card - for stored value, shaped around a balance and a card number.
Boarding pass - for travel, with the layout and barcode conventions travel expects.
Blank
There's also a blank option. Choose it when you know exactly what you want and the presets would be more editing than help. For a first template, a preset is almost always quicker.
How to choose
Pick the preset whose shape matches yours, not the one whose name matches your industry. What matters is the structure of the information:
- Is it tied to a specific date and time? Event ticket or booking.
- Is it an ongoing relationship? Membership card.
- Does it open something? Access pass.
- Does it identify someone? ID card.
- Does it carry a value or a discount? Gift card or coupon.
A yoga studio issuing class passes wants Booking. A gym issuing memberships wants Membership card. Neither is listed under "fitness", and neither needs to be.
If you're torn, choose Membership card. It has the most neutral field layout and reshapes into almost anything with a few label edits.
What you get
Choosing a preset drops you into the builder with:
- A pass layout appropriate to that kind of pass.
- Fields already placed in the header, central, details and back regions, with labels you'd expect.
- A barcode configured with a sensible type for that use.
What you don't get is imagery. Presets deliberately ship without logos or banners, because a placeholder logo that reaches a real customer is worse than none. Add yours before issuing anything - see Colours and images.
After you pick one
Work through in this order:
- Rename the template to something you'll recognise later.
- Add your logo and set your colours.
- Edit the field labels to your own words - the preset's guesses are generic on purpose.
- Check the preview on both Apple and Google, and on the front and back.
- Issue one to yourself and look at it on a phone.
Nothing is written in stone. If you outgrow the preset's shape, add, remove and re-order fields freely - just edit labels rather than deleting and recreating fields, for the reason explained in Fields and regions.