Designing and building an E-Ticket / Print at Home ticket

In this article, we are going to look at how you can build an E-ticket / Print at Home ticket. The ticket is downloaded as a PDF from the confirmation email. It can be branded and modified to your liking. We are going to show you how to create the below ticket sample by uploading images and editing text fields, after that you can play around with your venue and sponsor logos, colours, and design.

We will be looking at how to edit a ticket that looks like this sample below, but your options are limitless!

E-Ticket-Design-Template.jpg

 Ticketsolve Tip

Once you start amending the ticket at the account and subdomain level, it will affect all live shows. We recommend that you create a test show and start amending the print-at-home template within the show settings. This means that all changes will only happen on that test show. Once you are happy with how it looks, you can easily copy and paste the source code into the account or subdomain level. 

Designing your E-ticket

Planning your E-ticket design

There's no one way to design a ticket but we have some tips before you start!

  • Your ticket design is in two parts - the background that you design as an image file, and then any information from the system that pulls through on top of that background image. You'll need to leave space in your image design for critical information like event time, name of the event, seat, QR code, etc.,  Remember, this is the primary function of the ticket.
  • By default the PDF that downloads is 590 x 842px, so we'd recommend creating your image design to this size.
  • Don't overdo it with too many adverts or make it too busy.
  • If you add deals for your café or bar make sure they are kept up to date.

Create your E-ticket background image

  • To make your background image, you can use tools like Adobe Photoshop, Inkscape, or a favourite of ours that is free and easy to use - Canva.
  • Remember to create your design as 590 x 842px (unless you are going to change the template size). 
  • When you upload the image to Ticketsolve it needs to be 100KB or less and a JPG file. You may need to cut your image into two halves and /or use an image compressor to get the file to 100KB or below. You can use whatever program you want to compress the image, but we use the online site compressor.io. On this site you can select the file or drag and drop an image and it will tell you the size you are using and the output size of the image.

You can create your own design, or you can use the example one we're using in this article - just download the attached file from the bottom of this guide.

Building your E-ticket

Upload your E-ticket image

The first thing you need to do is add the designed background image into Ticketsolve. You do this by uploading it to the subdomain.

1. Go to Settings > Subdomains.

2. Select your Subdomain.

3. Click on the Uploads tab.

4. You can drag your image in the Drop files(s) here box on the right or use click here to use the uploader.

5. You will now see your most recent upload at the top of the list.

6. Click on the 3 dots for a dropdown menu. This is where you can Copy image URL when you want to add it into the ticket template. We need to do this because we need to paste this image URL in our Voucher product template in a minute.

sub.jpg

Delete the default elements you don't want

1. First, let's go to Settings > General Settings to edit at Account Level.

2. Find the "template data print at home ticket" setting.

If your ticket template for print-at-home tickets hasn't been edited before it may look like this sample below.

Screenshot_2020-09-28_at_15.23.22.png

First, we'd recommend removing anything in the default template that you don't want to use so you're working with a clean canvas.

1. To do this click into the field that needs to be removed so that it is outlined in red.

2. Click Delete element on the right-hand side.

Repeat this for all the elements you don't want, both text and images.

Add your E-ticket image to the template

1. Use the Drag a new image icon to pull a new box onto your template. 

Make sure the new box on your template is outlined in red, if not just click the image field - this means you are editing that field.

2. In the Value box on the right-hand side, paste in the image URL that you have just copied. Your image will now be in the new image box.

3. On the right-hand side below the Value box there are Height and Width fields that relate to the height and width of the image box which is outlined in red. This will need to be adjusted to get your uploaded image box to the correct size for your image. If you've used the default size, enter 590 (W) x 842 (H).

You can use the cursor, keyboard arrows and the X and Y to move the image box on the template so it is in the correct position. 

4. When complete click Update.

pic1.jpg

Add additional images to your E-ticket design

Now that your main background image is in, you can add the main content from Ticketsolve. In this example, we want to add our venue's logo layered over the background design. 

To add additional images to your template:

1. Upload the image to the subdomain

2. Copy the image URL.

3. Drag and drop a new image box onto the template.

4. In the Values box paste the image URL that you just copied.

5. Edit the position and size of the image box accordingly.

For detailed instructions please head to the section above.

Adding text to your E-ticket design

Now you have the background and images done let's add in the text. It's all about playing around with the design, adding your information, adding your styling, and moving things around. 

 Ticketsolve Tip

Make sure you add your background image and get the ratios correct before you start adding the text fields. Try not to touch the background image as this will make all the other fields move behind it. If this happens, just add another text field to the template and all the other text fields will be brought to the front.

1. Click on the pencil icon and drag into the template to add a new text field.

2. The Values will show you a list of all possible fields.

3. In this example we want to add the Show name which is {{main_line_1}} so we click on that.

4. Now we can:

  • add extra text around the merge fields by typing it into the Values field
  • adjust the placement of the text within the box in the vertical and horizontal dropdowns.
  • use the cursor, keyboard arrows and the X and Y fields to position the box where you would like it.
    adjust the height width of the text box using the Height and Width boxes. It's important to make sure that the size of the text box is big enough for the text within it.

5. This is where we can change the size of text and make it bold or italic.

6. To preview a draft of the template, click on the eye icon (Preview Ticket).

7. Select Update if you are happy to save.

design.jpg

Repeat this for all the necessary fields.

We suggest you include the following Values on your E-ticket design:

  •  {{main_line_1}} - the name of the Show
  •  {{event_datetime}} - the date and time of the Event
  • {{customer_name}} - the name of the customer who booked
  • {{main_line_3}} - the name of the Ticket Price
  • {{venue_name}} - the name of the Venue 
  • {{seat_section}} - {{seat_coordinates}} - {{seat_comment}}- details of the seat location and any specific comment on that seat
  • {{checkin_code}} - the unique checkin code

You can also drag a text field and type in your venue's phone number, email address, or information such as "You can present this ticket on your phone" if you want to discourage unnecessary printing.

Adding a QR code to your E-ticket design

If you are scanning tickets it's important to add a barcode / QR code to the e-ticket template. You'll want to make this large so that it's easy to scan.

1. Click on the barcode icon and hold and drag the box onto the template.

2. Use the cursor, keyboard arrows and the X and Y fields to position the box where you would like it.

3. Adjust the height width of the text box using the Height and Width boxes. It's important that the QR box is a square and a minimum of 50 (W) x 50 (H) or it won't display properly / be picked up by the scanner.

4. Go to Settings > General Settings and find the setting called "barcode format". Make sure this is set to QrCode (unless you are using barcode scanners).

Here's one we created earlier

We've created a simple but effective E-ticket template for you if you would like to use that. All you have to do is add your logo and amend the Box Office number and website at the bottom.

To add this template to your account:

1. Download the text file attached to this article which contains the source code for the template.

2. Go to the ticket template editor and paste in the source code.

3. Save and upload this image https://dc40ra2rfm3rp.cloudfront.net/as-assets/6w30qkpk5h9y20um2z1zk1tzl8df to your own subdomain (by going to General Settings > Subdomain > Uploads).

4. Click the 3 dots next to the image and select 'Copy image URL'.

5. Go back to the ticket template editor and select the box with the image in.

6. Replace the above image URL with the one from your own subdomain that you have just copied.

It's as simple as that.

E-Ticket-Design-Template.jpg

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