Guide
Custom wallet pass designs: what you can change, and what stays the same
A wallet pass has two jobs: get scanned at the desk, and be easy to find in a full Wallet. The first is the barcode's. The second is the design's, and it is where a pass made with TapIn and a plain card part ways.
What a pass can show
Both wallets give a pass a few places for artwork. An Apple Wallet membership pass (a store card) has a logo in the header, a background color, a text color, and a strip: a wide image across the middle, 375 by 123 points, with the member's name printed over its left end. A Google Wallet pass has a round logo, a background color and a hero image across the card. The barcode or QR code sits in its own white panel in both, drawn by the wallet itself.
Everything TapIn designs lives in those places: the strip and hero artwork, the logo and the colors. The barcode panel is never touched.
What a TapIn design adds
- A starting point: hundreds of designs in collections, from neon, brutalist and vaporwave to Pride flags, motorcycle and anime. Browse the design library.
- The place's own look: drop in the logo and the card can take its colors.
- Twenty patterns and eight letterings for the strip, from stripes and checkers to speed lines, starfields and flag stripes.
- Stickers and any emoji, up to three, as a badge, a row or a watermark.
- Your photo in a circle on the strip, cropped and zoomed the way you want.
- Editing on the pass: type the place's name, your name and the number straight onto the preview, and drag or tap any piece to change it.
- The same design in both wallets, and a picture of it to share, without the barcode.
When a plain card is enough
Some places offer their own wallet card, and phones can save some cards on their own. If that card scans at your desk and a plain look is all you want, use it. TapIn is for when you want the card you pull out every day to look like something: your gym's colors, your community's flag, your bike, your favorite show's energy.
Will a custom pass still scan?
Yes, as long as the number is right. The design changes the artwork only; the code is your card's own number. Apple Wallet draws QR, PDF417, Aztec and Code 128, so a card printed in Code 39, EAN or UPC is re-encoded as Code 128 carrying the same characters, which camera scanners read the same way. Google Wallet keeps the card's original code type. See barcode or QR for which code your card uses.
Test the pass once at the desk while you still have the card. A camera scanner reads a phone screen; an older laser wand may not, whatever the design.