The PDF ticket is the printable, downloadable version of an attendee’s ticket. You design it once, choose how the design is laid out, and the same design applies to every ticket of that type.
The three design types
When you add a ticket design, you choose one of three layouts.
Standard
The quickest to set up. You upload a logo and the layout is handled for you. A standard design renders either as a compact, mobile-friendly ticket or as a full-page ticket with four content boxes you can fill in.
Custom
A fixed background image you supply, with the barcode and attendee details overlaid. Use this when a designer has produced artwork for the whole ticket. The designer works around the reserved area where the barcode and details are placed and leaves that area empty.
Download a starter template and a sample finished ticket to design around the reserved barcode-and-details area.
DIY
The most control. You place each element — barcode, attendee name, event details — individually by specifying its coordinates on the page. There is no visual drag-and-drop editor yet, so the layout is defined by entering positions manually.
Background and logo image requirements
The image you upload — a standard logo, a custom background, or a DIY background — must be a JPG.
The file must be under 1 MB. Keep it well under that, around 400 KB, for reliability; files close to the limit can stall the upload.
For custom designs, supply the artwork at 1275 × 1650 pixels.
If a file you believe is a JPG still fails, it may actually be a PNG or TIFF that was renamed. Open it in an image editor (such as Preview on a Mac) and re-export it as a genuine JPG.
Which design a ticket uses
A design can be set at three levels. When a ticket renders, the most specific setting wins:
- The ticket type on a specific event — highest priority.
- The event — applies to every ticket type on that event.
- The ticket type — applies wherever that type is used.
By default a ticket type on an event inherits the design from the ticket type. To give one event’s ticket type its own design, turn off inheritance on that ticket type and select a design instead.
Previewing a design
Each design has a generated preview. To see the design as an attendee receives it, open a ticket and download its PDF.
Related articles
- Apple Wallet design — the mobile pass version of a ticket.
- Custom fields — add fields like seat or table number, and choose whether they appear on the printed ticket.
FAQ
Why is the QR code or barcode missing from my tickets?
The barcode can be turned off in a design. Open the design’s fields and confirm the barcode element is enabled. This is worth checking if barcodes disappear after you edit a design.
The time on the ticket is wrong. How do I fix it?
The ticket uses the time zone set on the event’s venue. A misconfigured venue time zone is almost always the cause — check the venue and correct its time zone. To switch the displayed time between 12-hour and 24-hour format, change your company locale (for example, en-US shows 12-hour time).
After duplicating an event, the PDF still shows the original event’s details. Why?
A duplicated event shares the original’s design. Break the link by starting the design over on the new event, then set it up fresh.
How do I control which custom fields appear on the PDF?
In the Shopify app, each custom field has a separate Show on PDF? checkbox. In Guest Manager, set whether a field prints from the field’s settings. See Custom fields.
The PDF filename shows question marks. How do I fix it?
This happens when the filename format produces characters that aren’t allowed in filenames — for example, non-ASCII characters from a name. Change the filename format to use only ASCII-safe values.
