Setting Up Your Badge Label Template for On-site Badge Printing

Please note, this feature requires the OnSite Check-In Power-Up to use. The Badge Label Designer is only compatible with our Zebra Printers and will not work with Badge Sheets.

PheedLoop’s Badge Label Design feature is a required step in the process of printing badges for your users attending your event. The Badge Label Design feature is a tool that can be used in real time to update exactly what you want to be printed on the actual badges of attendees and generate a preview of where text will appear on the badge. This allows for creative customization and efficient enhancements to make sure your badges look as professional as possible.

A lot of customers value this badge printing system because they are able to make quick edits and print out badges in real time.

1. The Basics of Badge Label Design

From your Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Label Designer
Above the Badge table, select Create New
Under the Name field, enter the name of your badge template
Under the Connected Tags field, enter the tags to associate with the template
1. When an attendee with the selected tag checks in, the PheedLoop OnSite will automatically print that template.
Under the Default Template field, select Badge Label 1 if you are using our label rolls or Badge Direct Thermal 1 if you are using Direct Thermal Badges
1. If you like to learn more about badges, please review our How Badge and Lanyard Printing Works.
Select Create

2. Editing Your Badge

Now that you have created your badge template, it can be accessed at anytime from the same page.

From your Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Label Designer
Select Edit next to the badge template you wish to edit

The Badge Label Designer will now open, allowing your team to edit the Badge Template as necessary.

There are a few ways to edit once you are in the Badge Label Designer.

2.1 Editing the Font Size

Select any of the text boxes which are on the badge’s grid.
Under the Font Size field, enter the number you wish the badge size to be at
Select the Invert Text checkbox if you would like to make the text upside down
1. This is useful for printing on the backside Direct Thermal Badges as they are folded from the bottom and will appear upside down if the text is not inverted.
Select the alignment icons to determine their placement on the badge template
1. You are also able to move these text box fields around the grid.

2.2 Increasing the size of the text box

By selecting the text box on the grid, you can hover your cursor over the sides of the box and use the arrow to drag and increase the size of the text box. We also recommend making these text boxes two lines tall if you are requiring information that could potentially be longer (i.e. Last Name, Organization, and Title). Text will scale automatically to fit designated space in the badge template.

2.3 Resizing the Badge Template

The Badge Template can be resized at any time if necessary.

From the Badge Label Designer, navigate to Tools > Resize
Enter the new size for Width
Enter the new size for Height
Select Apply

We recommend creating multiple templates to account for separate sizes instead of resizing the same template multiple times.

2.4 Add fields to your badge label designer

Additional fields can be added onto the badge template to print out additional information for attendees.

Select Field Menu
Select the fields as required such as the Attendee’s title, table number, and many more
1. The field titled Your Text Here is a field where you can write in your own customizable text. It can also be used to list several fields in the same line.
Drag the fields to the desired location on the badge template

2.5 Moving your designs and texts

The way fields move around in the Badge Designer is also customizable.

Above the Badge Label Designer, select Settings > Alignment and Grid
Toggle of the Snap to Grid While Moving checkbox
Under the Grid Size, enter the number you wish to have the size of the grid at
Toggle off the Enable Guidelines checkbox to disable guidelines while moving fields
Toggle off the Show Grid checkbox to remove the grid from the badge template
Select Apply

2.6 Edit multiple fields at once

Several fields can be edited at the same time. Hold shift and click on each field you wish to edit. This will make the fields editable on the right side of the Badge Label Designer.

2.7 Adding Multiple Tokens into a Custom Text Field

The Custom Text Field can be used to house multiple tokens in a single line.

Select Field Menu
Select Custom Text Field
Under the Text field, use this field to edit the text
Under the Font Size field, enter the size of the font
1. 20 is the default size
Toggle on the Invert Text checkbox to overturn the text
1. This setting is typically used for fields printed on the backend of direct thermal badges.
Select any of the alignment options
he fields as needed
1. FIrst Name
2. Last Name
3. Organization
4. Title
5. Designations
6. City
7. Country
8. Internal Code

Save your progress by select Files > Save

2.8 Saving your design

Above the Badge Label Designer, navigate to File > Save

A green notification message will now appear confirming the template has been saved to the system.

3. Test Your Badge

To test your badge, make sure your printer is set up for printing. If it isn't set up yet, find out how to connect your printer in our support article through PheedLoop’s Knowledge Base here.

There are two methods to print out attendee badges from the Event Dashboard. If you wish to print out the badge from our OnSite CheckIn System, please review our Setting Up Your On-Site Check-in Tablets and Customizing the Attendee Check-in Experience article for detailed instructions.

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Attendees > Attendees
Select the checkbox of the attendee you wish to print
Above the Attendees table, select Actions > Print Badge
Under the Select Printer field, select the printer you wish to use
Under the Select Template field, select the badge template you created
Toggle on the Check In checkbox to check in the attendee upon printing
1. For testing purposes, we recommend keeping this checkbox disabled so as not to check the attendee in preemptively
Select Download as PDF if you would like to see a preview of where the text will print on your badge template
Select Print to begin the printing process

4. Advanced Features in the Badge Label Designer

The Badge Label Designer has a plethora of customizable capabilities from adding images to making multiple different types of badges depending on the categories associated with your event.

4.1 Uploading Images

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badge Label Designer
Select the Image icon
1. We recommend icons or bold images.
In the Image Gallery, select Choose File to upload your image
1. Select Download if you wish to download the file again
Select Submit
Under Select From Gallery, select the image you uploaded

The image will now be placed in the badge template for you to edit. Please note that Zebra Printers print in black and white only. We strongly recommend embedding any graphics into the badge design itself rather than the Badge Template.

4.2 Uploading a Background Image

One of the best ways to ensure your badges are being printed correctly is by adding the badge design directly into the Badge Label Designer. Doing so will allow you to see exactly where the print will appear on the badge.

From the Badge Label Designer, navigate to Tools > Background Image
Select Choose File to upload your image
Under the How Should we add the image to the editor field, select one of the following
1. Resize Image - To resize the image to the canvas’s dimensions
2. Resize Canvas - To resize the canvas to the image’s dimensions
3. Do Nothing - To have the image pasted without altering the image or canvas
Select Import

4.2A Removing the Background Image

From the Badge Label Designer, navigate to Tools > Background Image
Select Remove

4.3 Connected Tags

Connected Tags are one of our most popular features when using the Badge Label Designer. It provides the opportunity to automatically print a specified template when an attendee has a specified tag. For example, if the connected tag is speaker, any attendee with the speaker tag will print the template with the speaker tag added under Connected Tags field. Attendees without the tag will print with other templates created in the Event Dashboard.

PheedLoop OnSite automatically detects the tag prior to printing so staff members do not need to perform any special action.

From the Badge Label Designer, select File > Properties
Under the Connected Tags field, select the tags you wish to associate the badge template with

Multiple tags can be connected to the same template.

Using a Default Template

When using connected tags, it is important to have at least one other template without any connected tags. In most cases, this template serves as the general template for attendees.

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Label Designer
Select Create New
Under the Name field, enter the name of the template
Under the Default Template

Select Badge Label 1 if you are using label rolls
Select Badge Direct Thermal 1 if you are using Direct Thermal Badges

Select Save Changes

If you would like to learn more about editing the template, please review our Setting Up Your Badge Label Template for On-site Badge Printing article.

Once your templates are set up, connect both the connected tag template and the default template to your printer in the Event Dashboard. If you wish to restrict the printer to the connected tag template you can disregard this step.

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Printers
Select the printer you wish to assign the template to
Under the Templates field, select the connected tags template and the default template
Select Save Changes

Use Cases for Connected Tags

A common use case for connected tags is when event organizers wish to keep badge printing in designated areas. For example, an event may have unique templates for attendees and exhibitors to use. In this example, we can make use of connected tags to print out the desired template for both.

Simply assign the desired template to the printer from the Event Dashboard. The printer will now only be able to print out the selected template. If an attendee without the required tag attempts to print, they will receive an error message.

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Printers
Select the printer you wish to assign the template to
Under the Templates field, select the connected tag template for your printer
Select Save Changes

Now that the templates have been assigned to your printer, you will now want to assign the printers to PheedLoop OnSite for your iPads.

From PheedLoop OnSite, navigate to Check In
Select the gear icon on the top right corner
Under the Printers field, select the printer you wish to assign the iPad to
Select Confirm

A more advanced use case for connected tags would be cases where all printers need to be capable of printing a default template but not all of them should be able to print out the connected tags template. This use case commonly appears when there are not enough exhibitors to warrant a separate line. To resolve this, we can instruct attendees with a connected tag to line up in certain printers while still allowing them to print badges for regular attendees.

We will assign both the connected tags template and the default template to the printers. The printers will then print with either template depending on whether the attendee has the required tag.

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to OnSite > Badges & Printers > Badge Printers
Select the printer you wish to assign the template to
Under the Templates field, select the connected tag template and default tag template for your printer
Select Save Changes

The printer will now have the capability of printing both templates and distinguishing between attendees and exhibitors as they check in to the event. Now that the templates have been assigned to your printer, you will now want to assign the printers to PheedLoop OnSite for your iPads.

From PheedLoop OnSite, navigate to Check In
Select the gear icon on the top right corner
Under the Printers field, select the printer you wish to assign the iPad to
Select Confirm

Frequently Asked Questions for Connected Tags

What happens if an attendee is assigned multiple connected tags?

Connected Tags follow an alphabetical order, meaning the connected tag that is higher in ascending order will be chosen. For example, if an attendee has an exhibitor and speaker tag templates, the system will print the template with the exhibitor tag.

It is still possible to print different templates for attendees from the Event Dashboard regardless of the connected tags assigned to the template.

I am receiving an error message on PheedLoop OnSite that reads “the selected printers are not configured to print this attendees badge”

This error message appears when the device using PheedLoop OnSite is connected to a printer that has been assigned to a connected tag template. If the attendee does not have the prerequisite tag, the print will not go through.

To fix this issue, either remove the template from the printer in the Event Dashboard or add an additional template without any connected tags so that the printer will use that template instead.