Place Cards Customization Guide

Sharly Chess allows you to generate standard place cards that help organize and enhance your tournament setup:

  • Player cards add a touch of class to your event and make it easier for players to complete their scoresheets.
  • Board cards display the board numbers, helping players quickly find their assigned tables.
  • Pairing cards combine both board numbers and player information, providing full visibility for each round.

This page explains how to create and customize your own place card templates.

The place card editor

Place card templates are managed from the Templates button next to the template selector, in the place cards section of the Documents dialog. Templates are shared by all events.

The template library lists the built-in templates, which cannot be edited, and your custom templates. From there you can:

  • create a new template (choose a name and a type: player, board or pairing cards);
  • duplicate any template — the usual way to start from a built-in design;
  • import a template shared by someone else (a .zip file) or export yours;
  • delete a custom template;
  • open the editor on a custom template.

The editor shows the card at its real proportions, with example data in place of the placeholders so you can preview the result (and switch between several sample players). You can:

  • add text items and images (uploaded from the editor), then drag them into place and drag their edges to set their width;
  • set the card properties: name, unit (mm or inches), width, height, padding, and whether the card is two-sided (foldable);
  • set each item’s properties in the side panel: the text and its fields (with an optional prefix and suffix shown only when the field has a value), the font, size, style (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, all caps), alignment, colours, opacity, borders, anchor position and stacking order;
  • undo and redo, zoom, and show or hide the item outlines.

Changes are saved to the template as you go: the next generation of place cards uses them.

:information_source: The editor writes the same TOML template files described below, so a template built in the editor can still be fine-tuned by hand — and vice versa. Content that uses advanced Jinja expressions is shown as-is in the editor and cannot be edited with the block editor.

Editing templates by hand

Custom templates live on disk, one folder per template:

  1. Create a folder named place_cards/ inside the custom folder.
  2. Inside that folder, create a subfolder for your design — for example: custom/place_cards/test/
  3. Add a template file (with the .template extension) inside that folder, e.g.: custom/place_cards/test/boards.template.

This TOML file defines all the visual and layout properties of your custom place cards.

You can use the default Sharly Chess templates as a starting point — they can be downloaded, modified, and reused (see the Place Cards Library at the bottom of this page).

General Properties

Name Description
type The place card type: player (default), board or pairing.
name The template name, used to select it from the available templates (defaults to the filename).
unit The unit for sizing and positioning elements: mm (default) or in.
padding The card padding, e.g. 2.5.
crop_marks The crop mark style: corners (default), border, or none.
font The name of a TrueType font (place the font file in custom/place_cards/test/fonts).
css Additional CSS styling. (Advanced users only.)

All properties are optional. Example:

type = "player"
name = "My Player Cards"
unit = "mm"
padding = 2.5
crop_marks = "corners"
font = "my_font.ttf"
css = "body { background-color: #ddd }"

Or more simply:

type = "player"
name = "Named cards"

:warning: The use of the css property is reserved for advanced users.

Card items

A place card is composed of a set of items to be included in the card, all of which are configurable. The items are either text (having the text property defined) or images (having the image property defined).

Each item is defined in a section with a name of your choice (composed of letters, numbers, or dashes, e.g. elo):

[elo]
text = ""
bold = true
h_align = "right"

Text items

Text items can display player information as well as details about the board (for board and pairing cards), the tournament, and the event:

Information Meaning Availability
event.name The event name any
event.start The event start date (event.start.year\|month\|day) any
event.stop The event end date (event.stop.year\|month\|day) any
tournament.name The tournament name any
tournament.start The tournament start date (tournament.start.year\|month\|day) any
tournament.stop The tournament end date (tournament.stop.year\|month\|day) any
board.number The board number board, pairing
board.white_player The white player pairing
board.black_player The black player pairing
player.full_name The player’s full name (localized according to language) player
player.first_name The player’s first name player
player.last_name The player’s last name player
player.rating The player’s rating (used for pairings) player
player.rating_type The rating type (F = FIDE, N = National, E = Estimated) player
player.year_of_birth The player’s year of birth player
player.gender The player’s gender (single letter) player
player.title The player’s FIDE title, if any player
player.federation The player’s federation (three-letter code) player
player.federation_flag The flag of the player’s federation player
player.club The player’s club, if any player
player.category The player’s category player

:information_source: On pairing cards, you can also access data from board.white_player and board.black_player, for example board.white_player.full_name.

:information_source: Plugins can extend the available information with additional fields.

Images

Images can also be added to place cards, for example:

[logo]
image = "logo.jpg"
width = 20
h_align = "right"
v_align = "bottom"

:information_source: Images must be placed in the folder images next to the template file.

Formatting place cards

Styles

Styles can be applied:

  • globally to all items (declared in the TOML file header)
  • or individually to each item (inside its own section)
font_size = 14.0
bold = false
italic = false
h_align = "left"
v_align = "top"
h_pos = 0.0
v_pos = 0.0

Foldable (double-sided) cards

For foldable cards, simply check the corresponding box in the Documents dialog. The items will be automatically duplicated and displayed on both halves of the card so that it can be folded neatly in two.

Foldable cards with different sides

If you want different content on the front and back, set the property side = "back" for the items to appear on the reverse. By default, items use side = "front".

Item properties reference

Styles (templates and items)

Name Meaning
font_size The font size in points.
bold true for bold text, false otherwise.
italic true for italic text, false otherwise.
h_align Horizontal alignment: left (default), center, or right.
v_align Vertical alignment: top (default), middle, or bottom.
h_pos Horizontal offset.
v_pos Vertical offset.
opacity Opacity value between 0.0 (transparent) and 1.0 (opaque).
background_color Background color (#nnn, #nnnnnn, color name, or rgb(nnn, nnn, nnn)).
color Text color.
width Width of the place card or item.
height Height of the place card or item.

Items only

Name Meaning
display true to show the item, false to hide it.
max_width The maximum width of the item.
rotate The rotation angle of the item (in degrees).
text The text content of the item.
preview_text The text used in preview mode.
image The image filename (must be placed in the images folder).
side front to display the item on the front (default), back for the reverse side.

Exporting place cards

If you want to share your generated place cards (for example, with someone printing them), simply save the produced HTML file. All resources — including images and fonts — are embedded within a single, self-contained file.

Place Cards Library

The library below includes standard Sharly Chess place cards and a few examples. Feel free to contribute by sending us your best cards!

Player Cards - Standard

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 116.0x36.0
  • Download

Player Cards - Standard (no flag)

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 116.0x36.0
  • Download

Player Cards - Domloup

  • Origin: example
  • Creator: Pascal AUBRY <pascal.aubry@echecs35.fr>
  • Size (mm): 116.0x36.0
  • Download

Board Cards - Number

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 48.0x36.0
  • Download

Board Cards - Number (tournament on front)

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 48.0x36.0
  • Download

Board Cards - Number (2-sided, tournament on back)

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 48.0x36.0
  • Download

Board Cards - Text

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 116.0x36.0
  • Download

Board Cards - Text (tournament on front)

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 116.0x36.0
  • Download

Board Cards - Text (2-sided, tournament on back)

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 116.0x36.0
  • Download

Board Cards - Domloup

  • Origin: example
  • Creator: Pascal AUBRY <pascal.aubry@echecs35.fr>
  • Size (mm): 116.0x36.0
  • Download

Pairing Cards - Standard

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 148.5x50.0
  • Download

Pairing Cards - Standard (no flag)

  • Origin: embedded in Sharly Chess
  • Creator: Sharly Chess <support@sharly-chess.com>
  • Size (mm): 148.5x50.0
  • Download