Anatomy of a pass

The areas of a wallet pass and how the pass style shapes them

A wallet pass has a fixed set of areas, each with its own job. Once you know them, every control in the template editor maps to a spot on the pass.

The front of the pass

From top to bottom:

Area	What goes there
Logo and logo text	Top-left corner: your logo (and optionally a short logo text next to it). This is your brand anchor — it’s the first thing a customer recognizes
Header fields	Top-right corner, opposite the logo. Always visible — even when the pass is stacked with other passes in the wallet — so use them for the single most useful value, like a points balance
Strip or background image	The visual heart of the pass. Depending on the pass style, this is a strip image (a banner across the upper part) or a full background image
Primary field	The pass’s headline value, rendered large — for example the member’s name or balance. On styles with a strip image, the primary field sits on top of it
Secondary and auxiliary fields	Rows of smaller values in the middle of the pass — member since, tier, store, and so on. How many fit and how they’re arranged depends on the pass style (see the per-style layouts below)
Barcode or NFC	The bottom of the pass: the scannable barcode, or for tap-to-use programs the NFC capability (shown with a small tap icon). See barcodes and NFC

Here is every area in place on a real pass — a store card open in Apple Wallet on an iPhone:

The back of the pass

Customers reach the back through the ⋯ button when the pass is open in their wallet. Back fields hold everything that doesn’t belong on the front: terms, contact details, longer descriptions, links. There’s much more room here, and text can be longer.

The toggles above your back fields belong to the wallet, not your template — each customer controls them on their own device. Knowing what they do helps when a customer reports a pass that “isn’t working”:

Wallet control	What it does
Automatic Updates	Lets the pass receive changes from your program — new field values and design updates. If a customer turns this off, their pass keeps its old content until they turn it back on
Allow Notifications	Whether this pass may show notifications on the customer’s lock screen, including the messages you send to it. Turned off, the pass still updates — just silently
Show on Lock Screen	Whether the pass may surface on the lock screen when the customer is near one of its locations. This toggle only appears when the pass template has locations set
Automatic Selection	Lets the iPhone present this pass automatically where it’s requested — for tap-to-use programs, this is what brings up the right pass at the Terminal without the customer hunting for it
Remove Pass	Deletes the pass from this device

The Serial Number on the back of the pass is the same value as the Pass ID on the pass detail page in the portal — a customer can read it to you to confirm you’re both looking at the same pass. See passes.

The editor also offers footer fields. These only appear on the generic poster layout, as a final line at the very bottom of the pass — on other layouts, keep your content in the areas above.

Pass styles

The pass style (chosen in the Settings tab) decides the overall layout — most importantly whether the pass uses a strip image or a full background:

Style	Visual base	Typical use
Store Card	Strip image	Loyalty and membership cards — the most common choice
Coupon	Strip image	Offers and vouchers
Generic	Background image — or the poster layout with full-bleed artwork on the newest iPhones	Anything that doesn’t fit the other styles
Event Ticket	Strip image, or a full-poster layout with its own artwork on newer iPhones	Events and entry passes
Boarding Pass	Background image	Travel — also allows 5 secondary/auxiliary fields instead of 4

Switching style keeps your fields and images but changes how they’re laid out — check the preview after switching, since a strip image won’t show on a background-based style and vice versa.

Layout by style

Each style arranges the same areas differently. The two poster variants are the new, modern pass presentations: full-bleed artwork carries the design, and they activate automatically on newer iPhones when your template has poster artwork.

Store Card & Coupon

The most common layout — and the one used by most loyalty programs: strip image with the primary field on it, and secondary and auxiliary fields sharing one row — up to 4 fields in total, kept short so they fit. The Coupon style is laid out the same way; it reads as an offer, where a store card reads as a membership.

Generic

The primary field renders larger, in the top section. Unlike store cards, secondary and auxiliary fields stay on separate rows — up to 4 each, for a total of 8 displayed fields.

Generic Poster

The modern take on the generic pass, on iPhones running iOS 27 and later. The artwork is the pass — it fills the whole front (an automatic dark gradient keeps the top readable; you can turn it off in the editor’s visual options). The barcode moves to the center, primary fields move to the bottom, and footer fields appear as a final line. The Primary Logo slot replaces your regular logo at the top, falling back to it if not set.

If you configure a generic poster, customers on iOS 26 and earlier automatically see the standard Generic layout instead — so keep the standard images and fields in good shape. One template serves both.

Event Ticket

Recognizable by the curved notch at the top — the classic ticket cutout. It’s also the only style with a thumbnail: a square image beside the primary field. Put the event name in the primary field, the venue in secondary, and time/seat details in auxiliary. A strip image replaces the thumbnail row when used.

Poster Event Ticket

The modern event ticket, on iPhones running iOS 18 and later — structured like the generic poster: full-bleed artwork, the Primary Logo at the top with the date and time opposite, the barcode as a band across the pass, and event details and seat information along the bottom. Event tickets also get extra poster slots in the editor: a Secondary Logo and a Venue Map.

Customers on iOS 17 and earlier automatically see the standard Event Ticket layout instead — the same template serves both.

Boarding Pass

Origin and destination render large as the primary fields. Two quirks are unique to this style: auxiliary fields sit above secondary fields, and rows fit up to 5 fields instead of 4.

How this knowledge maps to the editor

• The wallet draws the pass; you supply the ingredients. You can’t move the areas around — you decide what goes in each area.
• Less is more: passes are glanced at, not read. A strong image, one primary value, and a couple of supporting fields beat a crowded layout.
• Field values can be dynamic — showing each customer their own name, balance, or tier. See fields and dynamic content.

Want to go deeper? Apple’s developer documentation covers the underlying pass format in technical detail — see Wallet Passes on the Apple Developer site. You won’t need it to use the editor; everything merchant-relevant is covered in these pages.