Note: This article covers the latest Catalog Machine version 2. For help with the previous version, see this article.
Card or product list? A product card is one product in a designed box, repeated across the page by AutoGrid - use it for a visual catalog. A product list is a table of many products in rows - use it for price lists, order forms and indexes. If you want to choose which fields appear in a table, see Create Product and Price Lists instead.
Product Cards are a powerful feature in Catalog Machine V2 that allows you to create beautiful, consistent product presentations across your catalogs and Showroom. Each card displays information about one product - including prices, images, descriptions, specs, and more - in a customizable design format.
Benefits of Product Cards:
Consistency: Maintain a uniform look across all your catalogs and Showroom. Changes to a product card design update immediately everywhere it's used.
Efficiency: Create multi-product pages quickly manually or with AutoGrids.
Flexibility: Customize designs to match your brand and presentation needs, from minimal (image + name) to detailed spec cards.
Automatic Updates: Changes to linked product information reflect immediately across all uses of the card.
Watch this short 3-minute video for an overview of the steps for creating and using product cards.
How to Create a Product Card:
1. Go to https://app.catalogmachine.com/design/cards or you can design in-place from the Catalog Designer, AutoGrid, etc..
2. Choose to modify or copy a pre-designed card or create a new one from scratch.
3. Add elements to your card:
Text: Add content with product field placeholders (e.g., {{Name}}, {{Price}}, {{Description}}). Product fields are defined in the product category.
Images: Add product image placeholders or static images
Backgrounds: Use Rectangle element.
4. Customize your design:
Move, re-size, adjust layers and elements.
Format text with different fonts, colors, and styles
Adjust image sizes and positions
Set background colors or images
5. Save your Product Card with a descriptive name.
6. Preview your card with different products to ensure it looks good with various settings, content and different categories.
Settings:
Cards can have different grid sizes (up to 1/12 x 1/12 of the page) and can be used in different places with different sizes.
Cards inherit catalog theme settings (fonts, colors). You can test with different schemas.
Cards can have a default size.
Cards can be assigned as default for Catalog Product Grid, Showroom Product Details or Showroom Product List.
Show only some fields on a card
A card displays exactly the elements you place on it, so you choose which product fields are shown by adding or removing those elements. For example, to show only images and item numbers, and leave out the name, price and description:
Open the card at Product Cards, or edit it in place from the Catalog Designer or AutoGrid.
Click a text element you do not want - the name, the price, the description - and delete it.
Keep the image element, and keep a text element for the field you do want. {{Code}} is your item number or SKU.
Save. Every catalog page and AutoGrid using this card updates immediately.
To display a field that is not on the card yet, add a Text element and type its placeholder, for example {{Code}}. The fields available to you come from the product category.
Using Product Cards in Catalogs:
Go to Catalog Designer
For a single product:
Click a product in the sidebar to open its elements
Drag your Product Card onto the page in your catalog
For multiple products:
Use AutoGrids to apply your Product Card to entire sections or the whole catalog.
Select your desired Product Card in the AutoGrid design
Once done, preview your catalog to ensure everything looks perfect. Share your catalog as an interactive online site or download as a high-quality PDF.
By mastering Product Cards, you'll be able to create professional, cohesive catalogs in no time.