> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://vexioncards.mintlify.site/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Physical Gift Cards > Generate, print, and sell pre-printed physical gift cards that customers scan to load a balance into their wallet. Gift cards have an extra **Physical Gift Cards** tab, for producing **pre-printed physical cards** (plastic, paper, or a PDF) that each carry a unique **QR code**. Physical cards let you sell gift cards over the counter and let customers gift them by hand. Open a [Gift Card](https://vexioncards.mintlify.site/knowledge-base/gift-card.md) from [Passes](https://vexioncards.mintlify.site/knowledge-base/passes-page.md) and select **Physical Gift Cards**. > [!NOTE] > > This tab only appears on gift cards. Physical gift cards are included in every plan (VEXiON ONE and VEXiON PRO) and are managed on a computer. ## How physical gift cards work The important idea is that a printed card carries **no money until you activate it**. Each card moves through three states: 1. **Inactive** the card is printed but empty. If it is lost or stolen before it is sold, it is worthless: scanning it just shows that the card has not been activated yet. 2. **Activated** a staff member has taken payment and loaded a balance onto it. 3. **Registered** the customer has scanned it, entered their details, and added it to their wallet. This is what makes physical cards safe to print in bulk and leave on display. A card also becomes **Expired** once its expiration date passes. Its link then shows "Gift Card Expired". ## 1. Create a series A **series** is one print run of your cards. Click **New series**. You go through three steps. The bar on top shows where you are. ### Design Upload your card design as a PDF. It can be any size, for example a business card, a DL voucher or an A4 page. * If the PDF has a trim box (TrimBox), that is the edge of the card. Without it, the whole page is the card. * One PDF with 1 page is a 1-sided card. One PDF with 2 pages is a front and a back. * Your print shop may have sent the front and the back as two files. Upload the first one, then click **Add the back side (PDF)** and add the second. Both must be the same card size (at most 1 mm apart). * **Download template** gives you a sample card PDF that you can hand to your designer. You do not need it if your print shop already sent you the design. * Choose where the QR code goes: **On the back (recommended)** or **On the front**. ![Step Design with an uploaded PDF](https://mintcdn.com/vexioncards/TGumzVDiTC5iChr4/images/physical-gift-cards-design.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=TGumzVDiTC5iChr4\&q=85\&s=55726ad727f375c5123c21959e514d9c) ### QR code placement The page you see is exactly what is printed. Drag the QR code to its place. Use the dots on the corners and the sides to make it bigger or smaller. It snaps to the edge, the centre and the safe zone. You can also move it with the arrow keys, or type **X**, **Y** and **Size** in millimetres. A typed value is checked when you leave the field. * Keep the QR code inside the card. A QR code that crosses the cut edge blocks **Continue**. * Keep the plate 3 mm from the edge of the card. A note under the picture tells you when it is closer. * Set **Dot colour**, **Plate colour**, **Margin around the QR** and **Corner radius**. **Transparent background** prints the QR code without a plate. ![Step QR code placement](https://mintcdn.com/vexioncards/TGumzVDiTC5iChr4/images/physical-gift-cards-placement.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=TGumzVDiTC5iChr4\&q=85\&s=2d05538ea00a92e937321b919dd051ba) When you click **Continue**, we make a real print page and read its QR code. If a phone cannot read it, for example because the colours are too close, you see why and can change it. ### Number of cards Enter how many cards you want, up to 200 per series, and click **Create** (for example **Create 100 cards**). The value of a card is not part of the series. Staff choose or enter it at the sale: in the Scanner they pick one of your preset amounts, at the POS they enter the amount. ## 2. Print and hand off When the series is ready, you get an email. Its **Open printing materials** button opens a page where you download each print file with one click. The link works for 30 days. You can also open the series in the list and click **Download**: * **Print file** has every card with its own QR code. For 2-sided cards it has the front and the back of each card one after the other, so ask for double-sided printing. * **Design only** has your design without QR codes. Send it with **Numbers and links (CSV)** to a printer that adds the codes itself. Print them yourself, or forward the email to a printing company. ## 3. Activate it when a customer buys one Physical cards are activated in the **Scanner** (or on a connected POS). When a customer buys a card, a staff member: 1. **Scans the card's printed QR code** with the Scanner (see [Gift cards on the scanner](https://vexioncards.mintlify.site/knowledge-base/scanner-gift.md)), or on a supported POS. 2. The card opens showing a **Balance of 0** and a **Top up** tab. Under **Top up**, staff **pick one of the preset amounts** you set on the gift card. You do not type a free amount, only your presets can be loaded, so a mistap cannot load the wrong sum. A preset can include a **bonus**, shown as, for example, "+5.00€". 3. Tap **Top up**. This loads the balance (the amount plus any bonus), sets the expiration (12 months by default), records the sale as paid, and **activates the card** (its status changes from inactive to activated). The card can now be spent. The activation is the sale. The card's [Activity](https://vexioncards.mintlify.site/knowledge-base/card-activity-customers.md#gift-cards) shows **Gift card sold**, and you get one sale email. A later top up shows as **Gift card topped up**. > [!NOTE] > > Activating on a connected POS is done **in the POS itself**, not on the dashboard. For **Papaya**, see [Gift cards](https://vexioncards.mintlify.site/knowledge-base/papaya-gift-cards.md). On **Dotykačka** and **Storyous**, the first top-up of a printed card in the till also activates it. The steps above describe activating with the VEXiON Scanner. ## 4. The customer claims it Once a card is activated, the person who receives it scans the QR code **with their phone camera** and: * Is asked for their **name** and **email**. * Then **adds the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet**. The wallet pass always shows the **current balance**. This works both ways round: someone can buy a card and **physically gift it** to another person who claims it, or buy it for **themselves**, scan it, and add it to their own wallet. ## 5. Spending the balance Customers spend the balance like any gift card. Staff scan the card in the **Scanner** (or on a connected POS) and use the **Deduct** tab to take an amount off the balance (up to what is left). The balance can be spent from either the **wallet pass** or the **physical card**, and it always reflects what is left. ## Your series The list shows every series with its state. Click a row to open it. ![A series with its stock and cards](https://mintcdn.com/vexioncards/TGumzVDiTC5iChr4/images/physical-gift-cards-series.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=TGumzVDiTC5iChr4\&q=85\&s=cbb108c326541c7cfcdcf1b14bba0eaf) At the top you see **Printed**, **For sale**, **Sold** and **Cancelled**. Below, use **All**, **For sale**, **Sold**, **Registered** and **Cancelled** to filter the cards, or search by card number or e-mail. * **Cancel** on a card that is not sold stops it being sold. A card that is sold cannot be cancelled. * **Send copy** on a sold card sends the holder a copy of the card for their wallet. * **Cancel series** cancels every unsold card of the series. Sold cards keep working. ## Good to know * Printed cards that are not sold yet do not count as customers. On VEXiON ONE they do not use up your 200-customer limit. A card counts once it is activated (sold). * VEXiON cards takes no fee on physical gift cards. The fee applies only to [online sales through Stripe](https://vexioncards.mintlify.site/knowledge-base/stripe-connect.md). This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.