Personalize layers

A layer becomes personal when it uses a field: a name like first_name or coupon_code that each recipient’s link fills in. Field names are lowercase with underscores. Whether you created the template with AI, from the gallery or in the canvas, personalization fills its saved layers with recipient data. It does not generate a new AI design for each person.

Note

A template or a design from Create with AI arrives with its fields and fallbacks already set — you pick them from chips (first name, company name, discount code, company logo, profile photo, QR code, a progress bar or donut) and Piksio wires them up. This page is for setting them yourself on the canvas, or adding more afterwards.

Text: merge tags

Type a merge tag in double curly braces anywhere in a text layer: Hola {{first_name}}, or {{discount}}% off your first order.

With a text layer selected, the Insert merge tag row adds the standard fields (first_name, last_name, company_name) at the cursor. Type a new name and click Add to create your own field.

One text layer can use several fields, and the same field can appear in several layers. Each one is filled with the same value.

Logo: company_logo

The Logo element always uses the company_logo field. Each recipient’s value can be:

• a domain, like acme.com: Piksio finds that company’s logo, or
• a link to a logo image, like https://cdn.acme.com/logo.png.

In the editor, the logo shows a LOGO placeholder until you preview it with a value. A recipient with no logo value sees no logo at all, never the placeholder.

Charts and numbers

A chart value can come from a field. Select the chart, and under Value enter a Variable key, like pct. The number in the Value box is what shows when a recipient has no value.

Images and colours

• Images and profile photos: set a field in the layer’s settings, and each recipient’s image link replaces the one in your design.
• Colours: a text or shape colour can be bound to a field. Each recipient’s link can then set it, like ff2e9a or red.
• Background: turn on Dynamic background in the canvas settings to let the link choose the background image.

Maps

A Map layer draws each recipient’s own map. Add it from Add elements, then in its settings choose:

• Type: roadmap, satellite, terrain or hybrid, and Zoom from 1 to 20.
• Location: Address — the usual choice. Type an example address to design with, and each recipient’s own goes in the map_address field: 221B Baker Street, London NW1 6XE. The more complete the address, the better Google places the pin.
• Location: Lat / long — for coordinates instead, through map_latitude and map_longitude.

map_zoom and map_type can be personalized too, if you want one recipient’s map closer in than another’s.

A map costs 2 credits

An image that draws a map costs 2 credits instead of 1 (or 2 of your 500 free images a month), because each new one is a paid Google Maps call. A recipient whose address is blank gets no map — the layer is left out, like a missing logo — and that image costs 1. See Views and credits.

Print a field on a product

Text and logo fields don’t have to sit flat on the picture: they can be printed on a product in it — wrapped around a bottle, cup or can, or following the folds of a shirt, tote or sheet of paper. Set it up per field in Create with AI, or by hand with Wrap effects. Designs that use it render as a still image.

What if a value is missing?

You decide. Set a fallback for each text field in Use in email (or under When a detail is missing on a template’s or AI design’s result screen), or leave it empty and that word is left out. See Fallbacks and blanks.

Next: Effects.