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New Print Functionality for Character Sheets

1670888647

Edited 1670890119
Patrice
Roll20 Team
Hi Folks! Excited to announce a new print feature that will be available to community sheet authors!  You can now indicate to users if your sheet is print ready by turning on a print button for your sheets.  All you need to do is add the new printable property to your sheet.json file and set the value to TRUE.  To show off the new functionality we’ve updated our Official D&D 5e sheet to be print-ready!  Check it out now and bring your favorite characters with you on paper (or PDF).   Need some more guidance on how to update your sheet for printing? Head over to this help center article   for some tips! If you have any questions, feel free to thread them below.  Thanks everyone & happy printing!
1670890201

Edited 1670890249
Patrice
Roll20 Team
The new print button can be found in the top left of the Character sheet window, next to the 'pop-out' button!  
1670890945
vÍnce
Pro
Sheet Author
;-)  I made this suggestion over 7 years ago Print Character Sheets ... Glad to see we are finally closing in on a workable solution.  Cheers
1670922597
Ralph
Pro
Marketplace Creator
Great to see this feature! I noticed the following points: 1) Page breakdown doesn't work properly in the D&D-sheet 2) The printout should be disabled in non-character sheets (as for NPCs different fields would need to be pulled)
Ralph said: Great to see this feature! I noticed the following points: 1) Page breakdown doesn't work properly in the D&D-sheet 2) The printout should be disabled in non-character sheets (as for NPCs different fields would need to be pulled) Much appreciated feedback, Ralph. Could you let us know your Browser and Operational system combination? Besides that, would it be possible for you to share a picture of the issue you found? That would help us tremendously to get any bugs fixed. 
Miguel P. said:  Could you let us know your Browser and Operational system combination? Besides that, would it be possible for you to share a picture of the issue you found? That would help us tremendously to get any bugs fixed.  Not Ralph, but here's my experience - The page breaks don't work great on the D&D 5e sheet on characters with a large amount of attacks and/or items in their inventories. Also, the header spacing at the top of spell lists isn't great, some printers might cut it off. Using Google Chrome Version 108.0.5359.99 on Windows 11. Inventory: Attacks & Inventory: Spells:
Thanks, Yawp. You should be able to set the a custom margin, in printer dialog,to better suit your personal preference. Page control within CSS is quite limited, however, we are already evaluating how to better break long repeating sections across multiple pages.
1670947386

Edited 1670947449
keithcurtis
Forum Champion
Marketplace Creator
API Scripter
This looks good, Miguel. Thanks! Printing web pages of any kind is difficult, since the html/css assumption is infinite page height. This actually looks better than I would have expected. I encountered the same issue with divs breaking across pages, but I'm not sure how that could be avoided. My initial tests indicate that the first time I try to print in a session, none of the ornamentation shows (borders, shading, graphics), but all subsequent attempts show these elements. In general, simpler characters print better. Characters with long equipment lists or feature lists tend to split across pages. Again, I'm not sure there's a true solution here, given the nature of screen to paper.
Thank you Roll20. Now work needs to be done on the page breaks. Once again thank you Roll20.
Love to see it! One more reason to use Roll20! Thanks!
Ralph said: Great to see this feature! I noticed the following points: 1) Page breakdown doesn't work properly in the D&D-sheet 2) The printout should be disabled in non-character sheets (as for NPCs different fields would need to be pulled) Why would you want to disable for npcs? The biggest use of this feature is for people to be able to use their roll20 content in person with paper and pencil. That should go for GMs as well who will want to print out npc stat blocks.
Most Excellent!  This is probably one of the biggest requests that I get from my players.  Thanks Roll20
1670955615
Zedafty
Pro
Sheet Author
Great feature ! A lot of people were awaiting that, thank you ;)
Congratulations Roll 20, been waiting for this update. I checked the Sheet Sandbox, but I can't find how to add the print button to make changes to my sheet. So I created a room to make the changes using a Custom Sheet, but I still couldn't find how to add the Print button. How should I go about making the changes, without changing the uploaded sheet?
1670959559

Edited 1670959590
A VERY strange "Bug" I encountered while just TESTING This is my Character I wanted to print: THIS is just the very first page that would be printed with this new feature: WHY is only the header printed on Page 1? Though I know that it is not possible to print it on the official DnD 5e PDF Sheet (editable PDF), please just ADJUST  these things as this feature is otherwise NOT usable!
Jonnes Derik , in order to enabled the print button on your sheet, you must add the property printable: true to your sheet.json file. This and a few other tips are described in this article&nbsp; <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/10823045719063" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/10823045719063</a> TheMarkus1204 , could you let us know what is your browser/version/operation system combination and what printing settings are you using (page size and margins)? With this information we can try replicate your issue on our side and look for a possible fix. In fact, for anyone else that is about to report an issue, please include the information above and, if possible, a picture.
Ralph said: Great to see this feature! I noticed the following points: 1) Page breakdown doesn't work properly in the D&amp;D-sheet 2) The printout should be disabled in non-character sheets (as for NPCs different fields would need to be pulled) I have found that changing from landscape to portrait helps with this, slightly. Doesn't help with the over-printing on long spell sheet descriptions though :(
Suggestions for the problem of too long repeating sections: Probably each repeatable section should have a checkbox or button on the print preview page which disables that section on the main sheet and at the same time adds a seperate page (or pages) exclusive for this section. So you get a separate attack or an inventory page Or even smarter: The checkbox only appears if the section would be longer than the main page allows. Or the checkbox is always there but if it is checked it would make the space of the moved section available for a second column of another page element.
"Jonnes Derik , in order to enabled the print button on your sheet, you must add the property printable: true to your sheet.json file. This and a few other tips are described in this article&nbsp; <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/10823045719063" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/10823045719063</a> " Yes, I understood that. But I couldn't where to add the .json neither in the Sandbox nor in the Custom Sheet. The only place you can add the .json is when the sheets are submitted to git. What makes it unfeasible to make the adjustment, if you always have to submit (git) to analyze the result. As it stands, we would have to make the changes blindly.
I don't know if it's possible, but if the equipment list consolidated like the proficiencies do it might address part of the page break issue.
I found it in the sandbox, the json editor. Solve my problems. Thank you very much and sorry for the lack of attention.
1670969306
Josho H.
Pro
Sheet Author
make nested/tabbed repeating sections. &gt;:( ...Or at least let us prepopulate other fields dynamically from them
1670971474

Edited 1670971842
Jonnes Derik
Pro
Sheet Author
I was not able to create a break-page in the Sandbox, even following the article with the specifications. All I get is a single page, with everything else off the page cut off. A workaround was to add the following code to the css: #dialog-window{ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; position: initial !important; } Now I have two pages with all the content. T hat all this is in the Sandbox
1670976108

Edited 1670976790
First, a huge thank-you for getting this out.&nbsp; Even with problems it's a great thing for my players to have (and me). Now to the problems I see (Firefox 107.0 on an Intel Mac running 12.6.2 Monterey), printing to PDF in Portrait (with defaults or "scale to 95%", doesn't seem to affect much either way). It defaults to US Letter, Portrait, no margin for me. 1. The same problem reported by TheMarcus1204: page break right after the character name header. 2. Default margin is essentially none, this is likely to be a problem for many printers (not if you only keep the PDF online, which is my use case). This is NOT the usual default margin on my computer, which is more like 1/4 of an inch. 3. The same "long boxes spill over pages" issue Yawp noted. You addressed that for spells in a way by putting out the text of spells on separate text pages, might I suggest something similar for the equipment list (people tend to accumulate lots of equipment) - I see Bill P. had the same idea. 4. Temporary and current hit points are blank, so you can't tell that the PC was wounded when the sheet was printed. 6. Equipment weight (individual and total) are missing, as is Encumberance status. 7. The resource counters aren't listed.&nbsp; Not only does this affect tracking things like Sorcery Points, and how depleted a character was at the time the sheet was printed, these are also used to track some "weight zero" things (like number of 50 gp gems carried, spell components, etc) 8. Neither the Bio &amp; Info (public description) nor BIO page (private description, extra text) are printed; a lot of my players keep notes on things like money on deposit in a bank, what they're owed for the current mission, etc. 9. Unchecking an AC-modifying item (like Bracers AC +1) causes the printed AC to change as it should, but them item still appears to be in inventory (it's printed in normal text, not grayed-out as it is on the sheet). 10. Spells page does not indicate which spells are prepared (no mark in the little circles) 11. The default file name for print to pdf&nbsp; is "true.pdf" 12. Probably not a bug but intentional, but printing the "gear" page (page 4) would be helpful.&nbsp; It's the only record of which skills have Expertise, and some other things. After every game I screen-grab each of my players sheets (to keep them honest, and so I have a history of what changed when, which has helped me numerous times).&nbsp; This is a lot of work. I wanted to use printed sheets for this, but because it's not capturing the current state of the character, only their "maximums", I can't. Edit: and I just noticed that the header on page 1 has a blank Player Name field. There's no such field in the 5E sheet that I'm aware of (it would be cool if there was) aside from the edit by pulldown. Populating this field somehow would be useful.
1670976120

Edited 1670976283
DM
Pro
Jonnes Derik, thanks for pointing that out. You are right, there are a couple of things one may need to tweak from the inherited vtt style sheet. Here are a few tweaks that you can try out: html , body , .ui-dialog , .characterviewer , .tab-content , .sheetform , .charactersheet { /* Removes default padding */ padding : 0 !important ; margin : 0 !important ; } ​ .nav-tabs , #macrobar { /* Hides the tabs and the top of the screen and the macrobar */ display : none ; } ​ .ui-dialog { position : inherit !important ; /* Overwrites the current VTT position: fixed !important; */ } ​ .ui-dialog .charsheet .repcontrol { /* Hides repeating section controls */ display : none ; } ​ .ui-dialog .charsheet .repcontainer .editmode .repitem .itemcontrol { /* Hides repeating section items controls if the user was in edit mode */ display : none ; }
That's nice, but not being able to make character sheets to fit your game is needed more. Sure you let people do it for a price. It's the reason there is a lack of character sheets on the sight.&nbsp;
1670984944
GiGs
Pro
Sheet Author
API Scripter
Brian Scott said: That's nice, but not being able to make character sheets to fit your game is needed more. Sure you let people do it for a price. It's the reason there is a lack of character sheets on the sight.&nbsp; There's a lack of character sheets? Are you looking at the same site?
1670985056

Edited 1670986189
keithcurtis
Forum Champion
Marketplace Creator
API Scripter
Brian Scott said: That's nice, but not being able to make character sheets to fit your game is needed more. Sure you let people do it for a price. It's the reason there is a lack of character sheets on the sight.&nbsp; There are over 1100 sheets on this site. That covers a lot of games.
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Edited 1671001276
GiGs
Pro
Sheet Author
API Scripter
Brian Scott said: That's nice, but not being able to make character sheets to fit your game is needed more. Sure you let people do it for a price. It's the reason there is a lack of character sheets on the sight.&nbsp; I posted earlier with disbelief at your last sentence. But lets not overlook the first sentence. There's a lot I agree with here. For example, it's too hard to adjust an existing sheet (like tweaking it to add custom attributes or changing names, or whatever). I'm not sure how you'd change that though, with the way character sheets are built.
Using Firefox, the first page is just the header, the rest of it is blank white. I really hope the app can also open NPC sheets and NPCs are printable too soon.
1671007099
Miguel
Roll20 Production Team
Sheet Author
Compendium Curator
Hey Tako, NPCs and Vehicles should already be printable too. Go ahead and try it out.
Hey Miguel, thanks for your work on this feature! I've got another bug to report - this character's Features &amp; Traits section is all borked up, I'm guessing because of the longer URL strings I'm using for flavor .gifs when sending to chat. Like my last report, I'm u sing Google Chrome&nbsp;Version 108.0.5359.99 on Windows 11.
also getting the same page break as TheMarkus1204, Windows 11 Home Version 10.0.22621 running Firefox 108.0 64bit. I have tried default margins and none and resizing to 95% all to no avail :)
Thats incredible, its so good to see Roll20 helping the in person scenario as well. Will save a lot of time thats for sure.
1671042300

Edited 1671042334
It's nice not to have to feel like a swashbuckler when it comes to getting a character sheet online
Hi Corvus J, you've probably sourced what you want in terms of online sheets by now, but just in case I have found these useful in the past =&nbsp; Class Character Sheets - The Bundle from Emmet Byrne on DMSGuild
Awesome, thanks, everyone @ Roll20 Team !!!
1671057197
Toby L.
Marketplace Creator
So can you submit your own sheet designs on to roll20? Cheers
1671062645
keithcurtis
Forum Champion
Marketplace Creator
API Scripter
Toby L. said: So can you submit your own sheet designs on to roll20? Cheers Yes, with some requirements. Roll20 doesn't usually allow multiple versions for the same exact system. It can't require the API for its base functionality, and a few other concerns. You do have to have a Pro level subscription. And of course, a Pro user can make whatever sheet they want for personal use or even distribution. The design rules mostly apply for the hosted sheets. One of the Sheet Authors can give more specific info, or you can check the Help Center or Wiki. Both have sections on sheet design.
TheMarkus1204, Simon G. and Tako We manage to reproduce the Firefox issue and have already pushed a fix for it. If the issue still persists feel free to drop us a line here. As for other things mentioned here, in line with the prepared spell check for example, the idea behind those is to keep them blank so players can use a pencil and a eraser and change prepared spells during a live game session. Same thing for temp and current hit points and etc.
1671064922
Siveron
Pro
Marketplace Creator
Seeing a lot of the same things as others have posted here. formatting, page breaks... I LOVE that this option is finally here, I have been waiting on this for years!
Patrice said: All you need to do is add the new printable property to your sheet.json file and set the value to TRUE. So, is there no way to do this that's compatible with the established methods for creating and editing character sheets--i.e., HTML and CSS that we upload? I've never mucked with a JSON, nor do I have even the first idea what that has to do with Roll20 sheets...since I've never once had to touch such a file in building a character sheet before. I'm sure I can dig up info on how to edit the JSON, but...is there no more familiar way to do this, like a toggle box on the campaign settings page...?
1671079367
GiGs
Pro
Sheet Author
API Scripter
This is aimed at sheet designers, not end users. You'll need to wait for the feature to be added to whatever sheet you use.
Hey Miguel, of course: Windows 10 and latest Chrome Version. I did not change anything regarding the margins. Just saw this print preview and posted it here as it is definitely a bug... Other than that it looks the same as seen on screenshots above regarding spells etc. Miguel P. said: Jonnes Derik , in order to enabled the print button on your sheet, you must add the property printable: true to your sheet.json file. This and a few other tips are described in this article&nbsp; <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/10823045719063" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/10823045719063</a> TheMarkus1204 , could you let us know what is your browser/version/operation system combination and what printing settings are you using (page size and margins)? With this information we can try replicate your issue on our side and look for a possible fix. In fact, for anyone else that is about to report an issue, please include the information above and, if possible, a picture.
@Miguel P - many thanks, that is a vast improvement.&nbsp; It prints to pdf and to paper with only one annoyance for me and that is the equipment section.&nbsp; This prints over two pages for both of the characters I have printed for Sunday's game, I'd prefer it to have its own page just because the broken box jars my need for order : )))&nbsp; .&nbsp; Really glad to see Features &amp; Traits expanded on later pages though; this is a constant time cost at our table as players struggle to recall what they can do (it can be months between games for us).
Does this ONLY work for the official 5E Sheet by Roll20 or is it planned to work on ALL official sheets?
1671138281
Kraynic
Pro
Sheet Author
TheMarkus1204 said: Does this ONLY work for the official 5E Sheet by Roll20 or is it planned to work on ALL official sheets? Since it requires code changes in the sheet, it will have to be done individually in each sheet.&nbsp; I expect the difficulty of editing this into an older sheet (as opposed to writing a sheet with this functionality in mind) will determine whether any (or how many) of the preexisting sheets get the print treatment.
1671163336
GiGs
Pro
Sheet Author
API Scripter
keithcurtis said: Printing web pages of any kind is difficult, since the html/css assumption is infinite page height. This actually looks better than I would have expected. I encountered the same issue with divs breaking across pages, but I'm not sure how that could be avoided. Plus, items on a character sheet may vary in size from character to character. Textareas might contain different amount of data (one might have a single word, another might have 10 multi-line paragraphs, and a single sheet might rely on a scroll bar to show them). Likewise repeating sections might have varying numbers of rows. And elements are not necessarily fixed to a standard page width, either. There's a lot of variability to account for.
Sorry too say it, but it works as it looks like only for a Mainstream Game .......sad too see........ So making a Post like this :&nbsp; &nbsp; "New Print Functionality for Character Sheets" &nbsp;&nbsp; is like a Fishing Mail. Bad Advertising / Promotion
1671178786
keithcurtis
Forum Champion
Marketplace Creator
API Scripter
Character sheets do have a new print functionality. That's not the same thing as saying all sheets can now be printed. Authors can now add print functionality to their code.&nbsp; End users are not the only people affected here. The technology is now available to all sheet authors. Sheets have to be configured to take advantage of this brand new capability. This is similar to when sheets were given hooks to make them possible to be used on the mobile app. It still requires authors to make give their sheets this new capability. If you have a particular sheet you want to see given this feature, lobby with the sheet author.
Just adding a "second" to having the option for NPC sheets printed as the original compact stat block. I'm very used to running baddies with all that info in a nice compact form, and for some games, I like to have them printed out. At least for me as GM, I don't need the full character sheet info for my NPCs that players have for their characters.