Archive Attributes

Background

Note

Most users do not need this section. Carefully read the background information below.

This is an optional YAML section of your global preferences file (preferences.yml) for creating and maintaining an archive of title cards, separate from the title cards directly linked to your Plex/media library. This was designed with the intention of making it easier to share completed sets of title cards to places like /r/PlexTitleCards.

When an archive is in use (which is not the default behavior), all sub-variations of a set of cards are created in the archive directory. For example, if I am using the standard card type and specify a custom font to use for a series (Show (Year)) and have archiving enabled (globally and for this series), the following directories will be created:

archive
└── Show (Year)
    ├── Generic Season Titles, Custom Font
    │   ├── Summary.jpg
    │   ├── Season 1
    │   └── ...
    └── Generic Season Titles, Generic Font
        ├── Summary.jpg
        ├── Season 1
        └── ...

If a non-standard card type/class is being used, then the associated archive directories will have modified names (such as Generic Season Titles, Custom Font - Star Wars Style).

Complete Example

# preferences.yml
archive:
  path: ./archive/
  all_variations: true
  summary:
    create: true
    background_color: "#51A5DB" # A nice blue background
    created_by: CollinHeist
    minimum_episodes: 6
    ignore_specials: true

options:     # Global options 
plex:        # Plex options ...
emby:        # Emby options ...
jellyfin:    # Jellyfin options ...
sonarr:      # Sonarr options ...
tautulli:    # Tautulli options ...
tmdb:        # TMDb options ...
imagemagick: # Imagemagick options ...

Attributes

Name	YAML Attribute	Allowed Values	Default Value	Required
Archive Path	archive, path	Any valid directory	-	✔️
Archive All Variations	archive, all_variations	Boolean (true or false)	true	❌
Summary Enable	archive, summary, create	Boolean (true or false)	true	❌
Summary Type	archive, summary, type	Either standard or stylized	stylized	❌
Summary Background Color	archive, summary, background_color	A valid ImageMagick color	#1A1A1A	❌
Summary Created By	archive, summary, created_by	Any string	-	❌
Summary Minimum Episodes	archive, summary, minimum_episodes	Any number	3	❌
Summary Ignore Specials	archive, summary, ignore_specials	Boolean (true or false)	false	❌

Archive Path

The location all archives of all series will be created and maintained under. If this option is omitted, no archive will be created.

Archive All Variations

Whether to archive all variations/profiles. If disabled (false), then only the profile of each series will be created - i.e. custom font/season titles will only make the custom variation. If enabled (true), then all sub-profiles of each series are created - so custom values also have their generic variations made. This is enabled by default.

Table of Sub-Directories

Given a show's attributes (such as custom/generic font, or custom/generic season titles, etc.) the following directories will be produced in that show's archive in addition to the Generic Season Titles, Generic Font archive¹:

Custom Font	Custom Season Titles	Hidden Season Titles	Archive Directories
❌	❌	❌	-
❌	❌	✔️	No Season Titles, Generic Font
❌	✔️	❌	Custom Season Titles, Generic Font
❌	✔️	✔️	No Season Titles, Generic Font, Custom Season Titles, Generic Font
✔️	❌	❌	Generic Season Titles, Custom Font
✔️	❌	✔️	Generic Season Titles, Custom Font, No Season Titles, Custom Font, No Season Titles, Generic Font
✔️	✔️	❌	Generic Season Titles, Custom Font, Custom Season Titles, Custom Font, Custom Season Titles, Generic Font
✔️	✔️	✔️	Generic Season Titles, Custom Font, Custom Season Titles, Custom Font, Custom Season Titles, Generic Font, No Season Titles, Custom Font, No Season Titles, Generic Font

¹ Unless all_variations is disabled; in which case only the specified archive will be created.

Summary Options

Enable

Whether to create show summary images for each archived series. This is disabled by default.

A show summary is a montage of title cards for a given profile, and its purpose is to give a quick visual indication of the look of cards. For example, below are two different summary images created for the same series:

Type

The type of summary to create. Currently there are only two implemented summary types, standard and stylized. The default value is stylized, as it is much faster to create, creates smaller files, and is better looking. The difference between the two is shown below:

Summary Type	Example
standard
stylized

Background Color

The background color to use for summary image creation. This only adjusts the background color of the standard summary type.

Created By

Custom string (probably your name/username) to use as the footer of the summary. If omitted, a "generic" footer image of the project's GitHub is used; and if provided then it's used in a format like Created by {created_by} with TitleCardMaker. An example of this with the value of CollinHeist is shown below:

Minimum Episodes

The minimum number of episodes that must exist before creating a show summary. This is intended to prevent odd looking summaries containing one/two title cards, as the summary was created when the show was first airing. This value is inclusive, so if set to 5, and the associated archive directory has 5 title cards, a summary will be created.

Ignore Specials

Whether to ignore specials (cards associated with season 0 of a series) in summary creation. This is disabled by default.