Banners

Banners are branded header images that appear at the top of emails sent from your site. Every email notification needs a banner. It gives your emails a professional, recognisable look.

You can manage banners from Admin > Banners. Your site can have as many banners as you need, one for each type of email, or a single banner used across everything.

Banner Types

There are two banner designs to choose from:

Papercut Background

A large banner with a background photo, your group logo, and a text message. The photo appears on the right with a distinctive curved cutout edge, and the text sits over a coloured background on the left. This style works well for welcome emails, seasonal messages, or any email where you want a strong visual impact.

A welcome banner using the Papercut Rosy Cheeks Background style with logo, photo, and text

A seasonal banner: same Papercut style with a sunrise background, photo and message

Logo and Text Lines

A more compact banner with your group logo on the left and up to two lines of text on the right, set against a dark background. Each text line can include an icon and use different colours for emphasis. This style is ideal for routine notifications like walk leader emails, expense notifications, and membership updates.

A walk leader notification banner with two text lines, icons, and coloured words

A membership notification banner with a single text line and icon

Logo Only

The most frequently used style is a simple logo-only banner, just your group logo displayed large with a border. This works as a versatile default banner that suits any type of email.

A full-width logo banner, clean and versatile, suitable for any email

Creating a Banner

Go to Admin > Banners
Click New and choose either Papercut Background or Logo and Text Lines
The banner opens in the Editable view where you can see changes as you make them
Configure the banner (see sections below)
Click Save to save your banner. This captures the visual as an image and stores it

You can switch between the Editable view (live preview while editing) and the Saved view (the final rendered image that gets used in emails) using the toggle in the toolbar.

The page title shows where you are in your collection of banners, for example Banners - 1 of 21, and the web address for that specific banner is bookmarkable, so you can share a direct link to a banner with another administrator.

Configuring a Papercut Background Banner

Click Edit to access the settings. You can adjust:

Photo — the background image on the right side. Click Edit Photo to replace the photo or change the crop
Photo focal point — click or drag on the photo to set the point that should stay centred when the banner is rendered at different sizes. Use the mouse wheel or the zoom slider to zoom in on a detail, and drag the bottom handle of the picker to make the banner taller or shorter (between 200 and 900 pixels)
Logo — your group's Ramblers logo, shown on the coloured background. You can toggle it on or off and adjust its size
Background — the coloured area behind the logo and text
Text — the message displayed on the banner. This supports markdown formatting so you can use bold, italic, etc. You can change the text colour and font size

The Papercut Background banner editor: toolbar, form fields, the photo focal-point picker with zoom slider, and a live preview below

Configuring a Logo and Text Lines Banner

Click Edit to access the settings. You can adjust:

Logo — your group logo on the left. Adjust its width using the column setting (1–12)
Line 1 — the first line of text. You can split it into up to three parts, each with its own colour. Optionally add a prefix icon
Line 2 — a second line of text with the same options as Line 1. Either line can be shown or hidden

Text Colours

Each text part can be set to a different colour: Cloudy, Granite, Mintcake, Rosy Cheeks, Sunrise, Sunset, or Grey. Mixing colours within a line is how you get the effect of highlighted words. For example, "Ashford Walking Group" with "Walking" in a different colour.

Managing Banners

The toolbar at the top of the page provides these actions:

New — create a new banner (choose the type from the dropdown)
Edit / Close Edit — open or close the banner settings form
Edit Photo — change the source photo or its crop (Papercut style only)
Edit Saved Image — re-open the crop tools on the image that has already been saved for this banner, so you can adjust the framing without re-uploading the source photo
Duplicate — create a copy of the selected banner. Useful when you want a variation of an existing design
Delete — remove the selected banner
Undo — revert any unsaved changes
Save — save the banner and capture it as the image used in emails. Below the toolbar you will see a summary of the currently saved image, for example Saved image: 1500 x 391 px, 81 kb.
Export — download the banner as an image file

Use the Select a saved banner dropdown to switch between your banners.

Using Banners in Emails

Once you have saved one or more banners, you assign them to email notifications:

Go to Admin > System Settings > Mail
Open the notification template you want to configure (for example Walk Notification, Membership, Expenses, Booking Confirmation)
Select a banner from the Banner dropdown
Save the notification configuration

The selected banner image will appear at the top of every email sent using that notification template. You can use different banners for different email types, or a single banner for everything.

Refreshing an Existing Banner

Whenever the site's banner rendering is improved, existing banners keep using the image that was captured the last time they were saved. To pick up the newer rendering on one of your banners, open it from Admin > Banners and click Save again. The saved image will be regenerated and the next email that uses it will pick up the refreshed version.

Tips

Start by duplicating — if you need several banners for different email types, create one you like and then Duplicate it, changing just the text or icon for each variation
Logo only is a good default — a simple logo banner with a border works well for any type of email and is the most frequently used style
Use Papercut for impact — save the Papercut Background style for emails where you want to make a strong visual impression, such as welcome emails or seasonal greetings
Preview before saving — the Editable view shows you exactly what the banner will look like. Make sure you are happy with it before clicking Save
Set the focal point on faces or subjects — if the banner will be rendered at different heights in different email clients, click on the part of the photo that should always stay in view