Apple has released Pass Designer, a tool designed to simplify the creation of digital passes for Apple Wallet. The platform enables businesses of various sizes—from local fitness centers to global airlines—to design passes that match their brand identity.
According to Apple’s developer documentation, Pass Designer offers several key features for pass creation. Users can start with templates provided by Apple or create custom designs using their preferred design tools to generate images such as logos, backgrounds, or strip images. These elements can then be imported into Pass Designer to complete the pass design.
The tool provides real-time preview functionality, updating the display as users edit to show how a pass will appear on both iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple states that the preview uses the same rendering engine as iOS and watchOS, meaning what designers see in Pass Designer matches exactly what customers will see on their devices.
Pass Designer includes features for customizing pass appearance, with easy adjustment of background, foreground, and label colors. The tool supports adaptable layouts that take advantage of the latest Apple Wallet capabilities while maintaining backward compatibility with older systems.
For pass developers, Pass Designer offers validation as work progresses, alerting users to issues such as missing required key values and unexpected definitions. Each pass type includes standard fields for displaying information, which can be edited directly within the tool.
For boarding passes and event tickets, Pass Designer supports semantic tags that add structured data including event dates, venue locations, and flight details. According to Apple, this structured data enables features like Siri Suggestions, Calendar integration, and Maps directions. Users can edit semantic tags directly in the interface and view semantic and non-semantic passes side by side. The tool can also automatically generate backward-compatible pass structures from semantic data, ensuring compatibility where semantic tags may not be supported.
Pass Designer beta requires macOS 27 or later and is available to users who sign in with an Apple Account and complete free registration.
Key facts
- Pass Designer lets businesses create digital passes for Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch
- The tool provides real-time preview showing exactly how passes will appear on customer devices
- Users can customize colors, layouts, and add standard fields directly in the interface
- Semantic tags enable integration with Siri, Calendar, and Maps for boarding passes and event tickets
- Pass Designer validates passes during creation and alerts users to missing or incorrect elements