Postcard Generator
📮 Postcard Generator
Section titled “📮 Postcard Generator”Overview
Section titled “Overview”Every great parkup deserves more than a raw phone photo. The Postcard Generator transforms any Check-in’s hero photograph into a beautifully designed, shareable postcard — automatically layered with the location name, date, GPS coordinates, altitude, and weather conditions captured at the time.
Three distinct visual styles give you a different aesthetic for different moods. The result is a high-resolution 3:4 image you can send directly to friends, post on Instagram, or drop into a message — a proper memory, not just a snapshot.
How to Open It
Section titled “How to Open It”The Postcard Generator lives inside the Check-in Detail View.
- Open any expedition from the Trip Detail View.
- Tap a check-in card in the Travel Feed to open its detail page.
- Tap the ↑ share icon in the top-right corner of the toolbar.
The generator opens automatically, pre-loaded with that check-in’s hero photo and all of its metadata. There’s nothing to fill in manually — it reads everything from the check-in record you’ve already built.
No hero photo? The share icon only appears when the check-in has a hero photo attached. If you haven’t added one yet, edit the check-in and anchor a photo to it first. See The Magic of Check-ins - Automated Journaling for how photos get matched automatically.
The Three Styles
Section titled “The Three Styles”Swipe left and right across the preview, or tap the segmented picker below it, to move between the three styles. The postcard re-renders live with each change.
🎞️ Cinematic
Section titled “🎞️ Cinematic”Inspired by editorial travel photography.
Your photo fills the entire frame edge-to-edge. A deep black gradient rises from the bottom, and over it sits bold serif headline text in all-caps — your check-in title set large and confident, with location and date on the line below. A third row carries altitude, weather temperature with its condition icon, and precise GPS coordinates in a smaller weight.
This is the style for dramatic landscapes, golden-hour shots, and anywhere the photo itself is the hero. The typography steps aside and lets the image breathe, while the metadata anchors it to a specific moment in time and space.
📓 Journal
Section titled “📓 Journal”The instant film look.
A warm off-white border frames a square crop of your photo — the classic proportions of a Polaroid. In the caption area below the photo, your check-in title is set in a handwritten-style font, giving it the feeling of something written with a felt-tip pen on the back of a print. Location and date appear in small monospaced type to the left; weather and altitude icons cluster quietly to the right.
This style suits candid, intimate shots — van interiors, roadside meals, wild camp mornings. It looks like something you’d stick to a corkboard or slip into an envelope.
🏅 Badge
Section titled “🏅 Badge”Clean, bold, layered.
Your photo fills the frame again, but this time a frosted glass circular badge sits in the top-right corner — your own personalised expedition stamp. Inside the badge: the word VANLIFE across the top, the temperature (or a location pin if no weather was recorded) large in the centre, altitude below it, and the date at the foot. Your check-in title appears at the bottom-left in a frosted pill label.
This style works well on square or portrait shots where the sky or a clear area in the top-right gives the badge room to float. It has a sticker quality that translates well to social media.
What Data Appears on Each Postcard
Section titled “What Data Appears on Each Postcard”All data is pulled directly from the check-in record at the moment the generator opens. Nothing needs to be typed.
| Data field | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Check-in title | |
| Location | Reverse-geocoded place name stored on the check-in | |
| Date | Check-in date, formatted as abbreviated text (e.g., “22 Feb 2026”) | |
| GPS Coordinates | Check-in latitude and longitude, to 4 decimal places | |
| Altitude | GPS altitude recorded at check-in time, converted to your unit preference | |
| Weather temperature | Weather snapshot attached by the [[The Magic of Check-ins - Automated Journaling | Vision AI wizard]] at creation time |
| Weather icon | Condition symbol from the weather snapshot (sun, cloud, rain, snow, etc.) |
Altitude and weather only appear if that data exists on the check-in. If you logged a spot manually without a weather snapshot, those fields are simply omitted — the postcard still looks complete.
Sharing the Postcard
Section titled “Sharing the Postcard”Once you’ve chosen your style, tap the Share Postcard button. This hands the image to the standard iOS ShareSheet, where you can:
- Send it via Messages, WhatsApp, Signal, or any messaging app.
- Save it to your Photos library.
- Post it to Instagram, Twitter/X, or any social app installed on your phone.
- Copy it to your clipboard to paste anywhere.
- AirDrop it to a nearby device.
The generated image is 1200 × 1600 pixels rendered at 3× scale — large enough for crisp display at full screen on any device, and the right proportions for a portrait social post.
Common Questions
Section titled “Common Questions”The share icon isn’t showing on my check-in. The Postcard Generator requires a hero photo to be attached to the check-in. Without one, there’s nothing to generate a postcard from, so the icon is hidden. To add a photo: open the check-in, tap Edit, and anchor a photo from your Camera Roll.
The postcard says “Developing Photo…” and doesn’t load. The generator fetches a high-resolution version of your photo from your Photos library. On older devices or with large RAW files, this can take a few seconds. If it never loads, check that Vanlife Assistant still has Photos access in iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos.
My postcard doesn’t show weather or altitude. Weather is only present on check-ins that were created using the photo-first wizard, which attaches a weather snapshot automatically at creation time. Manually entered check-ins don’t have weather unless the wizard ran. Altitude is recorded from your iPhone’s GPS at the time of the check-in — in areas with poor vertical accuracy (dense cities, underground car parks), it may be absent.
Can I change the check-in title before generating? Not from within the Postcard Generator itself — but you can tap Close, edit the check-in title in the editor, then reopen the generator. The title updates immediately.