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Series

When a Series is clicked on from the home page or the search bar, you will access the "Series page" (at /series/{series_id}) where all Series-level options, Title Card customizations, files, and actions can be viewed.

Series Page Series Page

This page is organized into several main sections: the action bar at the top, the poster and preview area, and multiple tabs containing different configuration options.

Action Bar

The action bar at the top of the page contains all the primary actions you can perform on a Series.

On the far left and right of the action bar are arrows ( and ). Clicking either of these will navigate to the previous and next Series alphabetically from the current Series.

If you click either arrow and the current page does not change and the arrow becomes greyed out, then there is no next or previous Series to navigate to.

Monitored Status

Each Series can be monitored and unmonitored. All Series start as monitored unless explicitly unmonitored, which can be done by clicking the status button in the action bar. The status is indicated by different colored icons:

  • Green - Monitored
  • Yellow - Unmonitored
  • Red - Disabled

Unmonitored Series do not do the following actions automatically (all actions can still be done manually):

  • Refresh Episode data - i.e. check for new Episodes, look for modified Episode titles, etc.
  • Add Episode translations
  • Download missing Source Images

The Tasks in the scheduler that are responsible for the above actions will skip all unmonitored Series.

Create Title Cards

Scheduled Action

This action occurs automatically as part of the Create Title Cards Task.

Create Title Cards can be pressed to prompt TCM to begin updating existing, and create new Title Cards. This action encompasses the following:

  1. Refreshes all Episode data1; then
  2. Queries any assigned Libraries for updated Episode watched statuses; then
  3. Looks for any missing Episode translations; then
  4. Download any missing Source Images2; and finally
  5. Begins Title Card creation

Background Execution

Because Title Card creation can take a long time, Card creation is executed in a background thread. This also means that if you start Card creation, make a change which would prompt new Cards, and then restart Card creation; TCM will create, delete, then re-create the Cards.

Library Actions

For every library which the currently selected Series is assigned to, a dropdown menu will appear showing the library and Connection name (e.g. TV Shows | Plex). This dropdown contains several actions specific to that library:

Title Card Loading

Scheduled Action

This action occurs automatically as part of the Load Title Cards Task. Title Cards are never automatically force-reloaded.

  • Load Cards - Loads only unloaded Title Cards into the associated Connection and library. This only affects Title Cards which were changed (and not re-loaded), or never loaded in the first place.

  • Force Reload Cards - Reloads all Title cards into the associated Connection and library. This is much slower than normal Card loading, but can be used as needed - most commonly when the metadata of a Media Server is reset and previously loaded Title Cards are removed.

  • Selectively Reload Season - Open a dialog allowing you to choose specific seasons to reload or force reload.

Remove Episode Labels

Plex Servers Only

This option only appears for libraries associated with Plex servers.

TitleCardMaker looks for specific labels on Episodes within Plex to determine whether it is able to download Source Images from that Episode. This is done to avoid grabbing a "Source Image" which is actually a previously loaded Title Card, or some image with a Kometa (PMM) overlay applied.

The Remove Episode Labels button removes the labels which TCM uses to track whether an Episode can provide a Source Image. This applies to all Episodes of this Series within Plex.

Delete Actions

On the right side of the action bar is a red Delete dropdown menu with three options:

  • Source Images - Deletes all Source Images associated with this Series
  • Title Cards - Deletes all Title Card files and removes them from the database
  • Series - Deletes the Series itself

Irreversible Actions

All delete actions are permanent and cannot be undone. The Series deletion will also remove all associated Source Images if you have enabled the Delete Series Source Images option.

Progress Bar

Underneath the actions bar is a progress bar which displays the total number of currently created and missing Title Cards.

This is updated periodically, but clicking the card text will force TCM to refresh that information.

Color Accessibility

If the default colors are hard to see, these can be changed to higher contrast options by toggling the global Color Impaired Mode setting.

More Cards than Episodes?

If the listed Card count is higher than the total number of Episodes, then most likely you have enabled Multi-Library Filename Support, and TCM has created a separate Card for each library of the Series.

Poster and Preview Area

Series Poster

When a Series is added to TitleCardMaker, TCM looks for a poster in your media servers (Plex, Emby, Jellyfin) - if a library has been assigned. If one cannot be found, it searches TMDb, or TVDb.

This poster is purely visual and is not used for Title Card creation.

Changing the Poster

If you would like to change the poster, hover over and click the poster. This will launch a popup where you can either:

  • Enter a URL which TCM will download the poster from
  • Query TMDb for a poster using the search icon
  • Upload a file from your machine
  • Pull the poster from any linked Media Servers

After selecting any of these options, clicking the appropriate button will swap out the currently visible poster for the Series.

Live Preview

On the top right side of the page is a Title Card live preview which can be used to quickly observe changes to Cards.

This preview can be refreshed by selecting an Episode from the Preview Episode dropdown (below the Series name), or clicking the preview Title Card directly.

The preview will reflect all changes in the Series and Episode except changes to any assigned Templates (due to how these are handled in the underlying database).

Save your changes

Remember that if you make any changes to the Series or Episode Card options, you must click Save for these changes to become permanent. TCM will not warn you about unsaved changes.

Tabs

The Series page is organized into several tabs, each containing different types of configuration and data:

Options Tab

The Options tab contains the basic Series configuration settings.

Libraries

Which libraries this Series can be found in on your Media Servers. This setting is required for a Series' Title Cards to be loaded into the respective server.

Any number of libraries can be added to a Series. However, if your effective Episode Data Source is a Media Server, only the first library associated with that Connection will be queried for Episode data.

Updating Libraries

When adding or removing libraries to a Series, the various library-specific actions can be updated by refreshing the page.

Changing Library Names

TitleCardMaker stores a lot of data under the specific library name as it appears in your Media Servers. Because of this, changing the names of your libraries in your servers is strongly discouraged if it can be avoided.

Episode Data Source

Where to get Episode data from. If left unspecified, this will fall back to the assigned Template(s) or global Episode Data Source value.

If this is a Media Server, this Series must have at least one Library associated with that Connection.

Image Source Priority

Order of Connections to try and get images from. This determines which media server TCM will query first when looking for source images, backdrops, and logos.

Series Options

Several checkboxes control Series behavior:

  • Match Titles - Whether to update Episode titles if they differ from the assigned Episode data source
  • Auto-Split Titles - Whether to automatically split the title text into separate lines
  • Use Per-Season Assets - Whether to utilize manually added backdrops and logos unique to each season

Specials and Localization

  • Enable Specials - Whether to include Episodes from Season 0 (specials)
  • Ignore Localized Images - Whether to ignore images with assigned Languages

File Management

  • Card Directory - Directory to store this Series' Title Cards
  • Filename Format - Format for naming this Series' Title Cards

Card Configuration Tab

The Card Configuration tab contains all the visual and styling options for Title Cards.

Templates

Templates are evaluated in order and can be used to apply complex styling rules. Multiple Templates can be assigned to a Series - read more about using Templates here.

Card Type and Font

  • Card Type - The visual style/type of Title Card to create
  • Font - The named Font to use for text on the Title Cards

Episode Styles

  • Watched Episode Style - How watched episodes should appear (Art, Unique, with blur/grayscale effects)
  • Unwatched Episode Style - How unwatched episodes should appear

Font Overrides

Detailed font customization options:

  • Color - Text color (supports ImageMagick color names)
  • Text Case - How to pre-process title text
  • Size - Font size (as a percentage)
  • Kerning - Character spacing (as a percentage)
  • Stroke Width - Text outline width (as a percentage)
  • Interline Spacing - Spacing between separate lines of text
  • Interword Spacing - Spacing between individual words
  • Vertical Shift - Vertical positioning adjustment

Season and Episode Text

  • Hide Season Titles - Remove season text (e.g. "Season 1")
  • Season Titles - Custom titles for specific season ranges. The specific format of how to enter season titles can be viewed by hovering over the question icon.
  • Hide Episode Text - Remove episode text (e.g. "Episode 1")
  • Episode Text Format - Custom format for episode text

Translations and Extras

  • Translations - Add translations for episode titles in different languages
  • Extras - Additional custom data fields that can be used in templates

Blueprints Tab

Blueprints are pre-made Card configurations which can be imported and applied to a Series. You can read more about these here.

This tab allows you to search for and import any currently available Blueprints for this Series.

You can begin submitting your own by clicking the Export button.

Episode Data Tab

The Episode Data tab provides a comprehensive table for managing data of and Cards for individual Eepisodes.

Mass Actions

Several buttons allow bulk operations:

  • Refresh - Refresh Episode Data from the configured data source
  • Add - Add a new Episode manually
  • Save All Changes - Save all pending changes to Episodes
  • Delete All - Delete all Episodes
  • Toggle Advanced Mode - Show/hide advanced Episode configuration options - this adjusts the global setting.

Advanced Mode

When enabled, Advanced Mode shows additional configuration options for each Episode, allowing for very granular control over individual Episode settings.

You can read more about this setting here.

Files Tab

The Files tab manages all the image files associated with the Series.

Title Cards Section

  • Refresh - Refresh the preview of created Title Cards
  • Upload - Open a dialog for manually uploading Title Card files
  • MediUX Import - Import Title Cards from MediUX (or any Kometa-formatted YAML)

The Title Cards section includes:

  • A collapsible image viewer showing all created Title Cards
  • Individual Card actions (delete, download, recreate, reload, selective reload) which can be viewed by clicking the Card image

Source Images Section

Source Images are the original images used to create Title Cards.

  • Refresh - Refresh the list of source images
  • Upload - Upload Source Images manually

Source Image Naming

When uploading Source Images via the upload dialog, TCM does not perform any renaming or image validation on your behalf.

The Source Images section includes:

  • A table showing image details (season, episode, dimensions, file size)
  • Action buttons for each image (browse, upload, mirror, download, delete)
  • A collapsible image viewer

Automatic Download

Source Images are downloaded automatically when Title Cards are created, but only for monitored Series.

Logo Section

Manage the Series logo and per-season logos (if enabled).

  • Browse - Browse available logos from TMDb
  • Upload - Upload a logo file
  • Analyze Palette - Extract color palette from the logo
  • Delete - Remove the current logo

If "Use Per-Season Assets" is enabled, separate logos can be managed for each season. This can be toggled on the Options tab.

Backdrop Section

Manage the Series backdrop and per-season backdrops (if enabled).

  • Browse - Browse available backdrops from TMDb
  • Upload - Upload a backdrop file
  • Analyze Palette - Extract color palette from the backdrop

The backdrop is automatically used as the source image for any "Art" styles.

If "Use Per-Season Assets" is enabled, separate backdrops can be managed for each season. This can be toggled on the Options tab.

External Tab

The External tab manages all the external service IDs associated with the Series.

Depending on your configuration, the following ID fields may be available:

  • Emby ID - Format: {Interface ID}:{Library Name}:{ID}
  • IMDb ID - Direct IMDb identifier
  • Jellyfin ID - Format: {Interface ID}:{Library Name}:{ID}
  • Sonarr ID - Format: {Interface ID}:{ID}
  • TMDb ID - The Movie Database identifier
  • TVDb ID - The TV Database identifier
  • TVRage ID - For series from before 2017
  • Set URL - Custom URL for the series - this is currently for convenience only.

Logs Tab

The Logs tab displays a chronological feed of all actions and events related to this Series, including:

  • Card creation events
  • File uploads/downloads
  • Configuration changes
  • Error messages
  • System notifications

The logs are automatically updated and provide detailed information for troubleshooting and monitoring Series activity. For a more comprehensive look at your server logs, see the Logs page.

  1. During this, TCM queries the effective Episode data source for any new Episodes and adds them to the Series; and updates the titles of all existing Episodes to match what is currently present in the Episode data source if title matching is enabled. ↩

  2. During this, TCM will not replace any existing images, nor will it download any backdrops or logos. TCM will search for images in the order specified in your global image source priority. If the Series does not have any libraries assigned for a given media server Connection (e.g. a Plex Connection being in your source priority, but this Series having no Plex library) then it will be skipped. ↩