Home Assistant

Picture glance card

The picture glance card shows an image and lets you place small icons of entity states on top of that card to control those entities from there. In the image below: the entities on the right allow toggle actions, the others show the more information dialog.

Picture glance card for a living room Picture glance card for a living room.

To add the picture glance card to your user interface:

  1. In the top right of the screen, select the pencil icon.
    • If this is your first time editing a dashboard, the Edit dashboard dialog appears.
      • By editing the dashboard, you are taking over control of this dashboard.
      • This means that it is no longer automatically updated when new dashboard elements become available.
      • To continue, in the dialog, select the three dots menu, then select Take control.
  2. Add a card to your dashboard.

YAML configuration

The following YAML options are available when you use YAML mode or just prefer to use YAML in the code editor in the UI.

Configuration Variables

Looking for your configuration file?
type string Required

picture-glance

entities list Required

List of entities or entity objects.

title string (Optional)

The card title.

image string (Optional)

Background image URL.

camera_image string (Optional)

Camera entity as Background image.

camera_view string (Optional, default: auto)

“live” will show the live view if stream is enabled.

state_image map (Optional)

Background image based on entity state.

state string (Optional)

state: image-url, check the example below.

state_filter map (Optional)

State-based CSS filters

aspect_ratio string (Optional)

Forces the height of the image to be a ratio of the width. Valid formats: Height percentage value (23%) or ratio expressed with colon or “x” separator (16:9 or 16x9). For a ratio, the second element can be omitted and will default to “1” (1.78 equals 1.78:1).

entity string (Optional)

Entity to use for state_image and state_filter.

show_state boolean (Optional, default: false)

Show entity state text.

theme string (Optional)

Override the used theme for this card with any loaded theme. For more information about themes, see the frontend documentation.

tap_action map (Optional)

Action taken on card tap. See action documentation.

hold_action map (Optional)

Action taken on card tap and hold. See action documentation.

double_tap_action map (Optional)

Action taken on card double tap. See action documentation.

Options for entities

If you define entities as objects instead of strings, you can add more customization and configuration:

Configuration Variables

Looking for your configuration file?
entity string Required

Entity ID.

attribute string (Optional)

Attribute of the entity to display instead of the state.

prefix string (Optional)

Prefix to display before the attribute’s value.

suffix string (Optional)

Suffix to display after the attribute’s value.

icon string (Optional)

Overwrites default icon.

show_state boolean (Optional, default: true)

Show entity state text.

tap_action map (Optional)

Action taken on card tap. See action documentation.

hold_action map (Optional)

Action taken on card tap and hold. See action documentation.

double_tap_action map (Optional)

Action taken on card double tap. See action documentation.

Options for exemptions

Configuration Variables

Looking for your configuration file?
user string Required

User ID that can see the view tab.

How to use state_filter

Specify different CSS filters

state_filter:
  "on": brightness(110%) saturate(1.2)
  "off": brightness(50%) hue-rotate(45deg)
entity: switch.decorative_lights

Examples

This section lists a few examples of how the picture glance card can be used.

Creating a card to control the camera

If your camera supports PTZ (can be moved in different directions), you can use the picture glance card to control the camera.

Picture glance card to control the camera Picture glance card to control the camera.

  1. Select your camera entity.

    • Image path and Image entity are not required. Select camera entity

  2. If you want something to happen when you tap the card itself, define a tap action.

    • Here, we toggle a light. Select camera entity

  3. Select the entities to move the camera left, right, up, or down. Select camera entity

  4. Select Show code editor.

  5. For each of the entities, specify an icon, as indicated in the YAML example.

  6. For the buttons to react on press (instead of bringing up the dialog):

    • For each of the entities, under tap_action, call a button.press service.
    camera_view: live
type: picture-glance
title: Desk
entities:
  - entity: button.camera1_ptz_left
    icon: mdi:pan-left
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: button.press
      data:
        entity_id: button.camera1_ptz_left
  - entity: button.camera1_ptz_right
    icon: mdi:pan-right
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: button.press
      data:
        entity_id: button.camera1_ptz_right
  - entity: button.camera1_ptz_up
    icon: mdi:pan-up
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: button.press
      data:
        entity_id: button.camera1_ptz_up
  - entity: button.camera1_ptz_down
    icon: mdi:pan-down
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: button.press
      data:
        entity_id: button.camera1_ptz_down
camera_image: camera.camera1_sub
tap_action:
  action: call-service
  service: light.toggle
  target:
    entity_id: light.philips_929003052501_01_huelight

  7. That’s it. You can now control your camera from the picture glance card on your dashboard.

More examples

type: picture-glance
title: Living room
entities:
  - switch.decorative_lights
  - light.ceiling_lights
  - lock.front_door
  - binary_sensor.movement_backyard
  - binary_sensor.basement_floor_wet
image: /local/living_room.png

Display a camera image as background:

type: picture-glance
title: Living room
entities:
  - switch.decorative_lights
  - light.ceiling_lights
camera_image: camera.demo_camera

Display a camera image without additional entities:

type: picture-glance
title: Front garden
entities: []
camera_image: camera.front_garden_camera

Use different images based on entity state:

type: picture-glance
title: Living room
entities:
  - switch.decorative_lights
  - light.ceiling_lights
state_image:
  "on": /local/living_room_on.png
  "off": /local/living_room_off.png
entity: group.living.room

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