Dear reenactors, organizers, friends,
let us present the result of a long-term international project, which was prepared in the years 2021-2022 and required considerable time and financial investment. The aim of the project is to offer the international reenactment community the so-called costume passport generator, ie a document that significantly facilitates the creation of costume passports.
The idea of costume passports is to create a short file, which is a digital documentation of your costume and which can change together with your wardrobe. Such a document is generally useful and helps at three main levels:
- It helps reenactors to bring their own historical costumestogether, understand the shortcomings of their gears and, if necessary, immediately present their equipment to others.
- It helps the organizers to keep a good record of equipment before the event, which leads to an increase in the visual quality of the event and prevents the problems during the event.
- The costume passport inspires beginners, other reenactors and those interested in the historical and fantasy costumes.
The costume passport generator is without exaggeration a revolution in the approach to costume presentation and represents a significant simplification for the next generation of technically capable reenactors. For the greatest possible success of the idea, we present the generator in nine different language versions (English, Czech, Slovak, German, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish, French and Romanian). We encourage reenactors, groups and event organizers not to hesitate to distribute the downloaded files as they please and to place them on their websites.
Files for download
Technical side of the matter
The file you download above is a PDF file, and one of the Adobe products is required to run it. In practice, this means that your device must be equipped with an operating system that can run this program (eg Windows). You can edit the file only after downloading and opening it in the mentioned program, it cannot be edited in a preview, for example in a browser.
Then it is enough to fill in the individual fields. Click on the image field to open the directory, find and upload your photo. The field does not have a size limit, so you can upload images with sizes of several thousand pixels. Some resolutions (such as ratio 9:16) may not be supported, so we recommend using ratios 3:4, 1:1 and 4:3. We recommend uploading collages, which you can create at www.fotojet.com, for example. Images can be zoomed very well when viewed in the PDF. The text fields are also not limited – if you exceed the frame size, a scroll bar will appear on the side.
Then simply save the resulting file. The file size corresponds to the sum of the sizes of the uploaded images, and therefore may exceed a gigabyte. In this full size, the file is open for editing and can be rewritten at any time by the reenactor or annotated by the organizer. In the case of saving for printing (Microsoft Print to PDF function) or another method of compression, the data size will be reduced, but you will lose the possibility of editing. We generally do not recommend printing the file. We recommend using the Úschovna or Google Drive to distribute the completed passport.
Content side of the matter
The generator is our idea of the most universal solution possible, which gives freedom to reenactors and organizers. As for the detail of the filling in, we do not want to give any strict regulations on how to handle the costume passport. We can only make a few recommendations for future applicants.
The generally defined header in the introduction is designed to include the project name, reenactor name, and current date. The structure of each costume item is designed to accommodate a general description of your reproduction and a reference to the original. The space for images does not seem to be large, but when using collages, literally hundreds of images can fit in the document.
We recommend using the refering to the Additional notes and Attachments that can be found on the last two pages. If you are a couple or a group, you can link your documents to each other.
The generator is pleasantly graphically rendered with period ornaments and author’s drawings, which visually point to the object you are currently filling.
If for some reason the passport does not suit you and you would like a custom modification, do not hesitate to contact us.
Example of a completed document
Below you can find a sample of a completed costume passport. The passport, called Member of Gotlandic Militia, presents equipment of Jan Bartošek from the Sköll Group. Everyday and combat equipment is supplemented by the basic characteristics of the presented character and a number of references to literature.
You can download the file (243 MB) using the link or by clicking on the image.
A few words in conclusion
Please help us change the culture of reenactment by using a costume passport generator. If you want to share your completed document, you can send it to us and we will be happy to consult and possibly publish it. You can also contact us in case of any other technical questions and requests. At the same time, you can help spread our idea with the #costumepassport hashtag.
Costume passport archive
Mestellér János
X. századi magyar előkelő
Kenéz Árpád
9-10. századi pákász
Kenéz Árpád
9-10. századi magyar íjász
Kenéz Árpád
Szent István
Kenéz Vitéz
10. századi magyar gyermek
Monika Baráková
A 9th century woman from Bj 515, Birka
Artis Āboltiņš
Mid-11th century Lathgallian
Samuel Grolich
Rich man from Birka, 10th century
Marianne Tóvinnukona
A Greenlandic woman, 1000–1500 AD
Данилов Е.В.
Varangian mercenary in Byzantium, 11th century
Marobud group
Norwegian warrior in the 10th century
5 responses
This is a wonderful idea and I think a great asset to the reenactment community. Indeviduals, groups and external historical institutions will all benefit from a resource that will enable the accuracy and authenticity to be readily shared and will act as inspiration to newcomers to reenactment and the responsibility that it entails.
Thank you for this great job. It is very good resourse to apply for description of different times costumes
Thank you so much, Emma!
Excellent tool!
Thank you so much, Peter!