How to mimic cards generated by passwordcard.org?

Question

Assuming we have generated contents of card (i.e. excluding top header row and left indexing column) , for eg. with some pseudo-random generator script. How to render such to mimic the look of one from passwordcard.org ?

Is it possible to make it nice to put content into template (e.g. pure txt, or some csv capable environment or sth), so one can easily copy&paste contents without need of retyping into individual cells (or making script to do so)?

How to generate cards similar to passwordcard.org, for example this one:

May be without border and code on bottom , like this:

With defined page size (fitting standard business card, 3.5 in × 2 in).

Answer 1

Here you go …

I used colortbl (loaded by xcolor) to color the rows in the tabular and TikZ to draw the frame around it. Some more explanations are in the code comments, let me know if I should explain something in more detail.

\documentclass[fontsize=8.5pt]{scrartcl}

% set page size
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{
   paperwidth = 3.5in,
   paperheight = 2in,
   margin = 0.15in,
}

% load array for the '>{stuff}' syntax in tabular
\usepackage{array}

% load xcolor to define the colors
% 'table' option loads colortbl (reccomended way)
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
% define the colors for the rows
\definecolor{row1}{HTML}{FFFFFF}
\definecolor{row2}{HTML}{C1C1C1}
\definecolor{row3}{HTML}{F0C4C1}
\definecolor{row4}{HTML}{D6FDC2}
\definecolor{row5}{HTML}{FFFFC3}
\definecolor{row6}{HTML}{C1C2FF}
\definecolor{row7}{HTML}{F0C5FF}
\definecolor{row8}{HTML}{D6FEFF}

% make rows a bit higher
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.25}

% we want to use TikZ to add the border around the page
% to get it at the right position, compile twice!
\usepackage{tikz}
   \usetikzlibrary{calc}

\begin{document}
% content should be centered and in monotype font:
\centering\ttfamily
% 1. the border, relative to the 'current page' node
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
   \draw [rounded corners = 3mm, thick] ($(current page.north west)+(0.1in,-0.1in)$)
      rectangle ($(current page.south east)+(-0.1in,0.1in)$);
\end{tikzpicture}
% 2. the table containing the random codes
% - '>{\scriptsize}' manes add '\scriptsize' to every cell in this col
% - '\rowcolor{row1}' colors the row – who had guessed that ;-)
\begin{tabular}{>{\scriptsize}ll}
                  & Header row with same amount of characters \\
\rowcolor{row1} 1 & Some quite random charachters in this row \\
\rowcolor{row2} 2 & Some quite random+=!@\#\$\%\textasciicircum\&*()\_-\textbackslash|'"`\textasciitilde \\
\rowcolor{row3} 3 & \verb?Some quite random+=!@#$%^&*()_-\|'"`~? \\
\rowcolor{row4} 4 & Some quite random charachters in this row \\
\rowcolor{row5} 5 & Some quite random charachters in this row \\
\rowcolor{row6} 6 & Some quite random charachters in this row \\
\rowcolor{row7} 7 & Some quite random charachters in this row \\
\rowcolor{row8} 8 & Some quite random charachters in this row \\
\end{tabular}

% 3. the smaller code at the bottom
% - \vfill inserst a stretchabe space, so the code is shifted to the
%   bottom of the page
\vfill
\scriptsize
Smaller code
\end{document}

To find the symbols in the first row you may take a look at symbols-a4.pdf or How to look up a symbol or identify a math symbol or character?.

PS: I was too lazy to type the strings from your pictures ;-)