How to make a digital character sheet?

[Thomas Shey]

A spreadsheet is probably the most simple one. You can do it in Excel, but people would need Excel, you can also use LibreOffice Calc, an open source spreadsheet program everyone can download for free on many platforms. Or use Google Sheets (also free, but proprietary), you can easily share it online with people.

You can make interactive PDFs, but that require specialized tools (Adobe Acrobat Pro isn't cheap for example).

It kind of depends on the purpose of why you want to do it. Is it just a tool people use before the in person session or do you want to use it during the session? If so, looking towards a VTT solution might help, and then depending on your VTT of choice (mine is Foundry VTT) it's either impossible or can be quite a bit of work...

You can also have a case where the GM wants to keep copies of sheets and it just is easier if their sheet and the player's is essentially the same format.

 

[aramis erak]

I am still too much of a fan of pen-and-paper so I print out my custom character sheets, but if I were to make a digital version of them nowadays, the first thing coming to mind would be a simple HTML page with autocalculations, which should work in every browser (so that it can be used on laptop, tablet or phone). Vibe-code it with the help of your favourite LLM AI if you don't have the skills yourself.

Working in a browser and being printable are not always compatible. PDF forms are preferable, especially since most major web browsers now support PDF Forms in the browser