Horizontal air quality index card with background

Who it’s for

Dashboard authors monitoring outdoor air quality stations or smart city sensors ask “is the air quality acceptable right now?” They use these cards on dedicated displays or reception screens where a background image gives the card a polished look while keeping the layout narrow.

What it does

A sensor reporting 45 shows a green icon and a green value — Good — over the preset background, in a horizontal strip that takes up less vertical space than a square card.

• Color-coded icon and value that both change across six AQI severity bands, from Good to Hazardous
• Horizontal layout with the icon and label on the left and the value on the right — fits narrow columns and metric-row dashboards
• Decorative background image bundled with the widget, with a white overlay that keeps the text readable
• Last-updated timestamp showing how long ago the reading arrived
• Shows one AQI reading at a time; it does not chart history or compare multiple sensors

How to set up

Data keys

Key	Role	Type	Description
air	Main value	Timeseries	Numeric AQI reading; change the key name to match your device’s telemetry key

The widget ships with a simulated function datasource key labeled Air Quality Index, so it draws random values until you point the datasource at a device and rename the key.

To point it at your own device: open the dashboard in edit mode, open the widget’s Datasources, pick the entity or entity alias, and replace the function key with the key your device reports.

The card shows the value in AQI units with one decimal place. If the key has never reported, the card displays the label and icon with an empty value, not an error.

Value ranges

Range	Level	Color
0–50	Good	Green
50–100	Moderate	Orange
100–150	Unhealthy (sensitive)	Orange
150–200	Unhealthy	Red
200–300	Very Unhealthy	Purple
300+	Hazardous	Maroon

How to customize

• To swap the background image — open the widget settings and set Background to a different image or switch to a solid color.
• To adjust how much the background shows through — change the Overlay opacity; lower values reveal more of the image, higher values push it further back.
• To use your own AQI color bands — edit Icon color ranges and Value color ranges; set the same boundaries in both so the icon and the number always agree on the severity.
• To change the icon — set Icon to any Material or MDI icon name.
• To hide the label, icon, or timestamp — turn off Show label, Show icon, or Show date.
• To switch to an absolute timestamp — turn off Last update ago in the date format settings.
• To match your dashboard’s fonts — set Value font and Label font.

Tips

• Keep Icon color ranges and Value color ranges on the same boundaries so the icon and the number always show the same severity level.
• If the background image reduces contrast, raise the Overlay opacity to keep the text readable from a distance.
• The default upper range starts at 300 with no upper limit. The card colors the value correctly even when a reading goes above 500.