Who can use this: Owner, Manager, Accountant. URL / Route:
/finance/pdf-templates(finance.pdf-templates.index). Design gallery:/finance/pdf-templates/designs. Editor:/finance/pdf-templates/custom/{id}/edit. Plan / feature gate:feature:pdf_templates_enabled. Permissions:pdf_templates.view,pdf_templates.manage.
Purpose
PDF Templates control how your printed documents look — invoices, quotes, bills, receipts and every other document type. Each document type can have several templates; the default one is used whenever a PDF is generated. You can fine-tune colours, fonts, layout, and which fields appear.
The three screens
| Screen | What it does |
|---|---|
Templates (/finance/pdf-templates) |
Lists every template, grouped by document type. Set defaults, duplicate, edit, delete. |
Browse designs (/finance/pdf-templates/designs) |
A gallery of ready-made designs. Pick one to create a fully-built template. |
Editor (custom/{id}/edit) |
The block-based visual editor for fine-tuning a template. |
Ready-made designs
The design gallery offers ten distinct, fully-built layouts — each a different look and a single clean accent colour:
| Design | Style |
|---|---|
| Slate Blue | Clean full-width header band — the safe default |
| Teal Sidebar | Full-height coloured sidebar |
| Midnight Slab | Dark charcoal header, inverted type |
| Sunset Coral | Warm centred pill title, rounded panels |
| Editorial Mono | Oversized title, hairline rules, monochrome |
| Bilingual VAT | English + Arabic labels, bordered — GCC tax invoices |
| Amber Ribbon | Colour ribbon across the top and down the edge |
| Indigo Stacked | No band — a stacked title over a thick underline |
| Boxed Plum | Every section in its own outlined card |
| Compact Rose | Slim header, dense layout for long documents |
Click Use this design on any card to create a new custom template from it and make it the default for that document type. Existing templates are kept — you can switch back any time.
New organizations start with the Slate Blue design on every document type.
The editor
The editor builds a document from sections → columns → widgets. Drag widgets in from the left panel; select any block to style it in the Inspector on the right.
Widgets
Logo, heading, text, document metadata, organization info, bill-to / customer block, line-items table, totals, bank details, signature, divider, spacer, image, badge, and more.
Styling controls (Inspector)
- Colour — every colour field is a visual picker with a swatch palette and one-click presets; no hex typing needed.
- Font family — a searchable picker of 80+ fonts, grouped Latin and Arabic (Cairo, Tajawal, Amiri, Inter, Roboto, and many more), each previewed in its own typeface.
- Font size — S / M / L / XL presets plus a number stepper.
- Background, borders, padding, alignment — per section and per column.
Modes
- Editor — the drag-and-drop canvas.
- Split — canvas beside a live preview.
- Preview — full rendered preview with sample data.
Customer scope
A template can be Org-wide (used for every customer) or scoped to a specific customer as an override. The customer-scoped template wins for that customer; everyone else keeps the org-wide default.
Behaviour and rules
- Default per document type. Exactly one template per document type is the default; generating a PDF uses it.
- PDFs render with Chromium, so web fonts, gradients and modern CSS all work — the preview matches the final PDF.
- Variables like
{{ invoice.number }}and{{ customer.name }}are replaced with real data at render time.
Related
- Invoices, Quotes, Sales orders, Sales receipts, Bills, Purchase orders, Credit notes, Refund receipts, Debit notes — every document type renders through a template.
- Customer portal — uses the active template when the customer downloads.
- Settings — the template designer lives here.
- Documents library — generated PDFs are archived in the library.
- Customers — per-customer template override.