🚀 [New Plugin] PDF Creator

Hi all,

I recently released the PDF Creator plugin. Here’s what you can do with it:

  1. Generate a PDF for any single element in your bubble app
  2. Generate a PDF for MULTIPLE elements in your bubble app
  3. Automatically download the PDFs you create
  4. Save created PDFs to your database
  5. Generate PDFs of repeating groups cleanly across multiple pages
  6. Trigger workflows using the “A PDF Creator Recorded” custom event

There’s plenty of customisation options available. You can:

  1. Choose between landscape and portrait layout
  2. Set the margin on the top, bottom, left and right
  3. Give your PDF a custom name
  4. Set the quality of the PDF using the “scale” value

Check out the demo app I put together to see the detail on how the plugin:
https://pdf-creator-demo.bubbleapps.io/ (the editor is public!)

I’ve also put together a detailed video tutorial on how to use the plugin:

Plugin page:

If you any questions on how the plugin works, let me know in the comments :slight_smile:

7 Likes

Great plugin! It seems smooth UX!

Wondering if saving or creating pdf’s is mobile responsive? Or does element (to create a pdf out of) needs to be a fixed and wide spread element group? If not if there is possibility to add this option, where we can add a custom size, to make a pdf always at that size.

Thanks!

1 Like

Thanks @another :slight_smile:

Yes, I can confirm the plugin creates PDFs in a “mobile responsive” way - the elements do not need to have a fixed width or height,

2023-04-21 07.55.34

For example, you’ll see in the below demo that the “invoice” element does not respond perfectly to the reduced screen width. But when you generate a PDF of it, the outcome is still anicely formatted.

If you have any other questions just let me know!

1 Like

Wow! Looks good @alexcooney5. To follow on the previous question, how should we size our element so that it would fit perfectly on the portrait/landscape view? I note that there are margin controls for your plugin but no width/length controls.

2 Likes

Hi @nocodejordan, thank you for the kind words :slight_smile:.

You are correct - there are margin controls but no width/length controls. The elements respond based on the settings of the parent container.

For example, in the below example I have no fixed width in the parent group that contains the two text elements. Each text element has a min width of 300px. You’ll see there’s plenty of space between the two texts in the resulting PDF (with the group taking up the full width of the PDF).

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The second parent group has a fixed width of 700px (and again, text elements have a min width of 300px). You’ll see the resulting PDF responds to the fixed width of the parent group.

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Getting your element to perfectly fit the PDF view may take a bit of trial and error. I advise starting off with setting the max width of the element you are PDF-ing to “inf” and adjusting from there if necessary.

Hope that helps and if you have any other questions let me know!

PS - very sorry for the late response. Didn’t catch the notification :frowning: Have added an alert to this thread so won’t miss any comments in futures.

JULY-23 UPDATES AND TIPS:

  • I added sections to the demo app that show how to generate PDFs from a popup:

2023-07-23 10.38.02

  • Also added a demo of how to generate a PDF of a repeating group across multiple pages

2023-07-23 10.40.47

  • I wrote this guide on how to send a PDF via email
  • The plugin is now compatible with Right-to-Left (“RTL”) scripts (including Arabic and Hebrew). There was previously a bug that meant the spacing was off for RTL scripts

if I already have a pdf ready and I want to edit it?

include one more custom page at the end and on each page of the pdf I paste a code.
need to use in an electronic signature platform.

Hi @rcgrcontato8, I’m afraid the plugin isn’t currently designed to edit existing PDFs - just to generate new ones from elements loaded on the page.

Thanks for the suggestion though - I’ll add to the list of features I want to add in the future :slight_smile:

1 Like

SEPTEMBER-23 UPDATES:

Added the ability add footers to your PDF. You can:

  • Add text elements to the left- and right-hand side of the footer
  • Add automatic page numbers by typing “page-counter” into either the “Left Footer Content” or “Right Footer Content” fields
  • Specify margins and font size/color
  • Draw a line at the top of the footer

2023-09-08 12.24.40

Full details and sample workflow available on the plugin demo page.

Just released a video tutorial on how to apply footers to your PDFs!

What size pdf is this supposed to create? Is there a way to set it to Letter 8.5x11? The pdf’s I get are 8.27x11.69.

Hi @blake1, it currently outputs the PDF in A4 size.

However, I have been meaning to add the ability to select other sizes. I’ll aim to implement this feature tomorrow and get back to you.

1 Like

Hi again @blake1, I’ve just released an updated version of the plugin that allows you to specify the “Format” of your PDF. There are a range of options, including A1-A10 and letter sizes.

You’ll need to upgrade to the latest version of the plugin to access this feature.

Hopefully this is what you’re looking for - if you’ve any questions just let me know :slight_smile:

1 Like

I like the simplicity of setting up and using this plugin.

I can also see areas for enhancement. In particular, right off the top, is it possible to identify a group or in some other way specify a header for every page of the output PDF?

I am not familiar with a4 size paper. How compatible is this with US letter, i.e. 8.5 X 11 in?

Is the plugin generating a bitmap image for the PDF page(s) or is it retaining text?

Thanks.

1 Like

Hi @Laurence, thanks for the feedback and detailed suggestions!

To answer your questions:

is it possible to identify a group or in some other way specify a header for every page of the output PDF?

This isn’t possible right now, but it’s a feature I’ve added to the roadmap.

I am not familiar with a4 size paper. How compatible is this with US letter, i.e. 8.5 X 11 in?

The dimensions of an a4 size document is 8.3 x 11.7 inches. If you’re looking for 8.5 X 11 inches, you can use the “letter” option.

Is the plugin generating a bitmap image for the PDF page(s) or is it retaining text?

The plugin is effectively capturing an image of each element selected.

Hope that helps and if you’ve any other questions let me know :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thanks for the quick response, Alex.
I appreciate what you’ve done with PDF Creator.
I’m looking for a way to produce searchable PDFs. And page headers are essential for my application.

It seems to me that Bubble’s responsive engine provides the bulk of the logic needed to format a page for print, but I don’t suppose third party plugin developers have enough access to the internals in order to leverage the responsive engine for rendering as PDF.

1 Like

Eu também gostaria desse recurso e ter como mesclar PDFs e editar PDF já prontos.

1 Like

Obrigado pelas sugestões. Certamente gostaria de adicionar a capacidade de mesclar PDFs existentes e planejo fazê-lo (mas pode levar algum tempo). Adicionar a capacidade de editar PDFs existentes seria bem mais difícil, receio.

Desculpe se meu português não está bom :slight_smile:

1 Like

October-23 Updates

Product

  • Just released an updated version of the plugin that has a “Save to Database” yes/no field.
  • If set to no, the output PDF will NOT be saved down to the File Manager section of your Bubble database.

Tutorials

Also wanted to highlight this excellent tutorial that @joemanier created recently on how to use the PDF Creator plugin :slight_smile:

1 Like

Just released version 1.7.4 of the plugin.

The latest version includes improved error handling.