Using a PDF design

Last updated: 18 September, 2026

The Use PDF design action lets you provide users with a clean, professional PDF of their form submissions in just a few clicks. First, you set up and activate a design template in the Admin centre. Once activated, Formcentric applies this layout automatically to your form—leaving you to simply decide which content and form elements to include.

Step 1: Design your PDF template in the Admin centre

Create your PDF design it in the Admin centre

Go to Emails and PDFs in the Admin centre.
Navigate to the PDF designs section.
Click New PDF design.
Configure your preferred settings using the options below.
Click Activate in the top-right corner to save your changes and activate the design.

Please note

If another design is already active, activating a new design will immediately replace it. Only one design can be active at a time.

Setting	Description
Select image	Upload an image (such as your company logo) to display in the PDF header.
Name	Give your PDF design a recognisable name for display in the Admin centre and form selection menus.
Template	Choose your preferred layout from the available pre-built templates.
Columns	Choose whether to display the document layout in one or two columns.
Font size	Set the default font size for the PDF text.
Colours	Select two accent colours. The specific areas highlighted by these colours depend on your chosen design template.
Timestamp	Choose whether to display a submission timestamp in the PDF header or footer.
Page numbers	Choose whether to display page numbers on the document.

Step 2: Select the PDF design in your form

Open the form you want to generate PDFs for.
Click Settings in the top menu, then select Actions from the left sidebar.
Scroll down to the PDF section and click New PDF.
In the dialogue box that appears, select Use PDF design.
In the General section, adjust the following settings:

Setting	Description
Label	Enter an internal name for this PDF action to easily identify it if you manage multiple actions.
File name	Specify a filename for the generated PDF document.

Step 3: Define your PDF content

Under the Texts section, configure the custom text elements that will appear in your PDF:

Field	Description
Header title	Enter the main title displayed at the top of the PDF page header.
Introductory heading	Enter a heading to appear directly above your intro text.
Introductory text	Add text to introduce the submission summary (e.g. "Here is a summary of the details you submitted.").
Form elements heading	Enter a section heading to introduce the form data list.
Closing notes	Add text to appear below the submission data (e.g. "Please note that processing your request may take a few working days.").
Footer text	Enter custom text to appear at the bottom of every page in the PDF.

Step 4: Select form elements to display

In the Form elements section, use the selection tool to choose exactly which elements to include in the generated PDF.

Click Select form elements and tick the elements you want to display.
Click Select all to include every field at once, or Deselect all to clear your selection.
Click the green button in the bottom-right corner to save your selection.
Enable Hide empty elements if you only want elements filled out by the user to appear on the PDF.
Click Publish changes in the top right to save the changes.

Step 5: Provide the completed PDF document

When users fill in and submit your form, Formcentric automatically generates a customized PDF containing your configured text blocks and selected form submissions.

You have two options for making this PDF document available: directly on the confirmation message displayed after submission, or as an email notification attachment. If you want to send the PDF to yourself or a team member, use an email notification.

PDF download link in the confirmation message

Go to Settings.
Click Confirmation message in the left sidebar.
Review the current text in the confirmation message field and adapt it to your needs.
Place your cursor in the text field where you want the PDF download link to appear.
Click the PDF icon above the text area.
Select the corresponding PDF document you want to link.

Users can now download the PDF document directly from the confirmation message right after submitting the form.

PDF attachment in an email notification

Go to Settings.
Click Actions in the left sidebar.
Click New email notification.
Set up your notification (for detailed guidance, see our article on setting up email notifications).
Scroll down to the Attachment section.
Enable Attach PDF.
Select the corresponding PDF document from the list.

The PDF document will now be sent as an attachment in the email notifications to all specified recipients.