Forms are essential for any website. Whether you’re capturing leads, processing orders, or gathering feedback, they’re how your audience connects with your business. If you’re using WordPress, chances are you’ve heard of Gravity Forms (or you’re already using it). It’s a powerful plugin for building all kinds of simple and complex forms. But here’s the thing: what happens after someone hits that submit button? Gravity Forms automatically stores the data and has a plethora of add-ons to connect that information with third-party services. With countries across the globe putting the spotlight on privacy, keeping data internal and secure has becoming increasingly important for businesses. The challenge then is how you can transform that database of entries into a format that’s more useful for everyday operations.
Beyond the Database
Think about it. What’s a file format that’s ubiquitous, universally available, and preserves complex formatting? That’s the magic of PDFs. They are incredibly versatile and a good tool for archiving, sharing, and presenting your data professionally and consistently. Is there a self-hosted, privacy-focused tool that’ll automatically convert Gravity Forms entries into PDFs directly on your web server? Yes! Gravity PDF takes that raw form data and transforms it into beautiful, professional PDF documents. The plugin opens up a ton of new ways to store, present, and share the information you collect.
Let’s take a look at some of the many ways Gravity PDF can help supercharge your form data.
1. Jumpstart with Pre-Designed Templates
Gravity PDF is freemium software, which means the core plugin is completely free and you can choose to upgrade to get new features. For example, the free Core plugin includes four fully customizable templates right out of the box. We also have a great collection of pre-designed templates to get you started quickly. While you have the flexibility to build PDFs from the ground up, these templates are perfect for those who want a fast and easy setup. From simple invoices to complex reports, there’s plenty of choices to help you start generating useful PDFs without all the fuss.
How to use a template:
- From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the Gravity Forms Form List Page.
- Hover over the form you want to create a PDF for, and click PDF.
- Click Add New PDF, and complete the required fields: Label and Filename.
- In the Template dropdown, choose one of the four free included templates, or select one from our robust collection.
- Continue configuring the rest of the PDF setting: Appearance, Template, and Advanced sections. You can check out our documentation for details on each setting.
- Save your PDF settings.
All our templates are highly customizable, so no matter which one you choose you have the freedom to tailor it to your needs and turn any data into professional PDF documents.
2. Brand it Up
Your PDFs should look like you. Branding is key, and Gravity PDF lets you customize your PDF templates to match your brand. Add your logo, use your colors, choose your fonts and make it all consistent. Imagine generating branded invoices or contracts for orders you collect directly on your website. Talk about efficient (and professional)!
How to brand your PDFs:
- General Appearance: In the PDF settings, start with the Appearance section. Here, you can control the overall look and feel, such as paper size, orientation, and right-to-left language support.
- Fonts: Choose a font from the available options, or upload your own brand’s font using the handy Font Manager.
- Template Settings: Next, head over to the Template section. The settings found in this section varies depending on the specific Gravity PDF template you’re using. Whether it’s for invoices, certificates, or a more general template, you’ll find your template’s unique customizable settings here.
- Logo: Add your brand’s logo, either in the Header section or, for some templates, in a dedicated Logo Upload field.
- Color Customization: Some templates (like Aryal, Leo, Formialt, and more) allow you to change the color of certain design elements. Use these settings to add your brand colors and truly make the PDFs your own.
- Advanced Customization: For even greater control, consider using our Core Booster extension. This adds a whole new set of settings, letting you customize PDFs with more freedom. You can adjust page margins, filter and reorder fields just for the PDF, add custom CSS, and much more!
3. Extra Flair wth Custom Content
Form data is just the beginning. You might need to add supplementary information to your PDFs – like terms and conditions, disclaimers, or a personalized message. Gravity PDF makes this easy by letting you add custom content directly into your PDFs.
One way to do this is by using a Gravity Forms HTML field. This lets you add static text, images, links, or any other HTML you need.
How to add custom content:
- While editing your Gravity Form, add an HTML field.
- Use this field to add your desired content (text, images, HTML).
- Set the field’s visibility to Administrative. This crucial step makes sure that the content appears only in the PDF and not on the form itself.
- Turn on the Show HTML Fields PDF setting so these fields are included in your PDF
This simple yet powerful technique gives you more flexibility to create complete, informative, and personalized documents in one shareable PDF.
4. Get Smart with Conditional Logic
Gravity Forms already uses conditional logic to control which fields appear based on user input. Gravity PDF extends this functionality to your PDFs, allowing you to enable or disable PDF generation based on form responses.
How to use Conditional Logic with PDFs:
- Go to the PDF list for your form.
- Select the PDF you want to apply conditional logic to.
- Scroll down to the the Conditional Logic setting, under the General section.
- Set up the rules to determine when the PDF should be enabled or disabled based on specific user responses.
Disabled PDFs won’t appear in the admin area, and they won’t be viewable or attached to form notifications.
This powerful feature opens up a world of possibilities. Think personalized welcome packs with varying offers, dynamic invoices, interactive quizzes with different results, customized tickets, or tailored contracts—all generated and delivered based on user choices within Gravity Forms. Conditional logic takes PDF automation to a whole new level.
5. Protect Sensitive Data
Sensitive data? No problem. Gravity PDF has you covered with several security features. You can password-protect your PDFs and/or add watermarks to help you keep track of document sharing.
How to secure your PDFs:
- Go to the PDF list for your form.
- Select the PDF you want to secure.
- Scroll down to the Advanced section and Enable PDF Security settings.
- You can set a password for your PDFs and fine-tune user privileges to control what end users can do with the document (such as printing, copying, and more).
To better track document sharing you can use the Watermark extension with a unique identifier from the entry.
Wrapping Up
These five features are just a starting point. Gravity Forms is excellent for collecting data and Gravity PDF lets you transform that information with ease. Together, they turn your forms into a powerful document generation system. Gravity Forms and Gravity PDF make it easy to create professional, dynamic, and secure PDFs directly on your website.
