PDF Generation

Crove generates high-quality PDFs from your completed documents using a professional rendering engine. PDFs preserve all formatting, fonts, images, tables, and page breaks.

How it works

When a document is completed (all required responses and signatures submitted):

1. Crove renders the document template with the filled variable values
2. The rendering engine converts the HTML output to a pixel-perfect PDF
3. The PDF is stored and available for download
4. The document owner and respondents (if permitted) can download it

Automatic PDF generation

PDFs are generated automatically when:

• Document completion — When all respondents have submitted their responses and signatures
• Manual trigger — When the document owner clicks Generate PDF in the document detail page
• API request — When a PDF is requested via the REST API

PDF formatting

The PDF output respects all formatting from the template editor:

Supported elements

• Text formatting (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough)
• Headings (H1-H4)
• Lists (bullet, numbered, checklist)
• Tables with borders and cell formatting
• Images (embedded in the PDF)
• Links (clickable in the PDF)
• Blockquotes
• Code blocks
• Horizontal rules
• Custom fonts

Page layout

• Page size — A4, Letter, A3, A5, Legal, Tabloid, and more
• Orientation — Portrait or landscape
• Margins — Configurable top, bottom, left, right margins in centimeters
• Page breaks — Insert explicit page breaks in the template editor
• Headers and footers — Persistent content at the top and bottom of every page, rendered natively by the PDF engine
• Page numbers — Automatic page numbering in decimal (1, 2, 3) or "Page X of Y" format, inserted in headers or footers
• Section breaks — Divide the document into sections with different top and bottom margins per section

See Page Settings for full configuration details.

Custom fonts

Pro and Business plan users can upload custom fonts:

1. Go to Settings > Fonts
2. Upload your font file (TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2)
3. The font becomes available in the template editor
4. PDFs render with your custom fonts

This ensures brand consistency across all your documents.

Downloading PDFs

From the documents list

1. Find the document in your documents list
2. Click the download icon (visible on hover)
3. The PDF downloads immediately

From the document detail page

1. Open the document
2. Click Download PDF in the actions menu
3. Choose to download the document PDF or the audit trail PDF

As a respondent

If the document owner has enabled Can download document:

1. After submitting the form, the respondent sees a download option
2. They can download the completed PDF immediately

Via API

Request the PDF programmatically:

curl -X GET https://crove.app/api/external/v1/documents/{id}/pdf \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -o document.pdf

Audit trail PDF

A separate audit trail PDF can be generated for compliance:

• Lists every action taken on the document
• Includes timestamps, IP addresses, and user agents
• Shows signature details (type, consent, verification)
• Tamper-proof record for legal purposes

Download the audit trail PDF from the document detail page under Audit Trail > Download PDF.

DOCX export

In addition to PDF, documents can be exported as DOCX (Microsoft Word) files:

1. Open the document detail page
2. Click Export DOCX in the actions menu
3. The DOCX file downloads with all formatting preserved

DOCX export is useful when you need to make manual edits to the final document.

Best practices

1. Preview before sending — Use the template preview to check how the PDF will look
2. Use page breaks — Control page layout explicitly for professional results
3. Test with real data — Generate a test PDF with sample data to verify formatting
4. Upload brand fonts — Custom fonts ensure your PDFs match your brand guidelines
5. Keep images optimized — Large images increase PDF file size