PDF branding and documents

Read time: 4 minutes. Who it's for: Merchants tailoring how their generated quote documents look - logo, brand colors, header and footer text, terms.

QuotWay generates three PDF document types per quote:

Type	When it generates	Plan gate
Proposal	The merchant sends a proposal to the buyer	All plans
Confirmation	The buyer accepts the proposal (full or partial)	Professional+
Pro-Forma	The buyer accepts and needs an invoice ahead of conversion	Professional+

All three use the same branding settings.

⚠️ Confirmation and Pro-Forma PDFs require the Professional plan or higher. The Proposal PDF is available on every plan.

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What's customizable

Open Admin → Apps → QuotWay → Settings → PDF branding. You'll see:

Field	Default	Notes
Logo URL	(none)	Paste a Shopify CDN URL from Shopify Admin → Files.
Primary color	#1B3A5C (Navy 900)	Used for page headers, totals row, accents.
Secondary color	#374151 (Slate)	Used for table borders, body-text emphasis.
Accent color	#0D9488 (Teal 600)	Used for status pills and callouts.
PDF header text	(empty)	Free-form text above the line items table.
PDF footer text	(empty)	Free-form text below the totals. Often address + tax ID.
Terms text	(empty)	Long terms-and-conditions block on the last page.
Show product images	On	Toggle the small thumbnail next to each line.
Show acceptance stamp	On	Adds a buyer-signed stamp on Confirmation PDFs.
Show signature block	Off	Adds a print-and-sign block (authorised signature, name, date) to the proposal.

Each of the three brand colors has a color picker - choose a color from the swatch or enter a value, and QuotWay stores it for you. No need to hand-type a hex code.

Signatures, PO numbers, and acceptance

Three things buyers' purchasing processes commonly ask for, and where each one lives.

The signature block

Turn on Show signature block to add a print-and-sign area to the proposal - authorised signature, name, and date. It's there for purchasing processes that need a signed PDF in the file, and it's printed rather than interactive: the buyer prints, signs, and returns it through whatever channel their process uses.

How acceptance is actually recorded

Separately from the printed block, QuotWay captures acceptance natively when the buyer accepts in the portal or their customer account. That record carries a timestamp, an acceptance hash, and the accepting party's email, and it's stamped onto the Confirmation PDF (see Show acceptance stamp). For most buyers that's the artefact their finance team files - it names who accepted, what, and when, without anyone printing anything.

Getting a PO number onto the proposal

Buyers whose process runs on PO numbers usually want the number visible on the document itself. Custom fields do this: add a custom text field to your quote form labelled PO number, and the buyer's answer renders in a Your request details block on the proposal PDF - and travels onto the resulting order as a buyer-visible attribute, so it's on the order record too.

That makes a custom field the right home for anything the buyer supplies that has to appear on paperwork: PO number, project reference, cost centre, delivery instructions. See Custom fields and conditional logic.

How to upload your logo

QuotWay reads the logo from a Shopify CDN URL. The pattern:

1. Shopify Admin → Settings → Files.
2. Click Upload files. Pick your logo PNG or SVG (max 1 MB).
3. After upload, click the file and copy its CDN URL - it looks like https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/....
4. QuotWay → Settings → PDF branding. Paste the URL into the Logo URL field. Hit Save.

The logo renders at about 120 px wide on every PDF page, top-left, above the header text.

Best practices:

• PNG with a transparent background is the safest. SVG works, but fonts inside SVGs render inconsistently across viewers.
• Aspect ratio under 4:1 (wider than tall). Tall logos get crammed.
• No background color - the PDF page is white; if your logo has a non-white background it'll show as a colored rectangle.

When PDFs auto-generate

By default:

• Proposal PDF - auto-generated when the merchant clicks Send proposal. Attached to the buyer's notification email.
• Confirmation PDF - auto-generated on FULLY_ACCEPTED or PARTIALLY_ACCEPTED. Stored on the quote; the buyer can download it from the portal.
• Pro-Forma PDF - generated on demand. The merchant clicks Generate Pro-Forma in the quote detail.

Toggle auto-generation in Settings → PDF branding - there are auto-generate toggles per document type.

Where PDFs are stored

Each PDF is a regular attachment (see File attachments):

• Stored encrypted at rest.
• Retention follows your plan (Lite 30 days, Starter 90, Professional 180, Enterprise 365). See File attachments for the full retention table.
• Visibility: buyer-visible for Proposal and Confirmation; merchant-only for Pro-Forma until the merchant explicitly shares it.
• Re-generated on demand if the merchant updates the proposal (the old PDF is preserved; the new version overwrites only the latest pointer).

Locale support

PDFs use the buyer's quote-time locale. Text strings like "Quote #1234" become "Devis #1234" (FR), and labels like "Subtotal" become "Sous-total". The merchant's free-form text (header, footer, terms) is not auto-translated - write it in the languages you do business in, and use Shopify Translate & Adapt to localize storefront strings.

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Common gotchas

• Logo shows as a broken-image icon. The URL isn't reachable from QuotWay's render worker. Use a Shopify CDN URL (always reachable), not a Google Drive or Dropbox share link (those need auth).
• Colors look washed out. PDFs render at sRGB. If you pasted a wide-gamut color value, it'll snap to sRGB. Always pick from an sRGB palette.
• "Pro-Forma not available on your plan." Upgrade to Professional or higher. Proposal PDFs are available on every plan; Confirmation and Pro-Forma PDFs require Professional or higher.
• Old PDFs still show old branding. PDFs are generated once at the event time. Regenerate via the quote detail page if you changed branding mid-quote.

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Related articles

• File attachments - storage and retention details.
• Buyer portal vs customer account - the buyer's-eye view of generated PDFs.
• Plans, trial, and billing - which document types each plan includes.