PDF Invoice Customisation

There are two invoice templates. One is for the client area invoice (viewinvoice.tpl). The other is for the PDF version of an invoice (invoicepdf.tpl). The templates are in the active WHMCS template folder.

Modifying the Logo

The logo on the PDF invoices is in the /assets/img/ folder. To change this logo, upload the required logo to the /assets/img/ folder. The name of the file should be "logo.jpg" or "logo.png".

You can change the width of the logo image in the invoicepdf.tpl template file. On line 10, adjust the last number, "75," before the closing bracket ();). This variable defines the image width. A developer can then increase or decrease this.

Header & Footer

This section describes a feature available in version 7.0 and above.

It is possible to cause a header or footer to automatically repeat on every page of a multi-page PDF invoice. If they are present in your theme, the system will include the following template files for every rendered PDF page:

invoicepdfheader.tpl

invoicepdffooter.tpl

The system only requires the respective header or footer files. For example, for a customized footer on each page, create a invoicepdffooter.tpl file. You must store these files in the same directory as the invoicepdf.tpl template file. During template processing, Smarty will provide each of these template files the same variables as invoicepdf.tpl.

Editing Text & Content

A developer can customise the PDF invoices. This includes adding or removing text, altering the layout, or adding further images and formatting. Do this by editing the template file invoicepdf.tpl in the active template folder. The file contains all the code relating to the layout and display of the invoice in its PDF format. You will need a basic working knowledge of PHP coding to understand and modify the file.

Displaying Custom Fields

It is possible to display custom fields on printable and PDF invoices. To do this, select Configuration () > System Settings > Custom Fields > Show on Invoice or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Custom Client Fields > Show on Invoice.

The following variables are available for use in the invoicepdf.tpl file. Obtain further data by running SQL queries from within the PHP template.

$invoiceid — The ID of the invoice.
$invoicenum — The custom number of the invoice (only set this when you have enabled proforma or sequential invoicing).
$datecreated — The creation date of the invoice.
$duedate — The due date of the invoice.
$datepaid — The paid date and time, if invoice status is Paid.
$userid — The client ID number.
$clientsdetails["firstname"] — The client information First Name.
$clientsdetails["lastname"] — The client information Last Name.
$clientsdetails["companyname"] — The client information Company Name.
$clientsdetails["fieldname"] — Other client information values, where fieldname is that item's name.
$customfields — An array of Client Custom Fields (for example, $customfields['Custom Field Name']). See Easy Translation for help with dynamically translating Custom Field Names.
$subtotal
$tax
$taxrate
$credit
$total
$status — Paid, unpaid or cancelled.
$paymentmethod
$notes
$companyname — The Company Name.
$companyurl — The Default Website URL.
$companyaddress — The Company Address.
$invoiceitems — An array of invoice items.

Changing/Translating Filename

The default filename for invoices is Invoice-xxx. For quotes, this is Quote-xxx. For both, xxx is the ID of the invoice or quote. It may be desirable to change the filenames the clients see or translate into other languages. Achieve this in the same way as any text within WHMCS, by using the Language Files. Look for these strings:

$_LANG['invoicefilename'] = "Invoice-";
$_LANG['quotefilename'] = "Quote-";

Reducing the File Size of PDFs

The bulk of the file size for PDFs that WHMCS generates come from the embedded font files for UTF-8. Because the UTF-8 charset has a large range of supported characters, this means it takes up more space than, for example, the ISO-8859-1 character set. Unlike UTF-8, ISO-8859-1 only supports A-Z, 0-9, and other standard characters.

If no clients are using special characters in their names or addresses, the system does not require UTF-8. It is then possible to reduce the size of PDF files by changing the font. To do that, go to Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Invoices > PDF Font Family or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > General Settings > Invoices > PDF Font Family. Then, change the selection from "Freesans" to "Helvetica".

Additional Fonts

The use of certain special characters may not be available in the standard font. So, WHMCS supplies an alternative font type that supports Czech, Russian, Arabic, and Persian, among others.

Version 7.7 and later

In version 7.7 and later, the system doesn't require any additional files.

To make this change:

Navigate to Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Invoices or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > General Settings > Invoices.
Select the "Dejavusans" option for the PDF Font Family setting.
Click Save Changes.

Version 7.6 and earlier

To make this change:

Download the font files from the URL below.
Upload into the /vendor/tecnickcom/tcpdf/fonts/ folder.
Specify the custom font name dejavusans in Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Invoices > PDF Font Family or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > General Settings > Invoices > PDF Font Family.

Troubleshooting

Accented Characters

Due to a PHP limitation, the translations of the "Paid" and "Unpaid" text on the PDF Invoices may not display uppercase accented characters.

Question Marks

Sometimes, question marks appear in the PDF files in place of non-Latin or accented characters. This can suggest that the font doesn't support the character. The first thing to try is setting the font to "Freesans" in Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Invoices or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > General Settings > Invoices.

If the problem persists, download and install "dejavusans" using the steps in Additional Fonts. This font pack contains more characters than standard ones, so it is likely to work with these characters.

TCPDF error: Missing or incorrect image file

This means the logo.png or logo.jpg file in your /assets/img/ folder is missing or is not a valid image file. This is the image that the system uses when creating the PDF invoice. Save the image file again and reupload it to the /assets/img directory.