Last updated on June 25, 2025 by Formidable Team

How To Convert a WordPress Form to PDF (The Easy Way!)

Want to convert a WordPress form to PDF? This post will show you how to easily turn your form to a PDF in WordPress with Formidable Forms.

How to Convert a WordPress Form to PDF (3 Easy Ways!)

Approximate read time: 8 minutes

Standard PDF forms are clunky. They’re confusing to fill out on a computer, and sometimes, you’re unsure if you’re filling out the right field. We get it.

But what if you could create an engaging WordPress form that automatically generates a PDF when it is submitted?

Well, now you can! And in this post, we'll show you how to use a WordPress form to PDF generator to do everything you need.

Let’s jump into it.

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Why use WordPress to create a PDF from a form?

Your website has forms everywhere: contact forms, survey forms, payment forms, and maybe more.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a way to take the information from those forms and put it into a neat and orderly PDF? The PDF can then be an easily printable paper trail or proof of purchase that you can email customers to confirm their order.

But that’s just one example of why you might want to have WordPress generate a PDF from a form. You can also:

  • Send a PDF quote to a potential client
  • Create a PDF invoice for your records
  • Generate a paper receipt for purchases
  • Print out a member profile

You could even have the WordPress Form to PDF email option to send a PDF document.

The visitor submits the form, and you get an email with it compiled into a PDF. You can also have it emailed to the customer if you’d like. How cool is that?

And there’s one plugin that surpasses all the others in this task: Formidable Forms.

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How do I create a PDF form in WordPress?

To get started, you must download and install Formidable Forms, the best WordPress form plugin. Once you activate it, we’ll dive in.

There are only three easy steps to create a PDF form in WordPress:

  1. Create your form
  2. Set up PDF settings
    1. Customize the PDF

      Short on time? Try one of the WordPress PDF templates the plugin offers instead! These practical pre-built solutions come with form templates and the PDF View template.

      Step 1: Create your form

      We can create a form inside your WordPress admin. Go to Formidable → Forms and click Add New in your WordPress dashboard.

      Create a new form in WordPress plugin Formidable Forms

      Don't have Formidable Forms yet? Click below to get the most powerful WordPress form maker on the market.

      Next, choose Create a Blank Form or one of our many pre-made form templates.

      Create a Blank form button in Formidable

      Now, let’s add some fields to your form. As we mentioned above, you can drag these into the canvas. Anything from email addresses to file upload fields is available for you.

      And you can also click them to add them to the form. It’s a user-friendly way to build forms.

      Formidable Forms drag and drop form builder

      Once finished, click Update to save your form. You’re halfway there.

      Step 2: Set up PDF settings

      Okay, now that we’ve set up our form to collect entries, how do you convert those forms to PDF format?

      You have three options here:

      • Export the form data as a PDF
      • Attach the PDF file to an email
      • Insert a shortcode for a download link

      Before you do any of this, in your WordPress admin, go to Formidable → Add-Ons and click Install on the WordPress PDFs plugin.

      Now, we’ll show you how to use the PDF plugin.

      Export the entry as a PDF

      To export a specific entry, go to your form Entries page, then select View or Edit below the entry on its details page.

      In the Form Entries, select Download as PDF

      In the sidebar, under Entry Actions, select Download as PDF.

      Pretty easy, right?

      Attach the PDF file to an email

      First, go to your form’s Settings → Actions & Notifications.

      Click on the email notification action to edit it, or click the Send Email icon to add a new one.

      In the Form Settings, you can automatically attach a PDF to an email

      Scroll down to Attach PDF of entry to email and toggle the switch.

      That’s it.

      Let’s move on to the last method.

      This is an easier way to download the PDF. You paste the shortcode on a page, post, email, or View. When visitors click it, the document will get open, and they can download it.

      To do this, put a bit of shortcode into the area:

      [frm-pdf id=x]

      In this shortcode, replace the ‘x’ with the ID of the ID you want to show.

      You can find the ID on the entry details page.

      For example, you can set up the shortcode like this:

      [frm-pdf id=x label="Click to download entry as PDF"]

      Three easy ways to take your form entries and export them to a PDF. Simplicity is beautiful, and it’s something we prioritize.

      Step 3: Customize the PDF

      You'll notice the PDF looks a bit basic.

      But it doesn't have to. You can customize it to look exactly how you want!

      To start, go to Views in your form builder. Then, click Add New to create a new View.

      You can choose any template you want to get started, but we'll show a Grid view to start.

      Grid View template

      Next, name the View, then click the Create a view button.

      The plugin will take you to the View Builder, where you can click Layout Builder. The Layout Builder is drag and drop like the form builder. So you can drag the different columns based on your preferences.

      Layout Builder

      Then, click Save Layout.

      You can click inside the column, which will open the Visual/Text editor. Here, you can begin customizing your View—your PDF! Add text, images, and more until you get your desired design.

      For example, if you're using the PDF editor to create a certificate, you can create something like this:

      Example certificate

      Once you design your PDF, it's easy to display it on form submissions and let users download the PDF easily.

      Head to a post or page where you want to show your PDF download.

      Then add a bit of shortcode:

      [frm-pdf view="*YOUR VIEW ID*" public="1"]

      Then, when you update and preview the page, you can click the download link to view your PDF!

      Example link to PDF

      For a more detailed guide to customizing your PDF, check out this post explaining how to create custom PDFs in WordPress.

      Why use Formidable Forms for your web form to PDF in WordPress

      Regardless of your industry, the Formidable Forms PDF add-on makes using a WordPress form to generate a PDF simple and fast.

      No matter what form you’re using — survey, payment, or contact form — you can design your PDF form to fit the form fields. To be clear, you can convert a WordPress contact form to PDF or any form on your site!

      It’s almost like having a fillable PDF (we think it’s better)!

      So, look no further if you’re searching for a WordPress contact form to PDF plugin.

      With Formidable Forms' drag-and-drop builder, designing forms is effortless and fast.

      This form can serve as your PDF template. With the plugin, you can design a form your customers fill out and generate a PDF using the contact form.

      Print this PDF, send it as an email attachment, or display it in our unique Views feature. Or display a download PDF button in WordPress.

      Formidable Forms Views feature makes displaying data and information effortless.

      No other WordPress plugin has anything like this built in. Not Gravity Forms/Gravity PDF, not the Contact Form 7 plugin, not Caldera Forms, none of them.

      With Views, you can create a dashboard where the admin can add information for each customer and then display it on the admin side or your website.

      All you need is the Formidable Business plan to get started!

      But you get far more than just the PDF add-on with the Business plan. Here are some more features:

      If you’re unsure, give it a try. You have 14 days to try it out and get a full refund if you don’t like it. 

      But we’re sure you will.

      Ready to get your form to PDF WordPress plugin?

      Don’t you love when things are easy? At Formidable Forms, that’s built into everything we do.

      This post taught you how to convert a form to PDF with our fantastic PDF add-on. But don’t stop with just our contact form to PDF WordPress add-on. Formidable can do so much more.

      Discover all the features of Formidable Forms.

      There’s more you can do with WordPress forms to PDF. Fill out your knowledge completely so you know all the options available.

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