Customise Adobe PDF Exports

Confluence pages can be output to PDF and some resulting PDF content can be modified. While page content itself is not open to customisation without major source-code modifications, this guide covers the easier task of modifying the plain text contained in page titles, headers and footers and page size.

Change PDF page size

How to Change the page size

Landscape orientation

To change the default A4 +Portrait+ size to +Landscape+ follow the instructions below:

Editing PDF content

How to edit PDF content:

Confluence uses Apache FOP to write Confluence content to XSL-FO format, and uses Velocity macro files to render PDF headers, footers and page titles. For information on more content editing, study the XSL-FO examples.

Always stop Confluence before editing a Velocity macro file. Users who are stuck can obtain technical assistance by posting the modified Velocity file to the Confluence Developer Forum.

List Of PDF-Related Files

.../confluence/WEB-INF/classes/com/atlassian/confluence/importexport/common_header_fop.vm
.../confluence/WEB-INF/classes/com/atlassian/confluence/importexport/common_footer_fop.vm
.../confluence/WEB-INF/classes/com/atlassian/confluence/importexport/common_fop.vm
.../confluence/WEB-INF/classes/com/atlassian/confluence/pages/Page.pdfexport.vm

The above example is for Unix-based systems, so Windows users should use back-slashes instead forward-slashes
An example Windows install directory is C:\confluence-2.2.9-std
An example Linux install directory is /opt/confluence-2.2.9/

Text

Inserting the example XSL-FO tag below into the relevant Velocity macro file will output a new line with This text is printed in plain text.

<fo:block text-align="left" font-family="$generalUtil.getDefaultFontFamily()" color="#0050B2">
    This text is printed
</fo:block>

Images

There are two steps involved in adding images to the header and the footer:

You need to modify common_fop.vm and adjust the margins, and sizes of the two regions (region-before and region-after) to fit in the image.
```
<fo:region-before extent="1cm"/>
<fo:region-after extent="1cm"/>
```
In the example above, change the "1cm" value to allow yourself as much space as you need for your customization.
Insert the example XSL-FO tag below into the relevant Velocity macro file to embed the local image C:\operahouse.png into the PDF.

If using windows, please make sure to use forward slashes, instead of backslashes while specifying directory paths.
Eg: Use "c:\images\operahouse.png" for windows and "c:/images/operahouse.png" for Unix.

<fo:block>
<fo:external-graphic
width="auto" height="auto"
src="c:/images/operahouse.png"                        />
</fo:block>

Modify Page Title

Modify page title for single page export

Modify Page Headers for Space Export

How to modify page headers

By default, no page header is printed with PDF exports. To add one, go to your Confluence install directory and modify the Velocity macro file

...\confluence\WEB-INF\classes\com\atlassian\confluence\importexport\common_header_fop.vm

Example Header Modification

In between the two FO lines, add

<fo:block text-align="left" font-family="$generalUtil.getDefaultFontFamily()" color="#0050B2">
    Custom Header
</fo:block>

Example Header Modification with Banner

Below is a sample common_header_fop.vm velocity template for header with Banner.

<fo:static-content flow-name="xsl-region-before">

<fo:table width="100%" table-layout="fixed" font-family="serif" font-size="10pt">
		    <fo:table-column column-width="14cm"/>
		    <fo:table-column column-width="3cm"/>
		    <fo:table-body>
			    <fo:table-row>
				    <fo:table-cell color="grey">
					<fo:block text-align="left" font-family="$generalUtil.getDefaultFontFamily()" color="#0050B2">
						<fo:external-graphic width="auto" height="auto" src="/home/malam/Desktop/Temp/Top_Banner.jpg"              />
				        </fo:block>
				    </fo:table-cell>
				    <fo:table-cell color="grey">
					    <fo:block text-align="right">
						This is your Customer Header
					    </fo:block>
				    </fo:table-cell>
			    </fo:table-row>
		    </fo:table-body>
	    </fo:table>

</fo:static-content>

If you can't see your banner or image, update the value of <fo:region-before extent="1cm"/> in the common_fop.vm template to 4 or 5 cm according to the size of your banner or image. Please see CONF-9082 for a feature request on increasing the default value.

  <fo:layout-master-set>
	  <fo:simple-page-master margin-right="2cm" margin-left="2cm" margin-bottom="1cm" margin-top="1cm" page-width="21cm" page-height="29.7cm" master-name="all-pages">
		  <fo:region-body margin-bottom="1.5cm" margin-top="1.5cm"/>
		  <fo:region-before extent="4cm"/>
		  <fo:region-after extent="1cm"/>
	  </fo:simple-page-master>
  </fo:layout-master-set>

A Sample of Custom PDF Header with A Banner on the top

A Sample of Custom PDF Header with A Logo on the Right Top

Modify Page Footers for Space Export

How to modify page footer