Orshot PDF Generator: invoices, certificates and documents from a template and data

Give this skill a document type and a source of rows: a sheet, a CRM or a payment webhook. It returns one designed PDF per row, as a URL ready for email, Drive or the CRM.

Orshot is an API for automated image, PDF and video generation from templates. The invoice, certificate or report is designed once. The layout, fonts and logo live in the template. Each render sends only the values that change.

• No API key over the hosted MCP server. It signs in with OAuth. Only recurring jobs need a key, kept in the environment.
• The credit cost comes first. Say it before rendering more than 10 pages.
• Nothing is emailed without a yes. Orshot makes the PDF; the user's email step sends it, after they confirm the recipients.

The Orshot docs are the reference for every parameter, value and limit. Each docs page has a markdown version at https://orshot.com/docs/<path>.md. This skill gives the order of steps and worked examples, and links the page to read at each step.

This skill or a local PDF tool?

Pick this skill when the document is designed, repeats, and is filled from data. The output is a PDF URL, so it drops straight into an email step, a CRM field or storage.

Example prompts

• "Make certificates for everyone in this sheet who finished Data Basics at Brightpath Academy. Name each file after the student."
• "When a Stripe invoice is paid, render our invoice PDF and put the link on the customer's Airtable record."
• "Every row in the Orders sheet with status READY should become a PDF invoice and a Gmail draft to the client. Mark the row SENT after."
• "Design a quote for Halden Joinery with line items, a total and a Pay now link, then show me one filled with test data."
• "Our certificate is designed in Canva. Bring it in and make 180 certificates from this CSV."
• "A monthly report PDF for each client in this Airtable view, with page numbers in the footer."

Setup

1. Connect the Orshot MCP server: https://orshot.com/docs/integrations/mcp-server.md has the steps for each client.
2. Confirm with orshot_get_account. A billing or plan message is not an auth error. Send the user to https://orshot.com/pricing and stop retrying.
3. Recurring jobs (cron, n8n, Make, Zapier, your server) use REST with an API key: https://orshot.com/docs/quick-start/get-api-key.md. Keep the key in an environment variable.

Document recipes

Name each field after the column or property it comes from. If the sheet column is client_name, the parameterId is client_name. One field per value that changes. Borders, logo, signature image and fixed wording stay static.

Contracts are render only. Orshot makes the PDF; signing happens in the user's e-signature tool.

Ready templates to copy (Copy This Template saves one to the workspace): invoice, certificate, offer letter, mutual NDA.

Step 1. Build the template once

Start from the design they already have. If the invoice or certificate is already designed in Canva or Figma, the user imports it in the Orshot dashboard (New Template dialog). Importers do not run over MCP or REST. Then make every value that changes a parameter. Guides: https://orshot.com/docs/importing-templates/index.md, and the orshot skill's references/migration.md.

1. Look first: orshot_list_studio_templates with a search like "invoice" or "certificate". Reuse what exists.
2. Pick the canvas size. The PDF page is the canvas size at 96 px per inch: 794x1123 is A4 and 816x1056 is US Letter. Leave pdfDpi unset for paper sizes, because it scales the page itself. The image size presets are not paper sizes. Details: "Page Size" in https://orshot.com/docs/pdf-generation/pdf-options.md
3. Create: orshot_create_template_design with the complete pages_data and includeThumbnails: true. Plan first: orshot_plan_design with the brief, job ("invoice PDF", "course certificate"), the page size and on_brand: true returns the palette, fonts, type scale and a slot layout with a ready skeleton (documents have no format catalogue, so the plan's layout is the layout). Read orshot_get_design_spec topic template-json once per session (the same content is at https://orshot.com/docs/definitions/template-json.md). For layout and type, load the orshot-design skill. Look at the returned preview and designWarnings, and fix real problems with one orshot_update_template_design call. Some checks are tuned for social posts (repeated labels such as "Invoice no.", the number of type sizes, text on a button pill): fix what the preview shows is wrong and tell the user which warnings you left and why.
   • Fixed wording (labels, headings, footer) gets parameterizable: false, so the modifications list holds only the values that change.
   • Over REST, template create is Enterprise-only: https://orshot.com/docs/api-reference/enterprise-template-create.md. On other plans, build the template over MCP or in the Studio editor.
4. Blanks inside a paragraph: write {{effective_date}} inside the text, make the layer a parameter (say nda), and send nda:effective_date. The wording around it never travels in the request. Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/orshot-studio/inline-parameters.md
5. Get the exact keys before any automation: orshot_get_studio_template_modifications, or over REST GET https://api.orshot.com/v1/studio/<templateId>/modifications. Never guess them.

Multi-page documents

Designed pages (cover, summary, details) need a page prefix on every content key: page1@title, page2@title. On a template with two or more pages a bare content key reaches no page. Bare style keys (footer_text.color) and inline keys apply on every page that has the layer. Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/pdf-generation/multi-page-pdfs.md

Variable-length content

• Long text (contracts, reports, letters): Flow. In the Studio editor, select the body text and set Styles > Text Autofit > Flow. Text that does not fit moves onto new pages. Turn on Repeat on extra pages for the header and footer, and write Page {{_page_number}} of {{_total_pages}} in the footer. Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/orshot-studio/flowing-content.md
  • In template JSON, Flow is textMode: "flow" inside the text layer's style. The flow settings (repeatOnOverflow, flowZones, flowBreakBehavior, flowMinLinesBeforeBreak, flowMinLinesAfterBreak) are fields on the element itself, not in style. See https://orshot.com/docs/definitions/template-json.md
  • The MCP create and update tools accept only fit, truncate and overflow for textMode. Set Flow in the editor.
• Line items (invoices, quotes): columns plus Smart Stacking. There is no table element and no math. Use one text layer per column, one line per item joined with \n, and compute totals in the step that calls the API. Flatten the items in that step first: Airtable linked records, Notion relations or Stripe invoice lines become one newline-joined value per column. Stack the total under the items layer so it moves down as rows are added: in template JSON, the total layer gets stacking: { enabled: true, targetElementId: "<items layer id>", position: "bottom", padding: 16 }. Render the most line items the template must hold and look before relying on it. Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/orshot-studio/smart-stacking.md
• Charts and QR codes: there is no chart or QR element. Make an image field (chart_image, qr_code) and build its URL in the step that calls the API, from the row's numbers or link, with a chart or QR image service the user is happy to use. The URL must be public.
• Optional block: hide a layer for one render with "<parameterId>.opacity": "0". Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/image-generation/dynamic-styling.md

Step 2. Render a PDF

Over MCP: orshot_render_template with format: "pdf". Over REST: POST https://api.orshot.com/v1/studio/render.

curl -s -X POST https://api.orshot.com/v1/studio/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORSHOT_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "templateId": 123,
    "modifications": {
      "invoice_number": "INV-2026-0142",
      "invoice_date": "October 19, 2026",
      "client_name": "Northwind Traders",
      "items_product": "Brand kit setup\nSocial templates\nMonthly report design",
      "items_qty": "1\n12\n1",
      "items_total": "$450.00\n$420.00\n$300.00",
      "total": "$1,170.00",
      "pay_link": "Pay now",
      "pay_link.href": "https://pay.example.com/inv-0142"
    },
    "response": { "type": "url", "format": "pdf", "fileName": "INV-2026-0142" },
    "pdfOptions": { "title": "Invoice INV-2026-0142" }
  }'

data.content is the URL of one PDF with every page. The text stays real, selectable text.

Name each file after its row with fileName: the invoice number or the recipient's name. orshot_render_template takes fileName over MCP too.

Read these before setting options:

• Response, page selection and use cases: https://orshot.com/docs/pdf-generation.md
• pdfOptions (title, margins, dpi, CMYK, image compression, page range): https://orshot.com/docs/pdf-generation/pdf-options.md
• Clickable links with .href: https://orshot.com/docs/pdf-generation/interactive-links.md
• Which render options the MCP tool takes: the Rendering section of https://orshot.com/docs/integrations/mcp-server.md. Anything in pdfOptions that is not there (title, margins, CMYK, compression, ranges) needs REST.

Same template as a share image. Render it again with format: "png" for LinkedIn or a confirmation page. extraSizes adds resized copies, for image formats only and not on Flow templates. Docs: the Smart Resize section of https://orshot.com/docs/api-reference/render-from-studio-template.md

Step 3. From data: one PDF per row, every time

Check what the user already runs: orshot_list_workspace_logs shows a source per render (for example n8n-integration, zapier-integration, orshot-make, api). Add to that tool. Do not pitch a second one.

Each docs path opens as https://orshot.com/docs/<path>.md. No-code tools: integrations/n8n, integrations/make, integrations/zapier.

Run once per row or event. Gate on a status column (READY, then SENT or FAILED). Dedupe on the invoice number or the payment event id before rendering, so a retried webhook does not make a second invoice. Write the PDF URL and a timestamp back to the row. If a render fails, mark the row FAILED, tell the user and send no email. The pattern: "Run once per item" in the orshot skill's references/recurring-automation.md.

When a Zapier or Make step times out on a long or many-page PDF, send the render from an HTTP step with mode: "async" and a webhook_url (a Zapier Catch Hook or a Make custom webhook), and continue the flow when the finished job arrives. Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/api-reference/async-render-start.md

No orchestrator yet? An Orshot Workflow runs the loop: trigger, render, deliver. Over MCP: orshot_list_workflow_nodes for the exact node keys, orshot_validate_workflow, then orshot_create_workflow with status: "draft". Show the user the draft before turning it on.

Where the PDF goes. The render URL is a plain public link, not a signed link that times out, so the next step can use it as is:

• Email it: a Gmail or Outlook step in n8n, Make or Zapier attaches the file from the URL or links it. Orshot does not send the email.
• Write it back: the URL into the row, the Airtable attachment field or the CRM record.
• Store it: Orshot can save every render to the user's Google Drive, Dropbox or S3 / R2 bucket (integrations/google-drive, integrations/dropbox, integrations/s3-storage).

Batches.

• Test the longest row first. Render the row with the longest name, the longest address and the most line items, and look at the PDF before any batch. Fix overflow in the template, not in the data.
• Up to 20 now, over MCP: orshot_batch_render_template with format: "pdf" and one modifications object per row in renders. It takes no fileName, so loop orshot_render_template when each file needs its own name.
• Hundreds, over REST: one async request per row with a webhook_url, and the row id in metadata, so each PDF lands on the right row. Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/api-reference/async-render-start.md
• A one-time list, such as a CSV of names: the user can upload it to the Spreadsheets tool in the dashboard and render every row there. Docs: https://orshot.com/docs/integrations/spreadsheets.md

Prove it runs. Trigger one real run, find it in orshot_list_workspace_logs under the source that fired it, and show the user the PDF URL.

Worked example: certificates from a sheet

1. Template: landscape certificate, fields recipient_name, course_name, completion_date, certificate_id. Border, logo and signature are static.
2. Test with real rows over MCP (orshot_batch_render_template), then show the PDFs:

{
  "templateId": 123,
  "format": "pdf",
  "renders": [
    { "recipient_name": "Priya Sharma", "course_name": "Data Analysis", "completion_date": "October 19, 2026", "certificate_id": "CERT-2026-0412" },
    { "recipient_name": "Alex Johnson", "course_name": "Data Analysis", "completion_date": "October 19, 2026", "certificate_id": "CERT-2026-0413" }
  ]
}

3. Automate: Google Sheets trigger, Orshot step (PDF, fileName set to certificate- plus the row's certificate_id), then write the URL to a new column. Add an email step only after the Safety check below.
4. Share image: the same template as PNG for the recipient to post on LinkedIn.

Cost

PDFs are billed per page, and Flow templates bill every page they produce. Rates: https://orshot.com/docs/definitions/credits-usage.md. Test with the longest real content first, and say what a run costs before rendering more than 10 pages.

Gotchas

1. Multi-page templates need pageN@ on content keys. A bare content key reaches no page.
2. No table element, no formulas, no if/else. Send totals and chosen clauses as finished text.
3. Keep each line item to one line. A wrapped name pushes its qty and price out of line.
4. Image fields (logos, QR codes, photos) must be public URLs.
5. Documents come out as PDF. There is no Word or DOCX output.
6. No e-signatures. Pass the PDF URL to the signing tool in the next step.
7. Reuse one template per document type. Do not create a template per customer.

Safety

• Documents carry personal data: names, addresses, amounts, IDs. Send only the fields the document shows. Keep personal details out of the user_request field.
• A render URL opens for anyone who has it. For sensitive documents, save renders to the user's own storage and share from there.
• Confirm recipients before any email goes out: show the list (name, address, file) and get a yes. Send the first run to the user only.
• Render the amounts and wording the source gives. Never round, recompute or edit legal text without asking.

Related skills: orshot (API, render options, automation), orshot-design (template design craft), orshot-blog-images (blog covers), orshot-ad-creative (ad creatives), orshot-social-media-content (social posts).