PDF Toolkit
The free Easy Invoice plugin generates clean, functional PDFs — but they look like stock WordPress. If you're sending invoices to clients who expect polish (enterprise customers, agency clients, finance teams), or you're white-labelling Easy Invoice as your own product, you need more control: a "PAID" watermark, your logo at 30% opacity over the page, a custom color for status badges, a footer with your registration number.
The PDF Toolkit addon adds all of that on top of the standard PDF engine, configured from your settings page. No template editing, no PHP code.
Plain-English problem this solves
A client says "wait, is this invoice paid or do I still owe you?" Or your accountant gets confused looking at a draft invoice they thought was final. Or you just don't want the PDF to look like a generic WordPress plugin made it.
This addon lets you stamp PAID in big translucent letters across paid invoices, OVERDUE in red across late ones, DRAFT in grey across unsent ones — and the same for quotes. It's the kind of small touch that screams "we have our act together".
When you need this
- B2B service businesses where the PDF is the only document the client sees from you.
- Agencies rebranding the plugin (pairs perfectly with the White-Label addon).
- Anyone with strict visual branding — your color palette, your fonts, your imagery on the page.
- Compliance / audit-sensitive workflows — a clear DRAFT or VOID stamp prevents an accidentally-sent draft from being treated as a real invoice.
If you only ever send invoices to one or two regular clients who don't care what the PDF looks like, you can skip this addon.
Enabling
- Open Easy Invoice → Addons
- Find PDF Toolkit
- Click Activate
Settings appear on Easy Invoice → Settings, in the PDF Customization section. Settings are split into two sub-sections: Invoice PDF and Quote PDF — each with its own watermark options.
Watermark settings — invoices
These configure the stamp that appears across the body of every invoice PDF.
Watermark Type (invoice)
What it does: Picks which kind of watermark to render. Four options:
| Type | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| None | No watermark | Default — clean PDFs |
| Status text | Auto-stamps the invoice's status: PAID, OVERDUE, DRAFT, VOID | Most users — zero configuration once enabled |
| Custom text | A fixed phrase you choose (e.g. your company name, "CONFIDENTIAL", "ORIGINAL") | Branding or one-off compliance needs |
| Image | An uploaded logo or stamp graphic | Premium branding — your logo translucently over the page |
Recommended: Status text. It updates automatically as the invoice's status changes, no manual work.
Watermark Text (invoice)
What it does: The custom phrase to stamp. Only matters if Watermark Type is set to Custom text.
Examples: CONFIDENTIAL, ORIGINAL, COPY, YOUR COMPANY NAME, INVOICE-2025
Plain-English: Whatever you type here is splashed diagonally across the page in big translucent letters. Keep it short — long phrases look cramped.
Leave it empty if you want the addon to fall back to the invoice's status (PAID/OVERDUE/DRAFT).
Watermark Color (invoice)
What it does: The color of the watermark text or status stamp. Use the color picker or paste a hex code.
Defaults that work:
- Light grey (
#D1D5DB) — subtle, professional, never competes with content. - Light red (
#FCA5A5) — good for OVERDUE/CONFIDENTIAL stamps when you want urgency. - Light green (
#86EFAC) — pleasant for PAID stamps in a celebratory tone.
Avoid: dark, fully-saturated colors (they make the body text unreadable underneath).
Note: When Watermark Type is Status text, this color is overridden — the addon picks the color based on status (green for PAID, red for OVERDUE, grey for DRAFT, dark grey for VOID).
Watermark Image (invoice)
What it does: Upload an image (PNG or JPG) to stamp instead of text. Common uses: your company logo, a custom rubber-stamp graphic, a certification mark.
Recommendations:
- PNG with transparency works best — the rest of the page shows through.
- Square or roughly square images render best (the watermark is centered).
- Keep the source image at least 600×600 pixels for sharpness; the addon scales it down to fit.
Watermark Size (invoice)
What it does: How big the image watermark appears on the page, in pixels.
Default: 200 px.
Examples:
150— a discreet stamp in the middle of the page.300— a prominent "logo across the body" effect.500— fills most of the page (rarely flattering).
Plain-English: Bigger means the watermark dominates more of the page. Start with the default 200 and adjust if it looks too small or too big in practice.
Watermark Opacity (invoice)
What it does: How translucent the watermark is, as a percentage. Lower = more see-through, higher = more solid.
Default: 10–15% (subtle).
Recommended ranges:
- 5–15% — barely-there ghost stamp (best for clean professional PDFs).
- 20–35% — visible but readable through.
- 40–60% — bold, can't-miss it (use for VOID or DRAFT to prevent mistakes).
- 70%+ — heavy enough to obscure body text in places; only use if the watermark IS the focus.
Plain-English: Think of it like a sticker's stickiness. Low opacity = thin film. High opacity = solid stamp. Most professional invoices use 10–20%.
Watermark settings — quotes
Every setting above repeats for quote PDFs with one difference: the Watermark Type → Status text option stamps the quote's status (DRAFT, SENT, ACCEPTED, DECLINED, EXPIRED, CONVERTED) instead of the invoice statuses.
Configure them separately if you want different visual treatment for quotes versus invoices — a common pattern is:
- Invoices — Status text watermark (so PAID/OVERDUE shows automatically).
- Quotes — Image watermark with your logo at 10% opacity (so every quote feels brand-consistent before status matters).
Pairs well with
- White-Label & Brand Override — Combine PDF watermarks with full plugin rebranding for a top-to-bottom "your company" experience.
- Custom Invoice & Quote Templates — The visual template builder controls the layout of the page; PDF Toolkit controls the overlay (watermark) on top of that layout.
- Secure Links for Invoices & Quotes — When you email a PAID-watermarked PDF, the link to the invoice page also shows the up-to-date status.
Troubleshooting
"My watermark isn't appearing on the PDF"
- Confirm the addon is Active in Easy Invoice → Addons.
- Confirm Watermark Type is set to something other than None.
- If using Custom text, ensure Watermark Text is not empty.
- If using Image, ensure an image has been uploaded.
- Regenerate the PDF — the watermark is applied at render time, not stored on the invoice.
"The watermark is too dark / unreadable through" Lower the Watermark Opacity. Try 10%, then go up in 5% steps until it looks right.
"My uploaded image looks blurry" Upload a higher-resolution source. PDFs are typically rendered at 150–200 DPI; an image less than ~600 px wide will visibly pixelate when scaled up.
"PAID watermark isn't appearing on paid invoices"
- Confirm Watermark Type is set to Status text (not Custom text or None).
- Confirm the invoice's status is actually
paid— open it in Easy Invoice → Invoices and look at the status badge.
"I want different watermarks for different clients" Per-client watermark configuration isn't built in. As a workaround, use the Custom Invoice & Quote Templates addon to assign different template designs per client, then change the global watermark when switching to that client's preferred layout. For most users, the auto-status watermark is fine across all clients.
Settings location
All PDF Toolkit settings live on Easy Invoice → Settings, in the PDF Customization section. There are two sub-sections — Invoice PDF and Quote PDF — with identical fields.