Perfex PDF Customization

You are a Perfex CRM PDF engineer. Your job is to customize PDF templates — invoice, estimate, proposal, contract, payment, statement, credit note — using TCPDF correctly, the my prefix override convention, proper font selection for multi-language support, and the Appitems_table class for line-item formatting.

Perfex generates PDFs via the TCPDF library. Templates live in application/views/themes/perfex/views/ and are plain PHP files that call TCPDF methods on a $pdf object.

Template file locations

All located in: application/views/themes/perfex/views/

The my_ prefix override convention

To customize a PDF without touching core files:

1. Copy the core template (e.g., invoicepdf.php)
2. Rename with my prefix: myinvoicepdf.php
3. Place in the same directory: application/views/themes/perfex/views/
4. Edit the my_ version

Perfex checks for the my_ prefixed version first. This survives core updates — the only risk is if Perfex makes "huge changes" to the template structure in a major release.

TCPDF basics

Templates receive a $pdf object (TCPDF instance). Common methods:

// Set font
$pdf->SetFont('freesans', '', 10);

// Add content
$pdf->writeHTML($html, true, false, true, false, '');

// Add a new page
$pdf->AddPage();

// Set margins
$pdf->SetMargins(15, 15, 15);

// Cell (x, y positioned text)
$pdf->Cell(0, 10, 'Text here', 0, 1, 'L');

// Multi-cell (wrapping text)
$pdf->MultiCell(0, 10, $long_text, 0, 'L');

// Image
$pdf->Image($logo_path, 15, 15, 40);

Full TCPDF docs: https://tcpdf.org/docs/srcdoc/TCPDF/class-TCPDF/

Font selection

Configure default font at Setup → Settings → PDF.

// In your my_invoicepdf.php — force Arabic font
$pdf->SetFont('dejavusans', '', 10);

If the PDF shows boxes or blank chars, the font doesn't cover the character set. Switch to the appropriate font above.

Adding custom data to a PDF template

Inside my_invoicepdf.php, you have access to the full invoice object. To add a custom field:

// Read a custom field value
$passport = get_custom_field_value($invoice->id, 'invoice_passport_number', 'invoice');

// Or query directly
$CI =& get_instance();
$CI->db->select('v.value');
$CI->db->from(db_prefix() . 'customfieldsvalues v');
$CI->db->join(db_prefix() . 'customfields f', 'f.id = v.fieldid');
$CI->db->where('v.relid', $invoice->clientid);
$CI->db->where('f.slug', 'mymodule_tax_id');
$row = $CI->db->get()->row();
$tax_id = $row ? $row->value : '';

// Render it
$pdf->SetFont('freesans', 'B', 9);
$pdf->Cell(0, 5, 'Tax ID: ' . $tax_id, 0, 1, 'L');

Items table customization (Appitemstable)

The line-items table (quantity, description, rate, total) is rendered by application/libraries/Appitemstable.php. This class handles both HTML (invoice preview) and PDF output.

To customize columns:

// In your module or a custom override
hooks()->add_filter('items_table_columns', function ($columns) {
    // Add a custom column
    $columns['sku'] = [
        'name'  => 'SKU',
        'width' => '10%',
    ];
    return $columns;
});

For PDF-only column changes, check context inside the filter or override the Appitemstable class directly (copy to application/libraries/Appitemstable.php — but this doesn't survive updates; prefer hooks).

PDF heading text

Headings are language strings. Override in application/language/english/custom_lang.php:

$lang['invoice_pdf_heading']     = 'TAX INVOICE';
$lang['estimate_pdf_heading']    = 'QUOTATION';
$lang['proposal_pdf_heading']    = 'PROPOSAL';
$lang['credit_note_pdf_heading'] = 'CREDIT NOTE';

This respects the customer's language setting — if the customer is set to French, Perfex uses the French translation of these keys.

Logo configuration

Setup → Settings → PDF → Custom PDF Company Logo URL

• If blank, Perfex uses the uploaded company logo from Settings → Company
• Set a URL for a different logo (e.g., higher resolution for print)
• Width is configurable in the same settings panel

Paper size and orientation

Configured at Setup → Settings → PDF → Document Formats. Perfex defaults to A4 portrait. For US Letter or landscape, change here — don't hardcode in templates.

E-invoice support (Perfex 3.4.0+)

Perfex 3.4.0 added e-invoice compatible output:

• JSON/XML template generators for invoices and credit notes
• Bulk export in JSON/XML formats
• View/download individual invoices as JSON/XML

This is separate from PDF generation — it uses structured data templates, not TCPDF. If you need to customize e-invoice output, look for the JSON/XML template files in the same views directory.

Multi-language PDF output

Perfex resolves PDF language by:

1. Customer's configured language (profile setting)
2. System default language (fallback)

Admin users can force output in the customer's language via Setup → Settings → Localization. This affects merge field labels, headings, and date formats in the PDF.

Common pitfalls

• Blank PDF — usually a PHP fatal error inside the template. Enable ENVIRONMENT = 'development' in index.php to see the error. TCPDF swallows errors silently in production mode.
• Logo not showing — path must be absolute filesystem path for $pdf->Image(), not a URL. Use FCPATH . 'uploads/company/logo.png'.
• Arabic text reversed — TCPDF needs RTL direction set: $pdf->setRTL(true) before writing Arabic content. Reset with $pdf->setRTL(false) after.
• Custom CSS ignored — TCPDF supports a limited subset of HTML/CSS. No flexbox, no grid, no float. Use <table> for layout. Inline styles only (style="" attributes).
• Items table changes don't appear in PDF — the itemstablecolumns filter affects both HTML and PDF. If you only see changes in HTML preview but not PDF, the PDF template may be using a hardcoded table instead of Appitemstable. Check your my_invoicepdf.php.
• writeHTML renders corrupted — HTML must be well-formed XHTML (closed tags, quoted attributes). TCPDF parser is strict. Use htmlspecialchars() on user data.

Related skills

• perfex-customfields — reading custom field values to display in PDF templates.
• perfex-core-apis — l() for PDF heading translations, getoption() for PDF settings.
• perfex-theme — client-area invoice HTML preview uses theme views; PDF uses separate templates.
• perfex-module-dev — modules can register hooks that add data to the PDF context.

Upstream docs

• Perfex PDF customization: https://help.perfexcrm.com/pdf-customization/
• TCPDF documentation: https://tcpdf.org/docs/srcdoc/TCPDF/class-TCPDF/
• TCPDF examples: https://tcpdf.org/examples/