Print Ready PDF Output Settings WooCommerce Setup

Applies to Cmsmart Product Designer 2.18.0 (formerly NBDesigner) · Updated October 2026. Every field below is captured from a live install's WooCommerce → Settings → Cmsmart → Output screen; anything not visible in that screen or in the 2.17.0 changelog is marked as custom development.

In short

  • One screen — WooCommerce → Settings → Cmsmart → Output — decides whether every exported file carries a watermark, a password, a bleed line, the right color profile, and whether a copy lands on your FTP server or cloud storage.
  • It works in two layers: Output general settings shapes the file itself (watermark, password, bleed, fonts), and Synchronize decides when a print-ready PDF renders and where a copy is sent.
  • Setup takes ten toggles, no code, and ties directly into the print-ready PDF that matches the order (2.17) that production already opens from the order screen.

Print ready PDF output settings WooCommerce stores rely on sit in one screen most owners never open until a press operator asks why a file has no bleed, the wrong color profile, or someone else's watermark on it.

This chapter of the Cmsmart Product Designer admin settings guide walks through that one screen field by field — what each control does, what it defaults to, what we'd set it to for a print shop, a POD apparel store or a B2B supplier, and where the effect actually shows up once an order ships. Where a field runs off the bottom of today's capture, we say so rather than guess at it.

What's the cost of getting Output settings wrong?

A misconfigured Output tab in Cmsmart Product Designer turns into reprints, support emails and production delays — a watermark left on after launch, a password nobody shared with the print room, or a color profile nobody picked. Getting the screen right once removes all three at once.

None of this looks dramatic in the moment. It shows up as small, recurring friction:

  • A watermark that ships to production. Watermark defaults to Always on a fresh install — fine for a demo store, a problem the day a live order's print file still carries "NBDESIGNER" across it.
  • A PDF password nobody told the press about. Enable PDF password for customer protects a buyer's download, but if production pulls the same file and doesn't have the password, the job stalls until someone checks the setting.
  • No bleed line where the product needs one. Show bleed only affects products whose template already includes a bleed line — leave it unconfigured and a press operator has to add guides by hand.
  • A render nobody asked for, or one nobody gets. Auto export design to PDF and its trigger order status decide whether a print-ready file exists before anyone opens the order — off by default, which is fine until volume makes manual exporting the bottleneck.
  • Files that never leave WordPress. Without a sync target configured, every certified PDF stays on your web server; a press floor that expects files on its own FTP or cloud storage gets nothing automatically.

What would it look like once this screen matches how you actually print?

With the Output tab set up correctly, Cmsmart Product Designer renders a clean, correctly watermarked, correctly profiled print-ready PDF the moment an order reaches the status you chose — and a copy is already waiting in the folder or cloud account your production team checks.

Example scenario. A print shop turns the watermark off for completed orders, turns on auto-export at the Processing status, and points Automatic synchronize output file to at the FTP folder its RIP software already watches. From then on, a buyer's design becomes a print-ready PDF the moment the order moves to Processing, with no watermark, the shop's chosen bleed setting, and a copy sitting on the FTP server before anyone on the floor has opened the order. Nobody re-exports, re-uploads or double-checks a password.

None of this needs custom code. It needs the fields on one settings screen set to match how your shop actually produces work.

How does Cmsmart's Output tab control what leaves your press?

Cmsmart Product Designer's Output tab has two working sections — general output settings and Synchronize — plus JPG and SVG download settings further down the same screen; together they decide what a print-ready file looks like and where it ends up.

Print ready PDF output settings WooCommerce screen in Cmsmart Product Designer 2.18.0, Output tab, showing Watermark, Watermark type, PDF password, Show bleed and Truetype fonts
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.18.0, WP Admin > WooCommerce > Settings > Cmsmart > Output: the general settings block.

The general settings block shapes the file itself:

  • Watermark (Always / Before complete order / No) and Watermark type (Image or Text) control whether a downloaded PDF carries a mark before an order is paid for.
  • Enable PDF password for customer and the PDF password field below it protect a buyer's own PDF download from being edited — unrelated to the print-ready file production opens from the order screen.
  • Show bleed (below or above the content design) places the bleed guide on products whose template already defines one.
  • Truetype fonts lists the fonts the PDF renderer can embed, one per line.
  • AI preflight isn't configured here at all — the field links straight to Cmsmart Cloud → AI Tools, where the DPI threshold, the on/off toggle and when it runs on orders actually live.
Cmsmart Product Designer Synchronize settings: Auto export design to PDF, order status, and Automatic synchronize output file to FTP with host, username and remote path fields
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.18.0, Output tab, Synchronize block: auto-export trigger and the FTP sync fields.

The Synchronize block decides timing and destination:

  • Auto export design to PDF turns on the background render described in the print-ready pipeline; Order status for auto export design (Completed / Processing / On Hold) picks the status that re-checks every design and renders again if the PDF is missing or out of date.
  • Also save print-ready PDFs in the pdfs folder mirrors every certified PDF into the same folder the order screen's Create PDF button already writes to — only worth turning on if your own code or another plugin reads that folder.
  • Automatic synchronize output file to offers Dropbox, Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage alongside FTP and SFTP, each with its own credential fields immediately below the choice.

Cmsmart insight: in our delivery work, the most common Output-tab mistake isn't a wrong value — it's leaving Watermark on Always past launch day. It's the right default for a store that's still testing the designer in public; it's the wrong one the first week a customer pays for a design and still sees a mark on their download.

Two more settings live on this same tab, further down the page than today's capture reaches, so we describe them from the plugin's own module documentation rather than show a screenshot: a default ICC color profile for JPG CMYK downloads (needs ImageMagick with lcms2 on the server), and a beta setting that converts fonts to outlines in SVG downloads. Both back the Download design tab's JPG and SVG options shown further down this page.

What's the ROI of configuring Output settings correctly?

Configuring Output once converts a recurring manual check (did this file get watermarked, password-protected or sent to the right place) into something Cmsmart Product Designer enforces on every order, which shows up as fewer reprints and less time per order for your team.

Business value of a correctly configured Output tab
SettingHow it shows up in your businessKPI to track
Watermark + passwordBuyers get a protected preview; production gets a clean file with no watermark or password to work aroundSupport tickets about "my PDF won't open / still has a mark"
Show bleedPress operators stop adding bleed guides by hand on products that already define oneMinutes spent prepping a file before it reaches the press
Auto export + order statusA print-ready PDF exists before anyone opens the order, instead of after someone remembers to click Create PDFOrders that reach production with no print file attached
Automatic synchronize output file toFiles land on the FTP, Dropbox, S3 or Google Cloud Storage account production already checks, with no manual upload stepStaff minutes spent moving files between systems per order

Rough ROI worksheet — plug in your own numbers: (orders/month) × (minutes spent manually watermark-checking, password-sharing or re-uploading files per order) × (hourly staff cost) = monthly cost of an unconfigured Output tab. A one-time, ten-minute settings pass targets that whole line.

How do you configure print ready PDF output settings WooCommerce needs?

Configuring Cmsmart Product Designer's Output tab is a single settings page: open WooCommerce → Settings → Cmsmart → Output, work down the General and Synchronize blocks in order, then confirm the result from a real order's Create PDF and Download design tabs.

  1. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Cmsmart → Output.
  2. Set Watermark to No for a launched store, or Before complete order to protect previews only until checkout; leave Always only while you're still testing the designer.
  3. Pick a Watermark type (Image or Text) and fill in the matching Watermark image or Watermark text field.
  4. Decide whether to Enable PDF password for customer; if yes, set a PDF password your team can share with anyone who needs to open a buyer's download.
  5. Set Show bleed (below or above the content design) to match how your product templates define their bleed line.
  6. List any extra fonts your designs use under Truetype fonts, one per line, so the renderer can embed them.
  7. For AI resolution and color checks, follow the AI preflight link to Cmsmart Cloud → AI Tools and configure the DPI threshold there.
  8. Under Synchronize, set Auto export design to PDF to Yes and choose the order status for Order status for auto export design that fits your workflow — Processing if production needs the file immediately, Completed if you'd rather wait until payment clears.
  9. Turn on Also save print-ready PDFs in the pdfs folder only if your own code or another plugin reads files from that folder by name.
  10. If a press floor or storage account should receive every file automatically, pick it under Automatic synchronize output file to and fill in its credentials — FTP host, username, password and remote path for FTP, or the matching fields for SFTP, Dropbox, Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage — then use Test connect before trusting it with real orders.
  11. Place a test order, move it to the status you chose, then open the order's Create PDF tab to confirm the print-ready status and bleed setting match what you expect.
Create PDF tab on a Cmsmart Product Designer order showing print-ready PDF status, product size and the Show Bleed Line option
Cmsmart Product Designer 2.18.0, order screen, Create PDF tab: this is where your Output-tab bleed setting shows up per order.
Print-ready PDF status reading Ready, rendered by the cloud renderer, with a Regenerate print-ready PDF button, marked PRO
The result of Auto export design to PDF: a Ready status before anyone clicks Create PDF by hand. Print-ready PDF export is a Premium-licensed feature (the PRO badge).
Download design tab showing SVG, PNG, JPG CMYK with ICC profile and PDF download options with a Change ICC profile link
Download design: the JPG CMYK and SVG options your Output-tab ICC profile and font-outline settings feed into.

Two common mistakes to check for: a Watermark set to Always past launch day (customers see a mark on a design they already paid for), and an Automatic synchronize output file to target that was never tested — click Test connect after any FTP credential change, since a silently failing sync looks identical to one that's working until a file goes missing. If print-ready status reads Failed on the order screen rather than Ready, that's a render problem to fix from the order itself, not from this settings screen.

Cmsmart Files dashboard showing needs-fix, not-checked, print-ready and low-DPI file counts across orders
Cmsmart > Files: where synced and auto-exported files surface across every order, with their preflight state.

How far can custom development take these Output settings?

Past the built-in watermark, password, bleed and sync options, Cmsmart builds store-specific output rules — brand-locked watermarking, routing files straight into an MIS, or per-client ICC profiles — as custom development on top of the same Output pipeline.

The Output tab is deliberately generic so it works for every WooCommerce store. A few things we regularly build beyond it:

  • ERP/MIS job routing. Push the certified file and order metadata into your print MIS as a job ticket with field mapping and status sync, beyond the built-in FTP/SFTP/Dropbox/S3/Google Cloud Storage sync.
  • Per-client or per-product ICC profiles. One default JPG CMYK profile isn't always enough for a shop printing for multiple brands with different press calibrations.
  • Conditional watermarking rules. Watermark previews differently by product line, customer group or order value instead of one global Watermark setting.
  • Bulk re-sync on demand. A scheduled job that re-sends every print-ready file to a new FTP or cloud destination after you change production vendors.

We deliver custom Output-pipeline work the same way as any other build: discovery, solution design, sprints, QA, launch, ongoing support — see our custom ecommerce projects approach, or the product designer customization service this work falls under.

Get a custom output-pipeline quote

Why work with Cmsmart on your print-ready pipeline?

Cmsmart has built and supported Cmsmart Product Designer as a Netbase JSC division since 2012, with 6,300+ client projects behind the same Output pipeline this chapter walks through.

Cmsmart (a Netbase JSC division since 2012) has run 6,300+ client projects, delivered 4,600+ projects, and supports 1,800+ live stores across 80+ countries — see our delivery platform. One review from a store that has run this plugin for years, published on Trustpilot:

"We have had the NB Designer plugin installed for three years and have experienced absolutely no problems during that time. It is wonderful to see their commitment to continuous development, with new features being added frequently to keep the software current and highly capable." — Web Developer, Trustpilot (GB)

Cmsmart holds a 4.2 rating from 404 reviews on Trustpilot — see the full profile on Trustpilot.

Related chapters: start from the installation guide hub, then see how to configure print pricing options (Printing Options tab) and how DPI affects print quality (ties into the Upload design tab's DPI minimum and the AI preflight check this Output tab links to).

Frequently asked questions about Output settings

What does the Cmsmart Output tab actually control?

Two things: the file itself (watermark, PDF password, bleed line, embeddable fonts, JPG ICC profile, SVG font outlines) and when and where a print-ready PDF gets exported and synced (Auto export design to PDF, the triggering order status, and FTP/SFTP/Dropbox/Amazon S3/Google Cloud Storage sync).

Does the watermark affect the file production opens from the order screen?

No. Watermark and PDF password protect a buyer's own download from the designer; the print-ready PDF the order screen's Create PDF tab shows is a separate, production-facing file.

What happens if we turn on Auto export design to PDF?

The plugin renders the print-ready PDF in the background and the order status you chose re-checks every design, triggering a fresh render whenever the file is out of date or hasn't been created yet — no one has to open the order and click Create PDF by hand.

Do we have to pick FTP, SFTP, Dropbox, S3 or Google Cloud Storage?

No. Automatic synchronize output file to defaults to No; files stay on your WordPress server and are reachable from the order screen unless you configure one of these targets.

What do we need for the JPG CMYK and ICC profile downloads to work?

JPG CMYK output and its ICC profile need ImageMagick with the lcms2 library available on the server; print-ready PDF export and the JPG CMYK download are Premium-licensed features.

Can Cmsmart connect this output pipeline to our own ERP or MIS?

Yes — routing the certified file and order metadata into an ERP or MIS as a job ticket, beyond the built-in sync targets, is custom development built on top of this same Output tab.