Use this article when the quote is ready to go out and you need to see the customer-facing PDF — totals, tax line, company header, footer copy — before you send it anywhere outside GelatoConnect. After this you will have a rendered PDF that matches what the customer would receive, with totals reconciled to the on-screen estimate at the moment you generated it.
Steps
1. Open the estimate you want to render
Open Manage Estimates and select the estimate you want to render. The estimate must be calculated successfully — the totals bar at the bottom of the estimate shows the calculated Total estimate, and there is no error banner at the top.
If the estimate is not calculated (for example, you have changed a structural input since the last save), select Recalculate before rendering the PDF. A PDF rendered against an uncalculated estimate is rejected by the export action.
2. Trigger the right PDF action
The action visible on the totals bar depends on whether the estimate has one product or many.
Single-product estimate — select View PDF. The action renders one PDF that combines the company header (from Email Template), the customer block, the product details table for the single product, the Total estimate, the tax line (if Tax rate (%) is configured in General Settings), and the footer.
Multi-product estimate, summary layout — select Download PDF Summary. The PDF lists each product on the estimate as one row with its total price, then sums them on the final line. Use this when the customer wants a short letter and per-step cost detail is not required.
Multi-product estimate, detail layout — select Download PDF Detail. The PDF breaks each product into its specification rows (substrate, quantity, finishing, run lengths) in addition to the price. Use this when the customer has asked for per-product spec detail, or when the shop's standard is to send the detailed layout on all multi-product jobs.
All three actions read the same Email Template and the same General Settings tax fields. They differ only in the body layout — the company branding, the salutation, the closing, and the footer are identical.
3. Review the rendered PDF against the on-screen estimate
The browser opens the rendered PDF in a new tab or downloads it, depending on local browser settings.
Read the PDF against the on-screen estimate to confirm the customer will see what you intend:
The Total estimate on the PDF matches the Total estimate on the estimate page.
The tax line — if your shop publishes one — appears at the configured Tax rate (%), with the Tax label value you set in General Settings (e.g., GST, VAT, Sales Tax).
The company header reads correctly: company name, address, phone, email, website, and logo or custom header image as configured.
The customer details block, the salutation, the introductory paragraph, the product table, and the closing text reflect the active Email Template.
The footer notes and any footer images (certification marks, partner logos) are current.
Close the PDF tab and return to the estimate. The PDF is now a static file — re-rendering after any change to the estimate or the Email Template requires triggering the action again.
Things to know
The PDF is a snapshot, not a live view. Once the file has been downloaded or shared with a customer, edits in setup do not update the file the customer holds. If you re-edit the estimate or the Email Template after the PDF is out, re-render and re-send.
A downloaded PDF is not an export to MIS. View PDF, Download PDF Summary, and Download PDF Detail produce a customer-facing letter. They do not push the estimate to a downstream MIS or trigger any export workflow. The export side is configured separately — see How estimate export works.
The PDF reads the most recent saved estimate. Unsaved edits on the estimate page are not in the PDF. If the on-screen totals just changed and the action runs immediately, save the estimate first to be sure the new totals are captured.