Magento Notes - Customizing the Invoice and Packing Slip PDF
We just got our first online order on Tickon.com (our very own Magento-based e-commerce site)!! YEAH!!! But we weren’t even ready for order taking yet!! Paypal Pro hasn’t been setup and logistics haven’t been figured out out…yikes!!
Contacted Paypal to expedite the site approval process, and contacted our vendor with shipping the item…all done in 1 afternoon. Everything is under control now, I was able to use Paypal’s virtual terminal to key in the CC info and all’s well! So far.
When I was getting ready to print out the packing slip and the invoices for my vendor to ship the product, I noticed that the plain vanilla invoices and packing slips didn’t include my store’s logo nor address. Make sure you get those on if to build your store’s brand identity!! Or atleast so that the customer knows where this package came from!
I browsed in the Magento admin interface, and looked everywhere but couldn’t find the form to fill in the store address nor an image for the outputted PDF file. After some googling i found the thread that talks about this…and the location to configure this IS in the admin interface…just that it wasn’t placed at a very intuitive location. To customize the logo and the store address on the invoice, go to: System (at the top), Sales (on the left side), and Invoice and Packing Slip Design (third tab in the middle). Upload the images, and type in your store address. All Done.
NOTE: Picture shown is what was purchased. Very cool Queue 2-Tone Stick Lighter.
Very familiar problem - and even having taken the steps you mention, the default Magento invoice layout is not exactly stunning is it?! The invoice is one of the occasions you get to have an impact on your customers, so good design is important.
Have scoured the communities for a good way to customize the invoices, and everyone seems to agree that it’s not straightforward (apart from hacking the core code, which is definitely *NOT* the way to go!)
… unless someone out there knows otherwise…?
I must agree…Magento needs to build a better interface for tweaking the invoices and packing slips.
Did you ever try mod’ing the core code to customize the invoice? there’s an article here that talks about it:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/how-to/editing_an_invoice_pdf
But, I haven’t tried it. I am just curious about the experience and how customizable it really is.
Checkout my simple solution for creating a nice looking invoice:
http://creativedistrict.co.uk/2009/04/10/customizing-invoices-in-magento/
Thanks Nathan,
I will definitely check out and try out your solution!
Perhaps you also want to check out my module AdvancedInvoiceLayout (www.vianetz.com/advancedinvoicelayout)