Exporting Results to PDF

Overview

The Export » PDF Format option produces a professionally-formatted PDF export, including all report charts and data tables. PDF exports can optionally include custom corporate letterhead or logos, as well as various other options that are described in the following sections.

Projects, users and issue keys are automatically linked back to the corresponding object in your Jira instance.

The Export menu within a report permits the export of a single report at a time. An example PDF export is shown below:

PDF exports can be customized in a number of ways by the system administrator, as well as by users who have Customizer Script permission.

Global Default Settings

When exporting reports in PDF format, the following default settings are used for the size, orientation and layout of the PDF file. Where noted, some settings can be customized on a global basis by a Jira administrator.

Customizing Individual Reports

Using a Customizer Script

With Dataplane Customizer Scripts, you can customize the size, orientation, layout and other attributes of an individual report's PDF export.

The following Customizer Script syntax is used to modify the properties of a report's PDF export:

customizeExport {
	format "pdf" [properties...]
}

The format"pdf" indicates that you are customizing the PDF export format, and it is followed by one or more pairs of properties and values.

For example, to create a wide-format landscape page for a multi-column Issues Work Log Table Report, you could use the following:

customizeExport {
	format "pdf" size "ledger" orientation "landscape" backgroundImage "ourLogo.png"
}

You can also place each PDF export customization on a separate line, as in the following:

customizeExport {
	format "pdf" size "ledger"
    format "pdf" orientation "landscape"
    format "pdf" backgroundImage "ourLogo.png"
}

Customizer Script Options

Using a Dataplane Customizer Script, the following properties and values can be used to customize PDF exports:

// Add one stylesheet
stylesheet "sheet1.css"
 
// Add multiple stylesheets
stylesheets ("sheet1.css", "sheet2.css")

Customization Guidelines and Tips

Using Stylesheets

Dataplane uses the Flying Saucer HTML-to-PDF engine in order to render PDF report exports.

The format of PDF exports can be customized by adding one or more cascading style sheets (CSS), which can be specified at a global level or on a report-by-report basis. For custom stylesheets, Dataplane supports most standard CSS 2.1 attributes, including paged media selectors.

Stylesheet Dimension Units

Dataplane PDF report exports are targeted for print media, so when specifying the size of fonts and other document elements, always use units of points ("pt") rather than pixels ("px"). One point equals 1/72 of an inch.

For example, use "font-weight: 10pt;" rather than "font-weight: 10px;"

The same rule applies for margins, borders, padding and any other CSS attribute that requires a dimension.

Adding Background Images

To add custom letterhead or a watermark to your reports, PDF report exports can be configured to use a background image.

The background image can be defined either as a global background image used on all reports exported by Dataplane users, or as a report-specific background image defined with a Dataplane Customizer Script. Both methods for setting background images are described in the previous sections.

Background images must be in the PNG file format.

We suggest the following background image dimensions in order to render the export at a standard print resolution of 300 ppi:

Background image height is automatically stretched to fill the full page height. Background image width is scaled, as needed, to maintain proper proportions. As a result, horizontal cropping may sometimes occur if your image dimensions are not proportional to the selected page size.

If you wish to export reports in both Letter and A4 sizes, use the A4 dimensions for your background image in order to avoid unnecessary horizontal cropping.