WP PDF Stamper

WordPress plugin to stamp and securely sell your PDF files

PDF Stamper – Creating a Download Now Button for eMember Members

If you offer PDF files to your eMember members then this feature may be helpful for you.

The PDF Stamper plugin lets you create a download now button for your eMember members. A logged in eMember user can use that button  to download the PDF file. The plugin will stamp the file with the eMember user’s details (name and email address) at the time of download.

Use the following shortcode to place a PDF download now button for eMember members:

[stamper_download_button_for_emember file_url="example.com/url-to-your-file.pdf" button_text="Download Now"]

Using a Custom Button Image with the Download Now Button

You can use a custom button image for the download now button instead of the text. Use the “button_image” parameter in the shortcode to use your custom button image for the button. Below is an example:

[stamper_download_button_for_emember file_url="example.com/url-to-your-file.pdf" button_image="example.com/custom-image-url"]

Opening the PDF Download in a New Window

Use the “new_window” parameter in the shortcode to open the download in a new window. Example shortcode usage below:

[stamper_download_button_for_emember file_url="example.com/url-to-your-file.pdf" button_text="Download Now" new_window="1"]

What Variables Can be Stamped?

This shortcode can only stamp the following variables.

  • {customer_name} – This will be replaced with the name of the member
  • {first_name} – This will be replaced with the first name of the member
  • {last_name} – This will be replaced with the last name of the member
  • {customer_email} – This will be replaced with the email address of the member
  • {date} – Stamping date
  • {customer_phone} – Member’s phone number (only available if you are using the phone number field in eMember)
  • {customer_address} – Member’s address (only available if you are using the address fields in eMember)

PDF Stamper – Creating a Download Now Button for WP Users

If you offer PDF files to your WP Users then this feature may be helpful for you.

The PDF Stamper plugin lets you create a download now button for your WP Users. A logged in WP User can use that button  to download the PDF file. The plugin will stamp the file with the WP User’s details (name and email address) at the time of download.

It will also keep the source PDF file’s URL hidden.

Use the following shortcode to place a PDF download now button for WP Users.

[stamper_download_button_for_wp_user file_url="example.com/url-to-your-file.pdf" button_text="Download Now"]

Using a Custom Button Image with the Download Now Button

You can use a custom button image for the download now button instead of the text. Use the “button_image” parameter in the shortcode to use your custom button image for the button. Below is an example:

[stamper_download_button_for_wp_user file_url="example.com/url-to-your-file.pdf" button_image="example.com/custom-image-url"]

Opening the PDF Download in a New Window

Use the “new_window” parameter in the shortcode to open the download in a new window. Example shortcode usage below:

[stamper_download_button_for_wp_user file_url="example.com/url-to-your-file.pdf" button_text="Download Now" new_window="1"]

What Variables Can be Stamped?

This shortcode can only stamp the following variables.

  • {customer_name} – This will be replaced with the name of the customer making the purchase
  • {first_name} – This will be replaced with the first name of the customer
  • {last_name} – This will be replaced with the last name of the customer
  • {customer_email} – This will be replaced with the email address of the customer making the purchase
  • {date} – Stamping date

User’s address and phone number are not standard fields of WP User record. This shortcode can only stamp values that will be available on all standard WordPress installs.

How to configure the settings menu

There are 4 sub-settings under the main WP PDF Stamper Settings.

1. General PDF Stamper Settings

Under the general settings there are two fields:

  • Secret Key for PDF Stamping: You can specify a random code (secret key) in this field which will be used to authenticate any PDF stamp request. The default value is good enough as it is uniquely generated.
  • Destination Directory of Stamped Files: In this field you need to specify the URL of the directory where you want to keep your stamped PDF files. The default value is good enough for this field too.

2. PDF Stamper Text Format Settings

There are four fields under this setting. All these settings apply to the text that will be stamped in the PDF file.

  • Font Color: You can specify The font color in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) value in this field.
  • Font Size: The size of the font you want to use in the stamp.
  • Text Alignment: You can specify if your text of the stamp will be aligned to the left, right or center.

3. PDF File Security Settings

The file security settings allows you to control the encryption and accessibility of the PDF file:

  • Enable PDF File Encryption – If checked the stamped PDF file will be encrypted.
  • Allow Print – The user is allowed to print the stamped PDF file. If you do not want your customers to be able to print it then uncheck this field.
  • Allow Copy – The user is allowed to copy or otherwise extract text and graphics from the stamped PDF file. If you do not want your customers to be able to copy any text or images from the PDF file then uncheck this field.
  • Allow Modify – The user with full acrobat product range is allowed to modify the contents of the stamped file. If you do not want the file to be modifiable then uncheck this field.
  • File Password – User password to open the file (you can either use a set password or specify it to use the email address of the customer as the password)

4. Footer or Header Text Layout Settings

There are 3 options in this setting:

  • Line Distance from the Bottom of the Page: The value you specify in this field is used to determine the position of the text to be stamped in the PDF file. The default value is 15 millimeter (so the stamped text will be placed 15 millimeters above the bottom edge of the page).
  • Line Spacing: This value determines the space between the lines. The default value is 5 millimeter.
  • Footer Text: You can the specify the text which will be stamped in the PDF file in this filed. The default text stamps the customer name and address in the footer of every page of the PDF file. If you want to stamp any other customer information (e.g customer email address, phone number) then you need to specify that variable within bracers { } which will be replaced by the value dynamically.

Stamping Text Dynamic Variables

At the moment you can specify the following variables/tags in the stamping text area that will be replaced dynamically at transaction time when you use it with a payment system (Example: PayPal, WP eStore, WooCommerce, Clickbank):

  • {customer_name} – This will be replaced with the name of the customer making the purchase
  • {first_name} – This will be replaced with the first name of the customer
  • {last_name} – This will be replaced with the last name of the customer
  • {customer_email} – This will be replaced with the email address of the customer making the purchase
  • {customer_phone} – This will be replaced with the phone number of the customer making the purchase
  • {customer_address} – This will be replaced with the address of the customer making the purchase (if available during the checkout process)
  • {customer_business_name} – This will be replaced with the business name of the customer making the purchase (Please note that this will only work when the person paying for the item has a business name and it is collected by the payment gateway during the transaction)
  • {transaction_id} – The unique transaction ID of the purchase
  • {date} – Stamping date

Once you are done with settings you can click on “Update Options” to save your current settings. If you have made mistake while configuring the settings and messed up everything, you can also click the “Reset to Default” button and all the settings will be set to default.

How to Manually Stamp a PDF File

Manual PDF Stamping is handy if you want to stamp the PDF file by yourself for testing or send it to a customer manually.

Go to the Manual Stamping interface from the main PDF Stamper plugin menu to manually stamp a PDF file.

Text to Stamp

This is the text that will be stamped in the PDF file.

Lets say, you want to stamp a file for John Doe and send it to him manually. An example of your text could be the following:

This material is copyrighted to John Doe of 123 Some Street, San Jose, CA - 95130, U.S.A. The email address of the customer is [email protected]

URL of the Source File

In this field you need to specify The URL of the main PDF file that you want to stamp. The plugin will make a copy of this source file and stamp it with the text you already specified.

Stamp the PDF File

Once click on the “Stamp It” button, the plugin will do the following:

  1. Create a copy of your source file with an unique name
  2. Stamp the file with the text you specified
  3. Put the stamped file in the directory you have specified in the “Destination Directory of Stamped Files” field of the plugin settings.

You can access all the stamped files from the “Manage Stamped Files” menu.

Sample PDF File

It is a good idea to test the stamping using the following sample PDF file first.

Testing with the sample PDF file allows you to check if the stamper engine is working correctly on your site.