Components

Components are the building blocks you assemble on the Content and Overlays tabs of a design. Each one renders a specific piece of an invoice or quote — a line items table, an address block, a logo, a page number, a barcode.

This section documents each component in detail. Settings that show up across many components — positioning, visibility, style selection, merge-field syntax — are covered once in the Concepts section and referenced from here.

Where each component is usable

Component	Content	Overlay	Invoice	Quote
Text	✓	✓	✓	✓
HTML Text	✓	✓	✓	✓
Image	✓	✓	✓	✓
Spacer	✓		✓	✓
Page Break	✓		✓	✓
Columns	✓		✓	✓
PDF Document	✓		✓	✓
Invoice Items	✓		✓
Quote Items	✓			✓
Summary	✓	✓	✓	✓
Transactions	✓	✓	✓
Details Box	✓	✓	✓	✓
Address Box	✓	✓	✓	✓
Invoice Status	✓	✓	✓
Rectangle	✓	✓	✓	✓
Divider	✓	✓	✓	✓
1D Barcode	✓	✓	✓	✓
2D Barcode / QR	✓	✓	✓	✓
Page Number		✓	✓	✓
Fold Marks		✓	✓	✓
Payment Code	✓	✓	✓
E-Invoicing	✓		✓

The Add Component picker in the design editor filters this list automatically based on whether you're on the Content or Overlays tab and whether the design is for invoices or quotes.

Common editor tabs

Every component editor has between two and four tabs along the top:

• Content — the component's own settings: what it shows.
• Style — how it looks: a typography or table style, a colour, a border.
• Layout — where it sits and how big it is. On the Overlays tab the position is absolute (X/Y in mm); on the Content tab it is an Offset — an X/Y nudge from where the component would naturally land in the flow. Both also carry a Width: overlays choose between Edge to edge, Full width and Custom, while content components get a plain millimetre field. Components that draw a box of their own (Image, Rectangle, 1D Barcode, Spacer) carry a Height here too.
• Visibility — display rules, conditions, and link-visibility, covered once in Concepts → Visibility & conditions.

The split is worth knowing when you go looking for a field: Layout owns where and how big, and the tab a component opens on owns what it draws. So the Rectangle and the Divider open on Style — a border, a fill, a stroke weight is all they have to say — while their size sits with their position under Layout.

A few components are config-free (Page Break, Fold Marks) and have only an Info tab and Visibility. Columns has no Content tab at all — its columns are its content, so everything lives on Layout. Spacer goes the other way: a height under Layout, and nothing else.

📄️Address Box

The recipient address block. Almost always used as a first-page overlay positioned to fall inside a DL envelope window — though it can also be placed in the content flow when you don't print to window envelopes.

📄️1D Barcode

A linear (one-dimensional) barcode generated from a numeric merge field. The usual reason to add one is machine-readable document handling — a scanner in your accounts department or a mail house reading the invoice number straight off the page.

📄️2D Barcode / QR

A QR code whose contents you compose yourself with Twig. Unlike Payment Code, which renders a standardised payment QR maintained by Billing Booster, this component encodes whatever text you give it — a link to the invoice in the client area, a reference number, a vCard, a plain URL.

📄️Columns

A container that places content blocks side by side instead of stacking them. Use it for a two-up header (details box on the left, logo on the right), a three-up footer with bank details, VAT information and contact data, or a text block sitting next to a QR code.

📄️Details Box

A two-column box that prints document and client metadata as label–value pairs — document number, dates, customer number, payment method, VAT ID, custom fields. Typically sits at the top of the invoice, often as a first-page overlay opposite the address box.

📄️Divider

A single straight line — horizontal or vertical. The plain way to separate sections of a document without borrowing a table style or drawing a one-pixel Rectangle.

📄️E-Invoicing

Embeds machine-readable e-invoicing XML into the PDF — UBL, ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, and similar standards. The PDF stays human-readable; the embedded XML is what tax authorities and B2B systems parse.

📄️Fold Marks

Renders two thin horizontal tick marks at the standard fold positions for a DL envelope. Helps recipients (and yourself) fold the printed page neatly into thirds.

📄️HTML Text

A rich-text editor for longer or more formatted blocks of text — terms and conditions, a styled greeting, a table of bank details, anything that needs mixed formatting in one place. Stored as HTML and rendered into the PDF by the engine.

📄️Image

Render an image asset on the page. The classic use case is a letterhead logo, but you can use this for signatures, watermark graphics, or any raster element.

📄️Invoice Items

The line items table for an invoice. The single most-configured component on any invoice design.

📄️Invoice Status

A coloured badge showing the invoice's current status — PAID, UNPAID, OVERDUE, etc. Typically placed as a first-page overlay in a top corner, though it can also sit in the content flow.

📄️Page Break

Forces a new page at this point in the document. Has no configuration of its own.

📄️Page Number

A page indicator — "Page 1 / 3" or any other format you compose. Typically placed at the bottom-centre or bottom-right as an overlay.

📄️Payment Code

Renders a payment QR code or full payment slip — Swiss QR-bill, EPC QR, and other payment-code standards. Requires the Billing Booster Blesta plugin to be installed and configured.

📄️PDF Document

Inserts an entire external PDF at this point in the document — every page of the source file is spliced into the output. Use it for terms and conditions, legal appendices, product brochures, or any static multi-page document.

📄️Quote Items

The line items table for a quote. Nearly identical to Invoice Items, with two differences: a Discount column is available, and there is no item filter or custom-fields handling.

📄️Rectangle

A box: an outline, a filled block of colour, or both. Use it to frame a notice, tint a band behind a section, or put a border around the address window area.

📄️Spacer

Adds vertical space between content components. The simplest component in BestPDF — one input, no styling. There is no overlay equivalent: overlays are absolutely positioned, so there's nothing to space.

📄️Summary

The totals block — subtotal, tax, total, payments, balance due. Sits below the items table on most invoices.

📄️Text

A plain text block with merge-field support. Use it for short, single-styled pieces of text — a greeting line, a section heading, a footer note. For anything that needs inline formatting (bold runs, lists, tables, multiple fonts), use HTML Text instead.

📄️Transactions

A ledger of payment transactions applied to the invoice. Typically rendered below the Summary component on receipts and reminder invoices.