Setting Up Pages, Headers and Footers

Page setup is where a template gets its paper, its type and its branding — the things that are true of every page rather than of one box. This article covers the Page setup tab, including the header and footer bands that repeat on every page.

Before you begin

Open a template and select the Page setup tab. If you have not built a document yet, start with Designing a Template.

Paper and Margins

The Paper section sets “The sheet the document is laid out on, and how much white surrounds it.”

1. Choose a Size — for example Letter — 8.5 × 11 in.
2. Set the Top, Right, Bottom and Left margins. Type a value with its unit, such as 0.75in.

The top and bottom margins have to hold the bands

The header and footer sit inside them, so the margin is what reserves their room. The panel says so: “add a logo and the top margin is reserved from its height instead.” You do not have to work the arithmetic out — the band grows the margin for you.

Decoration

A Decoration is artwork behind the text on every page. With none set, the section says “None. The text prints on white paper.”

Click Choose image to pick one; the control then reads Change image. Two settings decide how far it reaches:

• Inside the margins — it covers the printable area only
• Side to side — it runs off the left and right edges

A decoration never reaches all four edges

For ink on every edge you need a full-bleed Cover page instead. The picture is also stretched to the full width of the text area, so an image of another shape is cropped to fit first — your original is kept either way.

Type and Colour

Body type and colour holds the two settings that carry a brand furthest.

• Body font — the document’s typeface. Only five faces are offered, because those are the ones the renderer has installed.
• Accent colour — “Headings, table header bands, and the rules above totals.” One colour changes all three.

Only the five installed faces are offered, and that is deliberate

The panel explains it: “Anything else substitutes silently, so it is not offered.” A font the renderer does not have would be swapped for another without saying so, and the PDF would not look like the editor. To use your own brand face, upload a .woff2 on the Images tab.

Table Styling

Tables sets “How every table in this document looks. A single table can override any of it on the Table tab.” Pick a Style preset:

Preset	What it looks like
Plain	no rules, no banding
Ruled	hairlines under every row
Banded	shaded alternate rows
Boxed	an outer border and a full grid
Minimal	a plain header over a rule
Contrast	a strong header over banded rows

Header row, Data rows and Frame and spacing open beneath for finer control. A preset “Sets every control below that still reads ‘Document default’.” — so anything you have already set by hand is left alone.

Document Title

Document title is “The PDF’s own title — what a reader sees in their viewer’s tab, not text on the page.”

• Fixed title — the same words on every document
• Or take it from the data (wins when set) — a field from the quote, so each document names itself. Click Change to pick a different field.

Header and Footer

Header and footer holds the two bands that repeat on every page: Header “Prints at the top of every page, inside the top margin.” and Footer “Prints at the bottom of every page, inside the bottom margin.”

Each band has a Layout:

• Simple — “Three cells — left, centre, right. Each is one line and truncates.”
• Designed — “Free boxes you place yourself, with fills, borders and images.”

On Designed, click Add text box to add a box, then drag it to move it or drag its corners and edges to resize it. The numbered Box controls below take exact values when you need them. Header colour sets “The ink every box inherits.” and Header type size its size.

Switching a band back to Simple stops storing its boxes

The panel warns that the two layouts are not copies of each other: “Switching back to Simple stops storing these boxes — until you save, they are still here if you switch again.” Once you save on Simple, the designed boxes are gone.

Bands always print in Arial

They render in their own isolated context that cannot see the document’s stylesheet, so they take no font choice — and the editor shows them in that face for the same reason. This is not a fault, and there is no setting for it.

A band has no height control

It is exactly as tall as what you put in it, and the margin grows to reserve that height, so body text never prints over it. The panel reports both numbers as you work.

A page number in a band counts every page

The bands repeat on every page a flowing section produces as well as on your designed pages, so a page number prints a different number on each one.

Undoing Page Setup

The line at the top of the tab says it plainly: “Undo belongs to the document canvas and does not reach page setup. This panel keeps its own.”

Use Revert page setup to put paper, margins, fonts, accent colour, table styling and the bands back to what they were when you opened the tab.

Undo on the canvas will not bring a margin back

The two histories are separate on purpose. If you have changed page setup and want it back, Revert page setup is the control — pressing Undo on the canvas steps through your document edits instead.

Troubleshooting

My brand font isn’t in the list

Solutions:

• Only faces installed on the renderer are offered. Upload a .woff2 file on the Images tab to use your own. See Adding Images and Managing Assets.
• Do not expect a substitute to be flagged at render time — that is exactly why unavailable faces are left out of the list.

I can’t put a logo in the header

The band says “No images in this template’s library yet — upload one on the Images tab to put a logo in a band.”

Solutions:

• Upload the logo on the Images tab first. Bands can only use pictures that are already in the library.
• Set the band’s Layout to Designed — the simple three-cell layout takes text only.

My decoration doesn’t reach the edge of the page

Solutions:

• Set it to Side to side to run it off the left and right edges.
• For ink on all four edges, use a full-bleed Cover page instead. A decoration never reaches the top and bottom of the paper.

Body text prints over my header

Solutions:

• It should not — the margin grows to reserve the band’s height automatically. Check Preview PDF rather than the canvas, which is where the real render can be seen.
• If the band has grown taller than you meant, look for a box in it whose lower edge sits further down than the rest; the band is as tall as its lowest box.

Related Articles

• Designing a Template — Pages, flowing sections and the boxes you place on them
• Adding Images and Managing Assets — Uploading logos, brand fonts and artwork
• Previewing and Publishing a Template — Seeing the real render before anyone else does
• Getting Started with Presentation Template Builder — Creating, renaming and archiving templates