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Why is there no direct PDF export of completed forms (only email attachments?)

Dear forms.app Support Team,

I would like to address a very specific and, in practice, highly problematic limitation of your platform.

To be clear:
I am aware that forms.app allows sending completed form results (including signatures) as a PDF attachment via email.

However, what is not possible — and what I find difficult to justify — is the absence of a direct PDF export or download option from the dashboard.

In other words:

  • The PDF exists

  • It can be generated and sent by email

  • But it cannot be directly downloaded or exported by the user on demand

From a professional and operational standpoint, this is a serious shortcoming:

  • Email is not a reliable or scalable archive mechanism

  • Businesses need to store, file, and manage PDFs centrally (local storage, document management systems, audits)

  • Depending on email delivery for critical documents is error-prone and inefficient

  • In regulated or compliance-relevant environments, email-based delivery is often explicitly discouraged

This leads to several legitimate questions:

  • Why is there no direct “Download PDF” or “Export as PDF” option, even though the PDF is already being generated internally? Why i nee a csv or xlsx Excel File without any signature ?

  • Is this a technical limitation, a deliberate product decision, or a plan restriction?

  • Are there plans to introduce direct PDF export for completed forms, especially those containing signatures?

  • How do you recommend professional users handle systematic archiving, if email is the only supported delivery channel?

Given that forms.app is marketed as a professional, paid SaaS solution, forcing users to rely on email attachments for document retrieval feels outdated and unnecessarily restrictive.

I would appreciate a clear explanation of the reasoning behind this design decision.

Kind regards,
Manfred Spendling

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Comments1

  • Can Daban

    •

    Jan 22

    Hello Manfred,

    Can from forms.app here 👋

    Thanks so much for bringing this up. It’s a great question and a very valid concern.

    We took the first step in Q4 2025 by releasing our PDF Designer feature. This was the starting point toward giving users full control over their PDFs.

    From here, we’re rolling out the rest step by step:

    • Direct download from a single response

    • Bulk PDF download

    • Filtered PDF export

    These are all actively planned as part of the same flow.

    Also, just to note:

    You can already download PDFs directly from the PDF Designer. I’ll add screenshots here to show where this option is located.



    Workaround (Fully Automated)

    If you’d like automatic archiving today, you can use the Google Drive integration to save your custom-designed PDFs to Drive every time a new response is submitted.

    Thanks again for this excellent feedback. It genuinely helps us improve forms.app, and we’d love for you to keep sharing your ideas.