Platform 2 Guide — This article applies to the new platform. Looking for classic platform docs? Browse the Platform 1 collection.
Why: Streamline your meal planning process by generating professional-looking PDFs for your meal plans and recipes. This feature helps you provide valuable resources to your subscribers, enhancing their experience and increasing engagement.
Navigate: App Station > Settings > Content Settings > Templates > PDF
Quick Start
Go to the App Station and navigate to Settings.
Select Content Settings and then Templates.
Click on PDF to access the PDF generation settings.
Customize your PDF templates as needed.
Use the Download PDF option on meal plans to generate your PDF.
Plan Size Limits
When creating meal plans, it's important to be aware of the following limits:
Total Recipe Cap: Meal plans can contain a maximum of 100 recipes. This cap applies to everyone, including admins, and serves as a safety net to ensure the editor and shopping list function smoothly.
PDF Export Limit: For PDF generation, meal plans must have 50 recipes or fewer. Plans with more than 50 recipes are still fully editable but will not produce a PDF. When a meal plan exceeds 50 recipes, a persistent warning banner appears at the top of the meal plan tab, advising you to split the plan into smaller segments and link them using the Related Content property.
If you attempt to open the PDF export modal for a meal plan that cannot be exported (due to exceeding the recipe limit, lack of permission, or reaching the daily export limit), the modal will display a neutral message: "This meal plan is not available for PDF export." Members will not see specific reasons for the restriction, ensuring that they remain unaware of any admin-imposed limits.
Customizing PDF Templates
In the PDF settings, you can customize how your meal plans and recipes are presented in the generated PDFs. Here are some key options:
Density Preset
The Density preset controls the vertical spacing between blocks in your PDF. The available options are:
Tight: Fits more content on a page.
Compact: Slightly more breathing room.
Normal: Default spacing.
Comfortable: Easier to scan with more whitespace.
Spacious: Maximum whitespace.
Page Break Behavior
The page break behavior is hardcoded and cannot be changed:
Each recipe will attempt to render on a single page.
Each section of the meal plan (header, schedule, prep-aheads, shopping list, and recipes) starts on a new page.
There are no admin controls for adjusting page breaks.
Image Options
You can manage images in both cover-image and header blocks for recipes and meal plans. The following options are available:
Aspect Ratio: Choose from options like 1:1, 4:3, 16:9, etc.
Fit: Select between cover or contain.
Width Percentage: Set the width relative to its container (e.g., 25%, 50%).
Alignment: Choose left, center, or right.
Max Height: Set a maximum height for images.
Border Radius: Adjust the corner rounding.
Additionally, there is a standalone pdf-meal-plan-cover-image block that mirrors the recipe cover-image block for consistent image sizing across your content.
Editor Behavior
When editing meal plans, the editor opens to the Blocks tab by default. The Show heading toggle is respected for ingredients, instructions, notes, and prep-aheads. Recipe titles in the meal plan schedule will wrap instead of truncating, ensuring clarity.
Nutrition and Yield Display
PDFs will correctly display yield-based recipes, showing the yield amount and unit (e.g., "Makes 500 g") instead of servings. Nutrition information is also displayed per unit of yield, providing clarity for your members.