Custom Datasheet Hub and Automated PDF Generation for Colt

Colt required a new Datasheet Hub system that would allow customers to discover and download comprehensive technical information across their services and features.

However, the project needed to go further and include a complex PDF auto-generation capability.

Previously, generating custom PDFs for dynamic content was costly and time-consuming. Design teams and internal resources were being used to create basic documents, which then had to be uploaded to the website, even though the same content already existed online.

Automatic Branded PDF Generation

What was needed was a system that could automatically take information from the website and reformat it into professional, branded PDFs that matched Colt’s internal design standards. Make Do stepped in with our custom application and WordPress expertise to deliver this functionality.

We built upon the flexibility of the WordPress Gutenberg page builder, enabling Colt’s customer service team to easily create in-depth online knowledge base articles and user guides. These guides were designed to be mobile-friendly, easy to read, and optimised for performance and user experience. The next step was to extend this system to provide automatic PDF generation, capable of reformatting lengthy web-based content into print-ready documents. Some of these generated PDFs ran to hundreds of pages.

This was an immense technical challenge, requiring multiple iterations and close collaboration with Colt’s internal teams.

The final system now works seamlessly, producing PDFs that can be downloaded or shared directly with customers. It continues to evolve with new features and content, while staying true to its core purpose: providing a reliable way to convert online information into high-quality, print-ready documents.