Specsmith
A spec sheet for every product, without a designer
Specsmith is a Shopify app that makes a branded spec sheet PDF (a datasheet or tear sheet) for each product: picture, key specs from product fields and metafields, a variant table, the description, and your contact details. Each PDF is saved to your store's Files, and a theme block adds a download button to the product page.
Specsmith isn't in the Shopify App Store yet. This page describes the first version while it's being built; it will link to the listing once the app is approved.
What it does
| Screen | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Home | Three steps (Design, Fields, Publish) with what's done, how many products have a sheet, and how many sheets are out of date. The first time you open the app, Home makes sheets for up to 10 products by itself, with a progress bar. |
| Design | Pick a template, the paper size (A4 or US Letter), an accent colour, a logo, and the header and footer text. Show a sample sheet draws a made-up product with the form as it stands, before you save. |
| Fields | Choose which fields go in the spec table, in what order, and what each row is called. Turn the variant table and the description on or off. |
| Preview | Pick any product and see its sheet in the page, and whether it has a published sheet yet. Publish this product publishes that one sheet. |
| Publish | Create sheets for all products or one collection, with a progress bar. You can leave and come back; products that haven't changed are skipped. |
| Spec sheet download (theme block) | A button or link on product pages that have a published sheet. The label is yours to change. |
Set up
First open
The first time you open Specsmith, Home makes sheets for up to 10 products with your saved design and fields (the defaults on a new install): active products by title, then unlisted ones. This happens once per shop, so the download button has something to show straight away. Change the design and fields afterwards, and Home lists the sheets that need updating.
1. Design
Pick one of three templates:
- Classic: picture on the left, spec table on the right. Up to 2 pages.
- Showcase: a large picture on top, then the description, spec table and variant table. Up to 3 pages.
- Compact: everything on one page, in two columns.
For a logo, upload the image in Shopify admin under Content → Files, copy its link, and paste it into Logo image link. Put your contact details in the footer text; it prints on every page with the page number.
2. Fields
Tick the fields for the spec table: vendor, product type, SKU, barcode, weight, price, tags, and any product or variant metafield your shop has a definition for. Give each row the label you want on the sheet (for example "Width (cm)") and a position. Choose whether to include the variant table (option columns, plus SKU and price if you want them) and the description.
3. Publish
Open Publish and create sheets for all products or one collection. Your browser draws each PDF and uploads it to your store's Files, and the app links it to its product. Keep the page open while it runs; if you leave, it carries on from where it stopped next time.
4. Add the button to product pages
In Shopify admin, open Online Store → Themes → Customize, go to a product page, and add the Spec sheet download block from the app blocks. Save. Shoppers see it only on products that have a published sheet; for a product without one, the theme editor shows a note in its place telling you to create it under Publish. App blocks need a theme that supports them (Online Store 2.0 themes do).
5. Keep sheets current
When you edit a product, Specsmith checks whether anything on its sheet changed. If it did, Home shows the sheet as out of date, and one click draws the new ones. Edits that don't touch the sheet (stock, for example) don't mark it.
What goes on a sheet
- Metafields print in a readable form by type: text, numbers, dimensions, weights and volumes with their units, yes or no, dates, links, ratings, money, rich text, and lists of these. Anything else prints as it's stored.
- Variant-level fields in the spec table (SKU, barcode, weight, a variant metafield) list each different value once. The variant table shows them per variant. Prices print as a range when variants differ.
- The description is turned into plain paragraphs and lists. Bold, links and other styling are dropped and their text kept; pictures, videos and embedded content are left out; a table inside it becomes one line per row.
- Long tables carry on to the next page with the header row repeated. If a sheet would go past its template's page limit, the last page says how many rows weren't shown.
- Text is set in Noto Sans, which covers Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters, so Polish, Czech, German or Bulgarian product data prints correctly. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew text isn't supported.
Permissions
| Shopify access | Why |
|---|---|
Read products (read_products) | Product titles, descriptions, images, variants, the metafields you pick, and the list of metafield definitions for the Fields screen |
Write products (write_products) | Only to save each product's link to its PDF in an app-owned field, which the theme block reads. The app doesn't change titles, prices, stock or anything else. |
Write files (write_files) | To upload the PDFs to your store's Files |
Specsmith doesn't read orders or anything about your customers.
Questions
Do I need to write code or edit my theme?
No. The templates are set up with the form on Design, and the button is a theme block you add in the theme editor.
Can I make my own template in HTML or Liquid?
Not in this version. You choose from three templates and set their colour, logo, texts and fields.
What happens to downloads if the app is down?
They keep working. The PDFs are files in your shop, served by Shopify, and the button links straight to them.
Why do the PDFs get made in my browser?
Drawing a PDF with pictures and an embedded font takes more computing time than the app's server allows per request. Doing it in your browser keeps the server small and avoids timeouts on large catalogs. It also means the Publish page has to stay open while sheets are made.
Are sheets updated automatically?
No. Specsmith marks a sheet out of date when its product changes, and you update the marked sheets with one click on Home.
Can a sheet be in several languages?
Not in this version: one language per shop, taken from your field labels, header and footer, and your product data.
Can it make a catalog or line sheet with many products?
No, one sheet per product. Emailing sheets to buyers isn't included either.
What happens to the PDFs if I uninstall?
They stay in your store's Files, because they're your files. Delete them under Content → Files if you no longer want them. The download button goes away with the app.
Pricing
Free for sheets on up to 10 products, and $9.99 a month on Pro for any number of products, with a 14-day free trial, billed by Shopify. Updating a product that already has a sheet never counts against the free 10.
Help
Email support@whitehatharbor.com. The person who builds the app answers, usually within one business day.