Hi everyone,

I’m facing a challenging issue related to our app’s user account creation process, and I’m hoping to get some advice from this community.

Our app allows users to create an account in three ways:

1. In-App Signup: Users download the app, complete the signup flow, and their data is populated into a PDF template with dynamic form fields (set up in Adobe Acrobat) and sent to a government regulatory body.


2. Soft Copy Download: Users can download the same PDF template from our website, fill it out using Adobe Reader or similar, and email it to us for passing on to the regulatory body


3. Print and Mail: Users can download, print, manually fill in the form, and mail it to our office, which we forward to the regulatory body.

You can check out the form here for context.

The challenge stems from the need to maintain a print-friendly layout with boxes and tables, which was likely designed in Adobe Illustrator or InDesign before being exported as a PDF. Over time, the source files were lost, and now the last edited PDF template is our sole source of truth.

The problem: Editing this PDF is a nightmare. Adding content or making simple edits often messes up the dynamic form fields, and because PDFs aren’t reflowable like Google Docs or Word, moving content around can be incredibly error-prone. We also face issues where even minor changes, like adding a period at the end of a sentence and saving it, cause the dynamic form fields to malfunction.

With the regulatory body frequently updating data requirements, we’re looking for a more efficient way to update this form without constantly running into these issues.

What I’m considering:

1. Recreating the Form in Figma: This would make it easier to manage the design, but I’d still have to use Adobe Acrobat to define dynamic fields after exporting to PDF. This brings us back to the original problem of having the PDF as the final, fragile source of truth.


2. Turning the Form into an HTML Page: The idea here is that user data collected via the app could be populated into an HTML form from which a PDF is generated. However, we still need to support a print-friendly PDF with dynamic form fields that users can download, fill offline, or print and mail.

My questions:

1. If I design the form in Figma, is there any way to define dynamic form fields within Figma, probably coupled with the use of a Figma plugin, so that it remains the single source of truth?


2. If not, is there a library, JS, or PHP script that can convert an HTML form into a PDF while retaining the fillable form fields, radio buttons, etc., in the PDF?

I’d appreciate any insights, suggestions, or advice on how to handle this. Thanks in advance!