The adesso DocGen: Why we developed our own document generator – and what makes it unique

When it comes to creating and generating documents – whether invoices, expert reports, reports or notices – many companies face the same problem: the solutions on the market are often either too rigid, too complex or simply not designed for everyday use.

We at adesso have experienced exactly that. After years of working with existing tools such as Apache PDFBox, DocBridge and iText, it was clear that we needed something of our own – something flexible, modern, scalable and user-friendly. That's how the adesso document generator came about.

The idea: a generator with a built-in editor

The adesso document generator is more than just another PDF tool. It combines two powerful components:

• The generator: Creates hundreds or thousands of documents in seconds – efficiently, resource-saving and containerisable.
• The editor: Finally makes creating and editing templates easy. With HTML, CSS and a live preview, you can design templates intuitively, flexibly and without any in-depth IT knowledge.

Why have our own generator?

From our own experience, we know how time-consuming and expensive maintaining templates can be – especially when there are many formats, languages and layouts involved.

In practice, it has become clear that existing solutions offer powerful APIs, but they often require a deep technical understanding. Connecting to existing systems or building new templates usually requires the expertise of experienced developers.

In addition, many generators available on the market are technically cumbersome. They work with outdated technologies or proprietary template languages that involve a steep learning curve – especially when it comes to integration, expansion or adaptation to new requirements.

What is often missing are:

• an intuitive interface for template design,
• modern and precise styling options with common web technologies (CSS instead of proprietary layouts),
• a fast live preview and
• above all: a uniform tool that combines development, testing and productive operation.

This is exactly where the adesso document generator comes in: we have developed a tool that is powerful yet easy to use and consistently breaks down the typical hurdles of traditional document generation.

Features that make the difference

• Live Preview – instant feedback (WYSIWYG): With Live Preview, changes are visible immediately. This makes template creation significantly more efficient and reliable.
• Styling with CSS: Instead of proprietary formats, standardised CSS is used – including Paged Media Module for professional print layouts (e.g. page numbers, headers/footers, portrait and landscape formats).
• AI support for template creation: If desired, integrated AI helps to build templates faster. It generates code suggestions, recognises structures from existing PDFs and provides tips for optimisation.This means you remain in control – but routine work is automated.
• Internationalisation: All text modules can be defined centrally and maintained in different languages, with numbers and data formatted automatically according to the language – ideal for companies with international target groups.
• API and integration: The generator can be easily integrated into existing workflows via the lean REST API. Test data can be stored or imported manually, and the template's data model can be extracted with a single click.
• Cloud-enabled and scalable: The adesso document generator is containerisable, high-performance and optimised for cloud infrastructures – for reliable, secure, flexible use and the generation of large numbers of documents via the API.

New features – developed with practical application in mind

We prefer to develop new features to meet specific needs. Since we control the generator ourselves, we can adapt it flexibly to the wishes of our customers. This means that everyone can help shape it. Our latest highlight features include, for example:

• Global styles: Define your corporate design once and apply it everywhere.
• Import/export: Easily exchange templates between clients or projects.
• Interactive PDF form files: Interactive PDF forms with input fields, checkboxes and drop-downs.

Manual generation in the editor: Create documents in the editor with real data in compliance with data protection regulations – without any programming.

Conclusion: A practical tool – for practical use

With the adesso document generator, we have created a solution that fundamentally simplifies document management: an editor that offers design freedom, a generator that guarantees speed – and an architecture that can be flexibly integrated into any organisation.

No matter what industry you are in, our document generator can be used in a data protection-compliant, secure and scalable manner. It combines performance, transparency and user-friendliness – and finally turns an often tedious process into an efficient, controlled workflow.