Which language a document prints in #
A document prints in the customer’s language, not the language of the person printing it. The language is recorded on the order at checkout, on both the classic and the block checkout. If a customer’s card is declined and they change language before trying again, the order takes the language of the last try. An order in a language this site doesn’t have installed prints in the site’s language.
With WPML or Polylang #
The order takes the language of the checkout page the customer saw when they placed it. If they switch language on the checkout page, the language they switched to counts. If WPML or Polylang keeps its own language on the order, that one is used and never changed. Orders made before this was in place use WPML’s or Polylang’s record when there is one, then the site’s language.
What we’ve tested: Polylang (the free plugin from WordPress.org), on the classic and the block checkout. What we haven’t: WPML, and Polylang for WooCommerce. They should work the same way, but we haven’t run them.
A developer can change the answer with sidocs_order_locale.
Fonts for other scripts #
Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian, Georgian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Hindi print with what comes in the plugin. A customer’s name in any of those prints correctly on any document, whatever brand font you chose. There’s nothing to download and nothing to turn on.
If your brand font is one you added yourself, it draws the Japanese, Korean and Chinese letters it has. Hindi always uses the font that comes with the plugin.
Japanese, Chinese and Korean letter shapes #
Japanese and Korean write Chinese characters too, and some of them are drawn a little differently. Each document chooses its shapes from what it knows, in this order:
- Japanese kana or Korean Hangul anywhere on the page.
- The language of the document.
- The customer’s billing country.
- Your store’s country.
With none of those to go on, Chinese shapes are used. So a Japanese name written only in Chinese characters, with an address outside Japan, on a store outside Japan, prints correctly but in Chinese shapes. A developer who knows better can set the answer with sidocs_han_language.
Other scripts #
If a document has letters no font here can draw, the editor’s preview says which script is missing. Thai, Bengali, Tamil and others have no font in the plugin. To print them, add a font that covers them under Your own font, then choose it as your brand font. The preview’s warning stays on even then, so check the page itself.
Right-to-left documents #
When an order’s language reads right to left, such as Arabic or Hebrew, the whole document flips: the columns, the totals, and the address blocks. There’s nothing to set.
Changing a word #
Every word that prints on a document can be changed without translation tools. Open the Text screen (Rentals > Settings > Text, or WooCommerce > Text when the rental plugin isn’t installed), pick PDF documents, and type your own wording for each language. “Invoice” can become “Tax invoice”, or “Rechnung” for German orders only.
Documents already issued keep the words they were first printed with, including a new copy drawn after the stored file was deleted. New ones use your wording.
