Printing and PDF: the paper on site

On site, it is the paper in your hand. The permit’s PDF is produced on request from the content recorded in the system: the number, the status and a QR code in the header, and below them every detail of the work, the workers, the conditions and the signatures. By default its layout is compact, so that it fits on few pages — but it never leaves content out.

The signature sheet only carries the rows that are needed. A step already done in the system shows the signer’s name and the time, marked Signed digitally — it does not need a paper signature again. Workers get one row each (an acknowledged one reads Acknowledged digitally). A step recorded on the work supervisor’s behalf shows the supervisor’s name and the manner (Signed on paper / Declared in person). Recorded signatures are printed compactly, in columns (two side by side on a portrait page, three on landscape); extensions and block sign-offs (e.g. isolation) are printed too, and the gas-test table names the tester. Rows for the steps still ahead stay open for handwriting; a step that can no longer happen for this permit under your organisation’s policy (e.g. acceptance switched off) is not printed. The blank fallback form follows the policy too.

Before you start

• Permission: viewing permits — ptw:view (your own request even without it). For the print settings: ptw:manage.
• Status: a PDF belongs to a submitted permit (not a draft). The risk assessment’s PDF is available on a draft too — there the paper states that it has not been approved yet.

Steps

The preview. The note under the header says that this is the compact view, and if the paper did not fit into the target page count, it states the actual page count too.

1. Open the permit and click “PDF preview” in the header. The preview opens: − and + zoom, the page count is on the right, and Download PDF is at the top. If your organisation allows other PDF views as well, the button names the view (“PDF — compact”), with the Other view… menu next to it.

2. One file for the site, if the permit started from a risk assessment. The Download with the risk assessment attached button gives ONE PDF: after the permit, starting on a new page, the assessment it belongs to (“Appendix: risk assessment KE-…”).

   If the permit started from a pre-prepared assessment, the Risk assessment row in the permit PDF’s header shows, next to the number, the assessment’s kind, scope and validity (“KE-… (Pre-prepared · Whole site · Valid until …)”). If the assessment was withdrawn or superseded by a new version before printing, a separate Risk assessment later row states it (with the withdrawal date and reason, or the new version’s number). The record PDF of a closed permit is made at closing: a fact after closing does not appear on it.

3. In a batch, from the list. At the start of the shift you print from the ⋮ menu of a row on the Work permits list: PDF, or PDF with the risk assessment — both open in a new tab.

4. The risk assessment’s own paper. The PDF button in the header of the assessment’s page gives the assessment’s stand-alone PDF: basic data, the full questionnaire with the answers, the step table and the PPE matrix (whichever your organisation asks for), the prescription per permit, and the signature block with the approver. For a site- or company-level assessment the Place of work row reads “<site> · Whole site” or “Whole company”.

5. A blank form for outages. From the Blank form ▾ dropdown in the list header, you can download a blank, hand-fillable PDF of every active template. A permit issued on paper is recorded in the system afterwards.

The authoritative copy is the Compact view

The Airy and the Landscape views state on every page, above the footer: “View: … — the authoritative copy is the Compact view”. The QR code is the same in every view, so the paper can be checked whichever you printed. The browser remembers the view you chose, and the paper with the appendix gets the same one.

If it worked

In the preview, the header of the PDF’s first page carries the number, the status and the QR code; in the compact view the ticked items stand in a grid, and the unticked ones are listed in a single line (“Not marked: …”). The paper is produced in your organisation’s document language, regardless of the viewer’s language — so the same permit gives everyone the same paper.

Your organisation’s settings (for administrators)

The Printing group. These are not gates: they block nothing, they only set the layout — per site.

At the bottom of the Permit settings → Policy gates tab, in the Printing group, you set these per site. There is no separate save step: “Changes are saved automatically as you make them — they apply to the next permits.”

• Print paper size — A4 (default) or A3.
• Print orientation — Portrait (default) or Landscape: the orientation of the Compact and the Airy view.
• Page budget (target) — how many pages you want to fit into (1…10, default: 2).
• Default PDF view — what the “PDF — …” button gives with one click.
• Airy view available · Landscape view available — neither by default, and then the buttons give the usual PDF. The default view is always available.
• Verification QR code on the PDF — on by default. Since 2026-09-28 the permit’s QR code is a link to your organisation’s own address: scanned with a phone, it opens the permit’s live status without signing in — WORK MAY PROCEED or DO NOT WORK, and whether the paper is the latest version. The risk assessment’s QR code is still text, which you check signed in, on the Paper check page. When off, the PDF of an issued permit and of an approved risk assessment has no QR code: the paper then loses the on-site, no-sign-in check as well, and a printed copy cannot show which state it was made from (the document number only finds today’s state). The signature chain in the system is unaffected.

The paper size and the orientation are your choice: the system never overrides them (the Landscape view gives a landscape sheet on request).

Worth knowing

• How the layout is decided: the system draws the paper with every possible layout, measures the page count and picks the one with the fewest pages — on a tie, the airier one. If even the best does not fit the target, the paper states the actual page count (“3 pages instead of 2: the content did not fit, this is the fewest pages”). A typical single-focus permit fits on two pages; with many blocks and an appendix, typically three. The two-column responsibility rows (issuer / requester) break across a page with both columns together, and their header repeats on the new page — so no near-empty page appears in between.
• The blank (paper-fallback) form is always airy, because it is filled in by hand — only the Landscape view’s orientation affects it. The gate questions get Yes / No boxes, the fields a dotted line.
• The appendix is a printing convenience: the authoritative copies remain the permit’s own PDF and the assessment’s own PDF.
• The paper prints no hash — the machine evidence is carried by the QR code (unless it is switched off in the Printing group). Scanning the permit’s QR code opens the live status page; papers printed before 2026-09-28 still carry a text QR code (operex:ptw:…), which you check on the Paper check page. How to check it: Paper check and evidence. The background in brief: Digital fingerprints — technical brief.

Related

Paper check and evidenceScanning the QR code and the verdict.

A permit from a risk assessmentWhen the PDF with the appendix appears.

Policy gatesThe settings page, where the Printing group lives too.