Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Hi everyone,
I am building an ID Card Generation App in Power Apps, where users can select a record from a gallery and print an ID card. Each employee has two sides of an ID card: Front and Back, and the printing must happen in duplex (both sides) mode.

I already have three ID card templates based on category: Staff, LSU, Consultants

Each category has its own front and back design.

Where I am stuck

Right now, I am unable to correctly design a single print screen that places the front and back layouts one below the other so that Print() creates Page 1 = Front and Page 2 = Back.

My main issues are:

- How to structure the print screen so that the front side shows at the top and the back side shows below it, without extra white space.

-How to structure the print screen so that the front side shows at the top and the back side shows below it, without extra white space.

-After navigating to the print screen, the layout sometimes shifts or doesn’t align properly when using the browser print dialog.

-I want the print output to look clean and fit correctly on the page when duplex printing is used.

Current approach

-I capture the selected employee from the gallery using variables: selectedDraft and selectedCategory.

-On the print screen, I placed: cntFront container (for front designs), cntBack container (for back designs), Inside each container, I added separate templates for Staff, Consultant, and LSU, and used Visible conditions like: cntFrontStaff.Visible = selectedCategory = "Staff"

-I trigger printing using a simple Print() function.

What I need help with

I want guidance on:

-The correct layout structure for a duplex-ready print screen.

-How to correctly design the containers so the print output is stable and aligned.

-Whether my method of using multiple containers for different categories is the best practice.

-Any recommended screen sizes, container sizes, or alignment tips to avoid shifting during printing.

-How to prevent unwanted blank space so the printout looks professional.

Final goal

I need a reliable method to print an ID card with Front + Back as two pages, where a duplex printer automatically prints them on both sides of a single sheet without misalignment.

Any suggestions, best practices, or sample implementations would be extremely helpful.

Thank you!

Categories:

Power Apps Pro Dev & ISV

Hi @ Ramya_Shree

You can skip the browser print quirks entirely by using the native PDF() function in Power Apps. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/canvas-apps/how-to/pdf-function

How it works

Structure your print container exactly as you planned — cntFront stacked on cntBack — then convert it directly to a PDF and launch it:

Set(varCardPDF, PDF(cntPrintContainer));
Launch(varCardPDF, {}, LaunchTarget.New);

User gets a clean 2-page PDF in a new tab and prints from there — duplex works perfectly since front and back are already on separate pages.
To force the page break between front and back, drop an HTML text control between your two containers:
HtmlText = "<div style='page-break-after: always;'></div>"
Height = 1px

A few things to keep in mind:

Your Visible conditions per category still work fine — PDF() captures what's visible
Set fixed heights on your containers — auto-height can produce inconsistent output
Container must be on the active screen when PDF() is called
This eliminates the layout shift issue entirely since you're no longer relying on the browser print dialog. Your multi-container category approach is fine as-is — no changes needed there.

Hope that helps!