How to create PDF files in PHP

In the prosperous era of modern technology, PDF files have become one of the file formats familiar to most Internet users. It is so widely used that many companies now rely on this format to share documents and save time and resources. If you are a PHP developer, creating PDF files for your application may be a must. In this article, we will discuss how to create PDF files using PHP.

1. Install the FPDF library
First, we need to install the library containing the FPDF class. FPDF is one of the most popular open source libraries for generating PDF documents in PHP. It can be installed through composer, just use the following command:

composer require setasign/fpdf

If you are not using composer, you can download the FPDF library manually.

2. Prepare PDF file
Next, we need to create a blank PDF file. For this purpose, we will instantiate the FPDF class and call the "AddPage" method through this object to create the PDF page. Therefore, we need to create this new FPDF object in code and add a page:

$pdf = new FPDF();
$pdf->AddPage();

3. Add text and images
Now that we have created the PDF page, the next step is to add text and images to the file. We can add text on a blank page using the "SetFont" and "Cell" methods of the FPDF class. We can also insert pictures into PDF files using the "Image" method.

$pdf->SetFont('Arial','B',16);
$pdf->Cell(40,10,'Hello World!');
$pdf ->Image('image.jpg',10,30,50);

Here, we have set the font and font size as well as the text content that needs to be added. We also added the image "image.jpg" via the "Image" method. The API parameters represent the coordinates and width of the upper left corner of the image, and the height is an optional parameter.

4. Set PDF file properties and save
Finally, we need to set the properties of the PDF file, such as author name, file name, etc. We can do this using the metadata properties of the FPDF class. We also need to use the method "Output" to save or output the PDF file onto the client browser.

$pdf->SetTitle('Hello World PDF');
$pdf->SetAuthor('Your Name');
$pdf->SetSubject('Testing PDF creation ');

$pdf->Output('hello-world.pdf', 'D');

The above code will set the title, author and subject of the PDF file and will It is saved to a file called "hello-world.pdf". Among them, parameter "D" indicates that the output is download. Additional output types are supported, such as "I" for opening within the browser, and "F" for saving the file on the server.

Conclusion
Creating PDF files in PHP is a very easy process, and using the FPDF class will make the process faster and more convenient. With this information, you can create PDF files faster and leave more time for other tasks that can make your application more efficient.

The above is the detailed content of How to create PDF files in PHP. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!