Mastering PDF with PHP
Mastering PDF with PHP
Create, read and edit PDF files in your PHP applications
About the Book
Welcome to the world of dynamically built PDF documents!
In today's web applications, the Portable Document Format is commonly used to send invoices, reports, tickets, e-books and many other files. Chances are that you are already working in a project that requires processing PDF files.
With this book, you'll save a lot of time by knowing the most popular tools on the market, their features and drawbacks. You'll avoid wasting weeks comparing and hacking a multitude of solutions. This is your guide to achieve great results faster!
My book is not tied to any particular framework, however we might use some components. Users of all frameworks are welcome here, just like people who code plain PHP.
This is a work in progress. I will add more details about every HTML to PDF conversion tool that I know. I will cover advanced features like PDF/A, tagged PDF, and so on.
However, if you buy this book now, you'll get free lifetime updates! And I might raise the price in the future, so hurry up!
About the Author
Table of Contents
-
Introduction
- Who is this book for?
- How to read this book?
- About the author
-
What is Portable Document Format for?
- Quick look at the history
- Main features
- Which version to use?
- Differences between HTML and PDF
- Is PDF a right choice for me?
-
The structure of a PDF file
- Main goals
- Four parts of a file
- Write your own PDF in Notepad
- Adding metadata
- Compression
- Summary
-
An example document: an invoice
- An example invoice
- Basic HTML structure
- Body structure
- Creating a stylesheet
- Validating document syntax
- Summary
-
Choosing a tool to generate PDF files
- Two ways to create a PDF file
- Native PHP libraries
- External conversion tools
- Summary
-
Understanding fonts
- How fonts work?
- Font file formats in the PDF
- Picking a proper font
- Selecting a font in CSS
- Text transformations
- ANSI or Mac versus Unicode
- Summary
-
Encryption
- Choosing the cipher
- User permissions
- Encryption with TCPDF
- Encryption with mPDF
- Encryption with Dompdf
- Encryption with FPDF
- Encrypting an existing file with command line tools
- Summary
-
Calling external programs from a PHP script
- Input, output and exit codes
- Basic execution from a PHP script
- Escaping arguments
- Opening and controlling a process
- The most convenient solution: The Process Component
- Reporting progress of time-consuming tasks
- Queueing tasks
- Summary
-
Styling pages with CSS
- Page dimensions and margins
- Adjusting individual pages
- Page-margin boxes and generated content
- Bleed area and crop marks
- Controlling page breaks
- Media queries
- Summary
-
Reading and testing PDF files
- Metadata and text extraction
- Taking a screenshot
- Summary
-
Editing PDF files
- Importing a document to FPDF or TCPDF
- The PDF Toolkit
- Manipulating files with pdfjam
- Summary
- Notes
The Leanpub 60-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Do Well. Do Good.
Authors have earned$12,140,268writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff GeerlingAnsible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.
- #2
Jetpack Compose internals
Jorge CastilloJetpack Compose is the future of Android UI. Master how it works internally and become a more efficient developer with it. You'll also find it valuable if you are not an Android dev. This book provides all the details to understand how the Compose compiler & runtime work, and how to create a client library using them.
- #3
Functional Programming Made Easier
Charles ScalfaniA Functional Programming book from beginner to advanced without skipping a single step along the way.
In my 40 years of programming, I've felt that programming books always let me down, especially Functional Programming books. So, I wrote the book I wish I had 5 years ago.
Functional Programming will never be easy, but it can be easier.
- #4
Windows 11 Field Guide
Rafael Rivera and Paul ThurrottThe Windows 11 Field Guide is a full-length e-book about the latest version of Microsoft Windows, aimed at those users who will upgrade from Windows 10 or acquire Windows 11 with a new PC.
- #5
Mastering STM32 - Second Edition
Carmine NovielloWith more than 1200 microcontrollers, STM32 is probably the most complete ARM Cortex-M platform on the market. This book aims to be the most complete guide around introducing the reader to this exciting MCU portfolio from ST Microelectronics and its official CubeHAL and STM32CubeIDE development environment.
- #6
Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA
Trisha Gee and Helen ScottIf we treat our IDE as a text editor, we are doing ourselves a disservice. Using a combination of tutorials and a questions-and-answers approach, Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA will help you find ways to use IntelliJ IDEA that enable you to work comfortably and productively as a professional developer.
- #7
node-opcua by example
Etienne RossignonGet the best out of node-opcua through a set of documented examples by the author himself that will allow you to create stunning OPCUA Servers or Clients.
- #8
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
- #9
C# for Babies
Maarten Balliauw, Khalid Abuhakmeh, and Arina KovrizhkinaAn illustrated book perfect for teaching your little ones the basics of the C# programming language!
- #10
Introducing EventStorming
Alberto BrandoliniThe deepest tutorial and explanation about EventStorming, straight from the inventor.
Top Bundles
- #1
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #3
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible... - #4
Software Architecture
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #5
The Python Craftsman
3 Books
The Python Craftsman series comprises The Python Apprentice, The Python Journeyman, and The Python Master. The first book is primarily suitable for programmers with some experience of programming in another language. If you don't have any experience with programming this book may be a bit daunting. You'll be learning not just a programming... - #6
1500 QUIZ COMMENTATI (3 libri)
3 Books
Tre libri dei QUIZ MMG Commentati al prezzo di DUE! I QUIZ dei concorsi ufficiali di Medicina Generale relativi agli anni: 2000-2001-2003-2012-2013-2014-2015-2016-2017-2018-2019-2020-2021 +100 inediti Raccolti in unico bundle per aiutarvi nello studio e nella preparazione al concorso. All'interno di ogni libro i quiz sono stati suddivisi per... - #7
Growing Agile: The Complete Coach's Guide
7 Books
Growing Agile: Coach's Guide Series This bundle provides a collection of training and workshop plans for a variety of agile topics. The series is aimed at agile coaches, trainers and ScrumMasters who often find themselves needing to help teams understand agile concepts. Each book in the series provides the plans, slides, handouts and activity...
