Creating PDFs with PHP

[CrimpJiggler]

I have this firefox plugin where you click a button and it saved the webpage as a PDF. As a result, I had the idea that creating PDFs is easy and you can just feed HTML and CSS right an application to convert it to PDF. I wanna add a save as PDF button to my site but its not looking so easy. I downloaded an application called tcpdf2 is a PHP PDF creator and theres a folder full of examples in there, but most of them are examples of PDFs programmed from scratch with PHP. I'm looking for a way to just feed HTML in to to it. Something along the lines of what these firefox plugins do. Heres one of the examples which contains raw HTML and CSS:

<?php
//============================================================+
// File name   : example_061.php
// Begin       : 2010-05-24
// Last Update : 2013-05-14
//
// Description : Example 061 for TCPDF class
//               XHTML + CSS
//
// Author: Nicola Asuni
//
// (c) Copyright:
//               Nicola Asuni
//               Tecnick.com LTD
//               www.tecnick.com
//               [email protected]
//============================================================+

/**
 * Creates an example PDF TEST document using TCPDF
 * @package com.tecnick.tcpdf
 * @abstract TCPDF - Example: XHTML + CSS
 * @author Nicola Asuni
 * @since 2010-05-25
 */

// Include the main TCPDF library (search for installation path).
require_once('tcpdf_include.php');

// create new PDF document
$pdf = new TCPDF(PDF_PAGE_ORIENTATION, PDF_UNIT, PDF_PAGE_FORMAT, true, 'UTF-8', false);

// set document information
$pdf->SetCreator(PDF_CREATOR);
$pdf->SetAuthor('Nicola Asuni');
$pdf->SetTitle('TCPDF Example 061');
$pdf->SetSubject('TCPDF Tutorial');
$pdf->SetKeywords('TCPDF, PDF, example, test, guide');

// set default header data
$pdf->SetHeaderData(PDF_HEADER_LOGO, PDF_HEADER_LOGO_WIDTH, PDF_HEADER_TITLE.' 061', PDF_HEADER_STRING);

// set header and footer fonts
$pdf->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
$pdf->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));

// set default monospaced font
$pdf->SetDefaultMonospacedFont(PDF_FONT_MONOSPACED);

// set margins
$pdf->SetMargins(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
$pdf->SetHeaderMargin(PDF_MARGIN_HEADER);
$pdf->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);

// set auto page breaks
$pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);

// set image scale factor
$pdf->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);

// set some language-dependent strings (optional)

// ---------------------------------------------------------

// set font
$pdf->SetFont('helvetica', '', 10);

// add a page
$pdf->AddPage();

/* NOTE:
 * *********************************************************
 * You can load external XHTML using :
 *
 * $html = file_get_contents('/path/to/your/file.html');
 *
 * External CSS files will be automatically loaded.
 * Sometimes you need to fix the path of the external CSS.
 * *********************************************************
 */

// define some HTML content with style
$html = <<<EOF
<!-- EXAMPLE OF CSS STYLE -->
<style>
div.cat_wrapper
{
	padding:1px;
	border:2px solid gray;
	margin:4px;
	border-radius: 5px;
	background-color:#FFFFFF;
}

div.qa_box_wrapper
{
	padding:1px;
	border:2px solid gray;
	margin:4px;
	border-radius: 5px;
	background-color:#FFFFFF;
}

div.qa_box_wrapper img
{
	max-width:95%; 
}

div.qa_box_question_div,qa_box_answer_div
{
	margin-left:4px;
}


div.answer_button
{
	display:block;
	width:100%;
}

div.main_box
{
	padding:1px;
	border:2px solid gray;
	margin:5px;
	border-radius: 5px;
	background-color:#FFFFFF;
}

</style>

	
					  <div class="qa_box_answer_div">
				

		This reaction is a Diels-Alder cycloaddition in which singlet oxygen acts as the dienophile. <br />
<br /></div>


EOF;

// output the HTML content
$pdf->writeHTML($html, true, false, true, false, '');

// - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

// add a page
$pdf->AddPage();

$html = '
<h1>HTML TIPS & TRICKS</h1>

<h3>REMOVE CELL PADDING</h3>
<pre>$pdf->SetCellPadding(0);</pre>
This is used to remove any additional vertical space inside a single cell of text.

<h3>REMOVE TAG TOP AND BOTTOM MARGINS</h3>
<pre>$tagvs = array(\'p\' => array(0 => array(\'h\' => 0, \'n\' => 0), 1 => array(\'h\' => 0, \'n\' => 0)));
$pdf->setHtmlVSpace($tagvs);</pre>
Since the CSS margin command is not yet implemented on TCPDF, you need to set the spacing of block tags using the following method.

<h3>SET LINE HEIGHT</h3>
<pre>$pdf->setCellHeightRatio(1.25);</pre>
You can use the following method to fine tune the line height (the number is a percentage relative to font height).

<h3>CHANGE THE PIXEL CONVERSION RATIO</h3>
<pre>$pdf->setImageScale(0.47);</pre>
This is used to adjust the conversion ratio between pixels and document units. Increase the value to get smaller objects.<br />
Since you are using pixel unit, this method is important to set theright zoom factor.<br /><br />
Suppose that you want to print a web page larger 1024 pixels to fill all the available page width.<br />
An A4 page is larger 210mm equivalent to 8.268 inches, if you subtract 13mm (0.512") of margins for each side, the remaining space is 184mm (7.244 inches).<br />
The default resolution for a PDF document is 300 DPI (dots per inch), so you have 7.244 * 300 = 2173.2 dots (this is the maximum number of points you can print at 300 DPI for the given width).<br />
The conversion ratio is approximatively 1024 / 2173.2 = 0.47 px/dots<br />
If the web page is larger 1280 pixels, on the same A4 page the conversion ratio to use is 1280 / 2173.2 = 0.59 pixels/dots';

// output the HTML content
$pdf->writeHTML($html, true, false, true, false, '');

// reset pointer to the last page
$pdf->lastPage();

// ---------------------------------------------------------

//Close and output PDF document
$pdf->Output('example_061.pdf', 'I');

//============================================================+
// END OF FILE
//============================================================+

but when I attempt to modify it, the script stops working and no PDF gets outputted. I've been playing around with these examples and its really delicate, one small modification like adding a HTML tag can stop it from working.

[Ch0cu3r]

Use file_get_contents to get the HTML of your webpage. Then pass it to $pdf->writeHTML()

$html = file_get_contents('http://site.com/page-to-convert.php');
$pdf->writeHTML($html, true, false, true, false, '');