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Mastering PDF with PHP

Create, read and edit PDF files in your PHP applications

You may think that building PDFs is as simple as hitting the File/Export option. However, automatic generation of invoices, reports or tickets has many pitfalls. Save time with this comprehensive guide on creating, reading and editing PDF files inside PHP web applications!

You may think that building PDFs is as simple as hitting the File/Export option. However, automatic generation of invoices, reports or tickets has many pitfalls. Save time with this comprehensive guide on creating, reading and editing PDF files inside PHP web applications!

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About

About

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 on 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 their drawbacks. You'll avoid wasting weeks comparing and hacking a multitude of solutions. This is your guide to achieving 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 annotations, certificates, tagging, and so on.

If you buy this book now, you'll get free lifetime updates!

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Author

About the Author

Piotr Horzycki

I'm a software developer mostly with a PHP and Java background. I started my professional career in 2008, just before a global economic crisis hit. I survived and then learnt a lot about different industries I worked for: media, advertising, education and finance.

I'm running a blog about fintech, security and PDF processing. I give talks at meetups and conferences, including International PHP Conference in Munich. My article about MoneyPHP has been published in the php[architect] magazine. I have a few contributions to the mPDF library.

Contents

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
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

Presenting a document to a user

Displaying a PDF in a frame
Browser window
Downloading a PDF
More about filenames
Sending a PDF over email
Saving a file
Display preferences
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

Working with colors

Color models

Metadata

How it looks inside
Entering metadata with TCPDF
mPDF example
Dompdf example
WeasyPrint example
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

Forms

Building an HTML form
Adding JavaScript validation
Putting it all together
How it works in a PDF reader
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

Get the free sample chapters

Click the buttons to get the free sample in PDF or EPUB, or read the sample online here

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