php-doc-en/reference/pdf/reference.xml

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 <reference id="ref.pdf">
  <title>PDF &Functions;</title>
  <titleabbrev>PDF</titleabbrev>

  <partintro>
   <section id="pdf.intro">
    &reftitle.intro;
    <para>
     The PDF functions in PHP can create PDF files using the PDFlib
     library created by <ulink url="&url.pdflib.merz;">Thomas Merz</ulink>.
    </para>
    <para>
     The documentation in this section is only meant to be an overview
     of the available functions in the PDFlib library and should not be
     considered an exhaustive reference. For the full and detailed 
	 explanation of each function, consult the PDFlib Reference Manual
	 which is included in all PDFlib packages distributed by PDFlib GmbH.
     It provides a very good overview of what PDFlib is capable of doing
     and contains the most up-to-date documentation of all functions.
    </para>
    <para>
     All of the functions in PDFlib and the PHP module have identical
     function names and parameters. You will need to understand some
     of the basic concepts of PDF and PostScript to efficiently use
     this extension. All lengths and coordinates are measured in
     PostScript points. There are generally 72 PostScript points to an
     inch, but this depends on the output resolution. Please see the
     PDFlib Reference Manual included in the PDFlib distribution for a more
	 thorough explanation of the coordinate system used.
    </para>
	<para>
	 With version 6, PDFlib offers an object oriented API for PHP 5 in 
	 addition to the function oriented API for PHP 4. The main difference is
	 the following: In PHP 4, first a PDF resource has to be retrieved 
	 with a function call like <function>$p = PDF_new();</function>
	 which is used as the first parameter in all further function calls, e.g.
	 as in <function>PDF_begin_document($p, "", "")</function>.
	 In PHP 5, a PDFlib object is created with
	 <function>$p = new PDFlib()</function> instead. This object offers
	 all PDFlib API functions as methods, e.g. as with
	 <function>$p->begin_document("", "")</function>. 
	 In addition, exceptions have been introduced in PHP 5 which are
	 supported by PDFlib 6 and later as well.
	</para>   
    <para> 
     Please see the <link linkend="pdf.examples">examples</link> below for
	 more information.
    </para>
    <note>
     <para>
      If you're interested in alternative free PDF generators that do not 
      utilize external PDF libraries, see <link linkend="faq.using.freepdf">
      this related FAQ</link>.
     </para>
    </note>
    <note>
     <para>
      This extension has been moved to <ulink url="&url.pecl;">PECL</ulink> as
      of PHP 4.3.9.
     </para>
    </note>
   </section>

   <section id="pdf.requirements">
    &reftitle.required;
    <para>
     PDFlib is available for download at <ulink
     url="&url.pdf;">&url.pdf;</ulink>, but requires that you purchase
     a license for commercial use.
    </para>
   </section>

   <section id="pdf.oldlibs.hints">
    <title>Issues with older versions of PDFlib</title>
    <para>
     Any version of PHP 4 after March 9, 2000 does not support versions
     of PDFlib older than 3.0.
    </para>
    <para>
     PDFlib 4.0 or greater is supported by PHP 4.3 and later.
    </para>
   </section>

   &reference.pdf.configure;

   <section id="pdf.resources">
    &reftitle.resources;
    &no.resource;
   </section>

   <section id="pdf.oldlibs">
    <title>Remarks about Deprecated PDFlib Functions</title> 
   <para>
    Starting with PHP 4.0.5, the PHP extension for PDFlib is
    officially supported by PDFlib GmbH. This means that all the
    functions described in the PDFlib Reference Manual (PDFlib V3.0 or higher) are
    supported by PHP 4 with exactly the same meaning and the same
    parameters. However, with PDFlib V5.0.4 or higher all parameters
	have to be specified. For compatibility reasons,
    this binding for PDFlib still supports most of the deprecated functions, but they
    should be replaced by their new versions. PDFlib GmbH will not
    support any problems arising from the use of these deprecated
    functions. The documentation in this section indicates old functions as
	"Deprecated" and gives the replacement function to be used instead. 
   </para>
   </section>

   <section id="pdf.examples">
    &reftitle.examples;
    <para>
     Most of the functions are fairly easy to use. The most difficult part
     is probably creating your first PDF document. The following
     example should help to get you started. It is developed for PHP 4 and 
     creates the file <filename>hello.pdf</filename> with one page.
	 It defines some document info field contents, loads the Helvetica-Bold
	 font and outputs the text "Hello world! (says PHP)".
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Hello World example from PDFlib distribution for PHP 4</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$p = PDF_new();

/*  open new PDF file; insert a file name to create the PDF on disk */
if (PDF_begin_document($p, "", "") == 0) {
    die("Error: " . PDF_get_errmsg($p));
}

PDF_set_info($p, "Creator", "hello.php");
PDF_set_info($p, "Author", "Rainer Schaaf");
PDF_set_info($p, "Title", "Hello world (PHP)!");

PDF_begin_page_ext($p, 595, 842, "");

$font = PDF_load_font($p, "Helvetica-Bold", "winansi", "");

PDF_setfont($p, $font, 24.0);
PDF_set_text_pos($p, 50, 700);
PDF_show($p, "Hello world!");
PDF_continue_text($p, "(says PHP)");
PDF_end_page_ext($p, "");

PDF_end_document($p, "");

$buf = PDF_get_buffer($p);
$len = strlen($buf);

header("Content-type: application/pdf");
header("Content-Length: $len");
header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=hello.pdf");
print $buf;

PDF_delete($p);
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
	   
    <para>
     The following example comes with the PDFlib distribution for PHP 5.
	 It uses the new exception handling and object encapsulation features
	 available in PHP 5. It creates the file <filename>hello.pdf</filename> with one page.
	 It defines some document info field contents, loads the Helvetica-Bold
	 font and outputs the text "Hello world! (says PHP)".
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Hello World example from PDFlib distribution for PHP 5</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php

try {
    $p = new PDFlib();

    /*  open new PDF file; insert a file name to create the PDF on disk */
    if ($p->begin_document("", "") == 0) {
        die("Error: " . $p->get_errmsg());
    }

    $p->set_info("Creator", "hello.php");
    $p->set_info("Author", "Rainer Schaaf");
    $p->set_info("Title", "Hello world (PHP)!");

    $p->begin_page_ext(595, 842, "");

    $font = $p->load_font("Helvetica-Bold", "winansi", "");

    $p->setfont($font, 24.0);
    $p->set_text_pos(50, 700);
    $p->show("Hello world!");
    $p->continue_text("(says PHP)");
    $p->end_page_ext("");

    $p->end_document("");

    $buf = $p->get_buffer();
    $len = strlen($buf);

    header("Content-type: application/pdf");
    header("Content-Length: $len");
    header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=hello.pdf");
    print $buf;
}
catch (PDFlibException $e) {
    die("PDFlib exception occurred in hello sample:\n" .
	"[" . $e->get_errnum() . "] " . $e->get_apiname() . ": " .
	$e->get_errmsg() . "\n");
}
catch (Exception $e) {
    die($e);
}
$p = 0;
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
   </section>
  </partintro>

  &reference.pdf.functions;

 </reference>
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