Code

FPDF

FPDF describes itself as

FPDF is a PHP class which allows to generate PDF files with pure PHP, that is to say without using the PDFlib library. F from FPDF stands for Free: you may use it for any kind of usage and modify it to suit your needs.

Installation

1. Download the library and place it in a directory accessible by your web server

   It generally makes sense to put it in an includes directory.

2. Include it in your web application

   /* sample web app */
   //include the FPDF library
   require_once('includes/fpdf.php');
   

3. Create the page

   //instantiate the object
   $fpdf = new FPDF();
   
   //create a page
   $fpdf->AddPage();
   
   //set the font, font-style, and size
   $fpdf->SetFont('Arial', 'B', 14);
   
   //create the text to be output and go to the next line
   $fpdf->Cell(22, 12, "Randy Dustin", 0,1);
   //the next line
   $fpdf->Cell(22, 12, "Pretty much the coolest person on Earth!");
   
   //create the page
   $fpdf->Output();
   

For more information and tutorials on building pdfs you can go to the FPDF website and reference their tutorials and the manual

We will be continuing this series soon with a closer look at our options when creating a page. Some things to look for are:

• Changing page orientation and size
• Changing Font styles
• Changing the size and style of text cells
• The different options for saving the final product

Read Part 2 – playing with the options