HTML2PDF PHP Library

With our PHP library you can use our HTML2PDF API to create PDFs in an easy way. It will take you only a few minutes to get started.

Quick Start

You can start producing PDF documents in a few minutes, by following these steps.

1. Sign up for a license key (free trial available!)
2. Set your default layout options in our members area
3. Download our PHP library and use the included PHP example file to get started!

Here's a simple example of using the PHP library to convert a webpage to PDF.

<?php
  require 'html2pdf.php';

  $pdf = new HTML2PDF('yourlicensekey');
	
  $pdf->SetPageSize('A4');                     // Set page format to A4
  $pdf->SetPageOrientation('Portrait');        // Set page orientation to 'Portrait'
	
  $pdf->CreateFromURL('www.example.com');      // Convert the page www.example.com to PDF
  
  $pdf->Display();                             // Display the PDF for download 

If you'd rather convert HTML to PDF and save the PDF locally, then you can use the below code instead.

<?php
  require 'html2pdf.php';

  $pdf = new HTML2PDF('yourlicensekey');
  
  $pdf->CreateFromHTML('Your HTML here');      // Convert raw HTML to PDF
  
  $pdf->Save('/files/yourfile.pdf');           // Save the PDF as local file

As you can see, the PHP library is very simple to use and has straightforward functions. In the next paragraphs we'll show you which functions you can use to get the layout of your PDFs just the way you want it.

Setting Options

All our API options can be quickly set in our members area with an easy-to-use WYSIWIG screen and we recommend you to start with that. Once you've set these defaults, they will be used for all HTML2PDF API calls from that point on.

Still, if you need to set specific options, then you can override these by using the below HTML2PDF library functions.

NOTE: if you want to set options with the PHP library, then you should always use the library functions before calling the CreateFromURL or CreateFromHTML functions.

Page Sizes and Margins

You can change the size, orientation and margins of your PDF by use the following PHP functions.

We have many different standard page sizes, but you can also define your own page size by using the width and height parameters.

Layout Settings

By default we try to convert the webpage (or HTML) to PDF exactly as it would look on screen. Below we have some functions that you can use to adjust the layout of your page.

Here are some examples of changing the layout with these function calls.

require 'html2pdf.php';
$pdf = new HTML2PDF('yourlicensekey');
	                                             
$pdf->SetCssMediaType('print');                // Use the print layout of the webpage
$pdf->LazyLoad();                              // Load lazy content
$pdf->SetCustomCss('#header {display:none;}'); // Hide the DIV with ID header

Headers and Footers

You can use a custom header and/or footer on your PDFs with the functions below. On our API documentation page you'll find out which special tags you can use in the header and footer to include automated information like the page number, the URL and more.

Here are some examples of these function calls in action.

require 'html2pdf.php';
$pdf = new HTML2PDF('yourlicensekey');
	                                             
$pdf->SetHeader('<center>%page</center>');   // Show the page number in the center
$pdf->SetFooter('Title: %title - %MM/%DD');  // Show the title and month/day of PDF creation
$pdf->PageOffset(2);                         // Start page numbering at 3 instead of 1

Watermarks and Backgrounds

The following functions allow you to put a watermark over your PDFs or underneath your content, in which case it's a background.

Rights Management

Our PHP library has the following functions to protect your PDFs with passwords and against printing, content copying and annotation.

Note that we recommend at least 128-bit AES if you want to encrypt your PDF. The RC4 encryption levels are merely used for backwards compatibility, but are generally considered unsafe.

Other Options

Below are the remaining functions that you can use to set options with the PHP library.

Exception Handling

We recommend that you use a try/catch block when you use our HTML2PDF library. In that way you can handle exceptions gracefully.

You can do this as follows.

try {

   $pdf = new HTML2PDF('yourlicensekey');
   $pdf->CreateFromURL('https://www.example.com');
   $pdf->Display();
   
} catch (Exception $error) {

   // now you can handle the exception:
   echo $error->getMessage();
   echo $error->getCode();
   
}

The table below shows which exceptions you can receive and what they mean.

Getting Help

Service is our number one priority. We feel an API is only useful not only if it's reliable, but also if you can resolve issues fast and frictionless. That's why we respond very quickly to support requests.

It would be very helpful if you activate debugging in your script so that we can do more extensive error tracking on our end. You can do so with the following command in your script.

$pdf->ActivateDebugging();

After running your script, you can then just send an email to our support email address.

Please try to include the following:

• Your license details
• Your PHP code or the actual PHP file
• A short description of your problem
• A screenshot of your settings
• The exception and/or the PDF that you received