Generate PDF using dompdf in Laravel – Official Documentation

Introduction

Generating PDF files from HTML views is a common requirement in web development. Laravel, being a popular PHP framework, provides various libraries and packages to accomplish this task. One such package is dompdf, which is a PHP library that allows you to generate PDF files from HTML views.

Installation

To use dompdf in your Laravel project, you need to install it first. You can do this by running the following command in your terminal:

composer require dompdf/dompdf

This will download and install the dompdf library in your project.

Configuration

After installing the dompdf library, you need to configure it in your Laravel project. Open the config/app.php file and add the following line to the providers array:

'providers' => [
    ...
    DompdfServiceProvider::class,
    ...
],

Next, add the following line to the aliases array in the same file:

'aliases' => [
    ...
    'PDF' => DompdfFacade::class,
    ...
],

Once you have added these lines, you are ready to use dompdf in your Laravel project.

Usage

To generate a PDF file using dompdf, you need to create a new HTML view file. This view file will contain the content that you want to convert into a PDF file. You can use all the features and syntax of Laravel’s Blade templating engine in this view file.

Once you have created the HTML view file, you can generate the PDF file using the following code:

$pdf = PDF::loadView('pdf.view', $data);
return $pdf->download('file.pdf');

In the above code, 'pdf.view' is the name of the HTML view file that you want to convert into a PDF. The $data variable is an optional parameter that you can pass to the view file if you need to dynamically populate the content.

The loadView() method loads the HTML view file and converts it into a PDF. The download() method then downloads the generated PDF file with the specified name.

Generating PDF from HTML

To generate a PDF file from an HTML view file, you need to follow these steps:

1. Create a new HTML view file with the content you want to convert into a PDF.
2. Load the HTML view file using the loadView() method.
3. Optionally, pass any data you need to populate the view file.
4. Use the download() method to download the generated PDF file.

Here is an example:

$pdf = PDF::loadView('pdf.invoice', $data);
return $pdf->download('invoice.pdf');

In the above example, we are generating a PDF file from the pdf.invoice view file and downloading it with the name invoice.pdf.

Downloading PDF

To download the generated PDF file, you need to use the download() method. This method takes the name of the PDF file as a parameter and initiates the download process.

Here is an example:

$pdf = PDF::loadView('pdf.view', $data);
return $pdf->download('file.pdf');

In the above example, we are downloading the generated PDF file with the name file.pdf.

Additional Options

dompdf provides various additional options that you can use to customize the PDF generation process. Some of the commonly used options are:

• setPaper(): This method allows you to set the paper size and orientation of the PDF. For example, you can use setPaper('A4', 'landscape') to set the paper size to A4 and the orientation to landscape.
• setOptions(): This method allows you to set various options for the PDF generation. For example, you can use setOptions(['dpi' => 150]) to set the DPI (dots per inch) of the PDF to 150.
• setWarnings(): This method allows you to enable or disable the display of warnings during the PDF generation process. For example, you can use setWarnings(false) to disable the display of warnings.

You can find more information about these options and other available options in the official dompdf documentation.

Conclusion

In this article, we have seen how to generate and download PDF files from HTML views in Laravel using the dompdf library. We have covered the installation and configuration of dompdf, as well as the usage and customization options. With this knowledge, you can now easily generate PDF files from your Laravel applications.