Fpdf Laravel Package

Getting Started

1. Install via Composer: composer require setasign/fpdf. No additional extensions required—pure PHP.
2. First PDF in 5 lines:

   require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';
   use FPDF\FPDF;
   $pdf = new FPDF();
   $pdf->AddPage();
   $pdf->SetFont('Arial', 'B', 16);
   $pdf->Cell(0, 10, 'Hello, FPDF!', 0, 1, 'C');
   $pdf->Output();
   

3. Common first use case: Generate a simple invoice or receipt—just text, line boxes, and maybe a logo. Start by subclassing FPDF to add reusable page layout (headers, footers, margins).
4. Read the official tutorial: The repo includes excellent inline examples (tutorial/ folder)—work through the first three for layout and text handling.

Implementation Patterns

• Subclassing for reuse: Extend FPDF to define custom Header() and Footer() methods—applies to every page automatically.
• Page-fragments pattern: Build reusable methods like addInvoiceTable($items) or drawLogo($x, $y) to compose documents modularly.
• Data-driven generation: Inject services (e.g., OrderService, CurrencyService) into PDF classes—avoid inline logic. Use DTOs for invoice line items, etc.
• Output strategies:
  • $pdf->Output('I', 'filename.pdf') → inline browser download
  • $pdf->Output('F', '/path/to/file.pdf') → save to disk (e.g., for attachments)
  • $pdf->Output('S') → capture as string for email attachments or S3 upload
• Laravel integration: Wrap generation in a job or service class (e.g., PdfInvoiceGenerator). Use queued jobs for large reports. Store templates in storage/app/templates/—not in resources/.

Gotchas and Tips

• No Unicode support out-of-the-box: FPDF only supports 8-bit encodings. Use setasign/fpdi + custom font encoding or fallback to setasign/fpdf + setasign/fpdi + SetaPDF for Unicode—but note: fpdf itself doesn’t support UTF-8 natively. For basic accented chars, use utf8_decode() on strings.
• Font quirks: SetFont() must be called before any text output. Custom fonts require .php metrics files—use ttf2pt1 or makefont tools. Laravel’s storage_path() works well for storing generated font files.
• Page layout: SetMargins() and SetAutoPageBreak() are critical—default margins are often too tight for real-world use. Set them in your subclass constructor.
• Debugging tip: Output PDF to string ('S') and save to a .pdf file manually—open in browser to validate layout before debugging rendering issues.
• Memory/performance: Avoid calling Output() in loops. Generate in chunks, or batch render on workers. Large images? Scale them with Image()’s $w/$h params—don’t rely on FPDF to downsample.
• Extensibility: Extend with traits or composition (e.g., PdfStyler, PdfTableBuilder) to avoid monolithic PDF classes. Avoid mutating global state—each PDF instance should be self-contained.