# Laravel Mpdf: Using Mpdf in Laravel for generate Pdfs
> Easily generate PDF documents from HTML right inside of Laravel using this mpdf wrapper.
## Important Notes
> Currently supported mpdf version `8.0` with FPDF version 2 and PHP version >= 7.0. [MPDF documentation](https://mpdf.github.io/)
> mPDF will timeout on [fetching external HTTP resources](https://github.com/mpdf/mpdf#known-server-caveats) when using single-threaded servers
> such as `php -S` or `artisan serve`. Use a proper webserver for full functionality.
## Installation
Require this package in your `composer.json`
```
"require": {
carlos-meneses/laravel-mpdf: "2.1.8"
}
```
or install it by running:
```
composer require carlos-meneses/laravel-mpdf
```
To start using Laravel, add the Service Provider and the Facade to your `config/app.php`:
```php
'providers' => [
// ...
Meneses\LaravelMpdf\LaravelMpdfServiceProvider::class
]
```
```php
'aliases' => [
// ...
'PDF' => Meneses\LaravelMpdf\Facades\LaravelMpdf::class
]
```
> Note: This package supports auto-discovery features of Laravel 5.5+, You only need to manually add the service provider and alias if working on Laravel version lower then 5.5
## Basic Usage
To use Laravel Mpdf add something like this to one of your controllers. You can pass data to a view in `/resources/views`.
```php
//....
use PDF;
class ReportController extends Controller {
public function generate_pdf()
{
$data = [
'foo' => 'bar'
];
$pdf = PDF::loadView('pdf.document', $data);
return $pdf->stream('document.pdf');
}
}
```
## Config
You can use a custom file to overwrite the default configuration. Just execute `php artisan vendor:publish --tag=mpdf-config` or create `config/pdf.php` and add this:
```php
return [
'mode' => '',
'format' => 'A4',
'default_font_size' => '12',
'default_font' => 'sans-serif',
'margin_left' => 10,
'margin_right' => 10,
'margin_top' => 10,
'margin_bottom' => 10,
'margin_header' => 0,
'margin_footer' => 0,
'orientation' => 'P',
'title' => 'Laravel mPDF',
'author' => '',
'watermark' => '',
'show_watermark' => false,
'show_watermark_image' => false,
'watermark_font' => 'sans-serif',
'display_mode' => 'fullpage',
'watermark_text_alpha' => 0.1,
'watermark_image_path' => '',
'watermark_image_alpha' => 0.2,
'watermark_image_size' => 'D',
'watermark_image_position' => 'P',
'custom_font_dir' => '',
'custom_font_data' => [],
'auto_language_detection' => false,
'temp_dir' => rtrim(sys_get_temp_dir(), DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR),
'pdfa' => false,
'pdfaauto' => false,
'use_active_forms' => false,
];
```
To override this configuration on a per-file basis use the fourth parameter of the initializing call like this:
```php
PDF::loadView('pdf', $data, [], [
'title' => 'Another Title',
'margin_top' => 0
])->save($pdfFilePath);
```
## Headers and Footers
If you want to have headers and footers that appear on every page, add them to your `` tag like this:
```html
Your Header Content
Your Footer Content
```
Now you just need to define them with the name attribute in your CSS:
```css
@page {
header: page-header;
footer: page-footer;
}
```
Inside of headers and footers `{PAGENO}` can be used to display the page number.
## Included Fonts
By default you can use all the fonts [shipped with Mpdf](https://mpdf.github.io/fonts-languages/available-fonts-v6.html).
## Custom Fonts
You can use your own fonts in the generated PDFs. The TTF files have to be located in one folder, e.g. `resources/fonts/`. Add this to your configuration file (`/config/pdf.php`):
```php
return [
'custom_font_dir' => base_path('resources/fonts/'), // don't forget the trailing slash!
'custom_font_data' => [
'examplefont' => [
'R' => 'ExampleFont-Regular.ttf', // regular font
'B' => 'ExampleFont-Bold.ttf', // optional: bold font
'I' => 'ExampleFont-Italic.ttf', // optional: italic font
'BI' => 'ExampleFont-Bold-Italic.ttf' // optional: bold-italic font
]
// ...add as many as you want.
]
];
```
Now you can use the font in CSS:
```css
body {
font-family: 'examplefont', sans-serif;
}
```
## Get instance your Mpdf
You can access all mpdf methods through the mpdf instance with `getMpdf()`.
```php
use PDF;
$pdf = PDF::loadView('pdf.document', $data);
$pdf->getMpdf()->AddPage(...);
```
## Chunk HTML
For big HTML you might get `Uncaught Mpdf\MpdfException: The HTML code size is larger than pcre.backtrack_limit xxx` error, or you might just get [empty or blank result](https://mpdf.github.io/troubleshooting/known-issues.html#blank-pages-or-some-sections-missing). In these situations you can use chunk methods while you added a separator to your HTML:
```php
//....
use PDF;
class ReportController extends Controller {
public function generate_pdf()
{
$data = [
'foo' => 'hello 1',
'bar' => 'hello 2'
];
$pdf = PDF::chunkLoadView('', 'pdf.document', $data);
return $pdf->stream('document.pdf');
}
}
```
```html
```
## License
Laravel Mpdf is open-sourced software licensed under the [MIT license](http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)