README

A from-scratch PDF library for PHP: raw PDF assembly plus a content layer for text, drawing, images, SVG, barcodes and AcroForm fields, a layout layer with cells and tables on top of it — and a reader that can open an existing PDF and edit it in place.

Requires PHP 8.3+, ext-iconv, ext-openssl, and ext-zlib.

Installation

composer require jamesthomsen/mightypdf

Quick start

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use MightyPDF\Assembler\Document;
use MightyPDF\Content\Font\StandardFont;
use MightyPDF\Content\PageBuilder;

$document = new Document();
$page = $document->newPage();
$content = new PageBuilder($document, $page);

$content->drawText(StandardFont::HelveticaBold, 24.0, 72, 720, 'Hello, MightyPDF!');

$document->saveToFile('hello.pdf');

Runnable, more elaborate versions of every example below live in examples/ — run any of them with php examples/0X-name.php; output is written to examples/output/.

File	Demonstrates
01-blank-document.php	Minimal document, custom page size
02-text-and-fonts.php	All 14 standard fonts, measuring text
03-lines-and-shapes.php	Lines, filled/stroked rectangles, method chaining
04-images.php	JPEG, PNG, GIF
05-svg.php	SVG vector graphics
06-form-fields.php	Text fields and checkboxes
07-combined-document.php	Everything together, across multiple pages
08-editing-existing-pdf.php	Opening a PDF with `PdfEditor` and editing an object (page rotation)
09-encrypting-a-document.php	AES-256 encryption with `Document::encrypt()` and `Permissions`
10-filling-an-existing-form.php	Filling an existing PDF's form fields with `FormFiller`
11-stamping-an-existing-page.php	Stamping a page with `PageOverlay`, plus adding a field to an existing form
12-document-metadata.php	Setting Title/Author/Subject/Keywords/Creator/Producer/CreationDate
13-merging-documents.php	Combining pages from multiple PDFs into one with `PdfMerger`
14-embedding-a-font.php	Embedding a TrueType or OpenType font, and pointing a form field at one
15-links-and-bookmarks.php	Links out of and inside a document, and a bookmark tree
16-a-report-with-the-layout-layer.php	A business report through `Flow`: cells, a table, a chart, a footer on every page
17-shapes-transforms-and-transparency.php	Paths, ellipses, polygons, dashes, and scoped transforms, clips and alpha
18-a-table-that-breaks-across-pages.php	`Table`: wrapping cells, a repeating header, colspans, striping
19-barcodes-and-qr-codes.php	Code 39, Code 128, EAN-13, UPC-A, and QR at all four levels
20-print-colours.php	CMYK, a spot colour at five tints, and a dieline separation
21-attachments-and-viewer-preferences.php	An invoice carrying its own XML, viewer preferences, a rotated page
24-a-print-ready-flyer-with-bleed.php	Bleed and trim boxes, artwork off the edge, margins from the cut
25-form-data-in-and-out.php	Exporting a filled form as XFDF and JSON, and importing both back
26-flattening-a-form-and-dropping-the-history.php	Inspecting a form's fields and where they sit, then flattening it and saving one revision

Core concepts

Document is the top-level object. It owns every page and every indirect object in the file, and is responsible for producing final PDF bytes.

new Document() — start a new, empty document.
$document->newPage(PageSize|PdfRectangle|null $mediaBox = null): Page — append a page and return it. Defaults to US Letter (612×792pt); pass a PageSize (PageSize::A4) or a PdfRectangle for anything else.
$document->pages(): array — all pages added so far.
$document->save(): string — serialize the whole document to a PDF byte string.
$document->saveToFile(string $path): void — serialize and write to disk in one step.
$document->writeTo($handle): void — serialize straight to an open stream. See large documents.

PageBuilder is where you actually draw. Each page gets its own builder:

$page = $document->newPage();
$content = new PageBuilder($document, $page);

Every draw call appends to that page's single content stream and returns $this, so calls can be chained:

$content
    ->fillRectangle(72, 440, 40, 40, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0)
    ->fillRectangle(122, 440, 40, 40, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0)
    ->fillRectangle(172, 440, 40, 40, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);

Coordinates and units. Everything is in PDF points (1/72 inch), measured from the page's bottom-left corner, X increasing right and Y increasing up — standard PDF convention, not screen/CSS convention. Colors are RGB with each channel in the 0.0–1.0 range; Color converts from hex and 0–255.

If you would rather work in millimetres from the top-left, with a cursor, cells and automatic page breaks, see the layout layer — it is built on everything below and replaces none of it.

Documentation

The reference used to live in this file. It outgrew it, so it is now next door in docs/ — one page per thing you might be trying to do.

Putting marks on a page

Text and fonts — the standard 14, embedding TrueType and OpenType, wrapping, alignment, Unicode
Drawing — lines, shapes, paths, transforms, clipping, transparency, and colour in RGB, CMYK or a named ink
Images — JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF
SVG — paths, gradients, patterns, text, CSS
Barcodes — Code 128, EAN-13, QR, Data Matrix

Laying a document out

The layout layer — millimetres from the top-left, cells, tables, columns, automatic page breaks, headers and footers
Forms — creating AcroForm fields, filling them in, reading the data back, flattening
Document features — links, bookmarks, metadata, attachments, how the file asks to be opened
Print production — bleed, trim and the other page boxes
Accessibility and tagging — a structure tree, reading order, alternate text

Producing and reworking files

Producing the file — compression, documents larger than memory, encryption, and what this library throws when it fails
Editing existing PDFs — opening, stamping, merging, splitting, extracting text, signing, saving as one revision

Before you file a bug

Known limitations — what this does not do, and which of those are deliberate
Upgrading — what changed between versions

Development

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit

Tests live in tests/, mirroring the src/ structure.

jamesthomsen / mightypdf

Package info

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