My last programming problem was about printing a report from a web application. In the past I solved it using Internet Explorer’s print templates, but that solution had 2 drawbacks: the first was that it required IE 5.5 or later, the second was that the page customizations (margins, orientation, header and footers) required downloading an ActiveX. This was an easy requirement at the time due to the intranet use of the application.
Now that I have moved to Linux and Open Source software that is no more feasible. I had to find another solution.
The IT market is full of reporting tools for the web but most of them are expensive and require some kind of plug-in, since the browser alone is not capable of giving a precise rendering of the printed page. Yes, CSS has something to say about print media but these properties are mostly ignored by the current bunch of browsers.
And then there is my main requirement: all the software used must be Open Source.
After some thoughts I decided to produce a PDF print for my reports. A quick google search gave me a number of products to try. I could divide them in 3 categories:
- raw PDF libraries
- XSL-FO
- conversion tool from other format (i.e. HTML)
I didn’t even think to take into consideration the first solution. XSL-FO looked appealing in beginning, but when I looked more deeply to what was it about, I gave up. BTW just reading the word XML was enough to make me shiver.
The third approach seemed much simpler. Write the report in HTML, give it to the converter program and send the result to the user. Too good to be true: I didn’t have to learn another language and could even reuse the old reports written for IE print templates. The best known of such tools is htmldoc but unfortunately this is a very crude product. It interprets only HTML 3.2 and no CSS. Not very useful. Other products that I downloaded did not look better that htmldoc. I was somewhat amazed by the fact that such a simple and useful concept, an HTML to PDF converter, did not found a supporter in the Open Source that could produce a decent utility. Until I discovered dompdf. It is an impressive library. It supports most of the CSS directives (the notably exceptions being absolute positioning and floating). The first report that I tried worked like a charm. I took my HTML, passed through this utility and my PDF was there. Ok, I have been too enthusiastic. I found a couple of problems when I tried to bend it to some special needs that I had but nothing that some search in the documentation and in the forum couldn’t solve.
So, to help others that might encounter the same problems I thought to add a few points here to the dompdf FAQ:
1. how can I make it faster?
Update: this has been fixed in v. 0.5.2 (svn from here)
Up to version 0.5.1, there is a line in the library that uses a call to the uniqid() php function. Since this call is slow and it is done once for each dom node in the document, it slows down the translation in a sensible way. The workaround consists in changing the line 171 in file frame.cls.php:
$this->set_id(uniqid(rand()));with :global $dompdf_unique_id; if (isset($dompdf_unique_id)){ $dompdf_unique_id++; }else{ $dompdf_unique_id = 1; } $this->set_id( $dompdf_unique_id );
Alternatively, change the same line with this:
uniqid ('', true) 2. how can I put some data coming from the DB into the header/footer?
See Q.4 in the official FAQ. In the script, declare the variable you want to use as global, like this:
global $my_var;3. how can I put a background on every page?
if ($draft) // if TRUE print "DRAFT" across every page
{
$obj_draft = $pdf->open_object();
$pdf->text(200, $h - 300, "DRAFT",
Font_Metrics::get_font("verdana", "bold"),
110, array(0.8, 0.8, 0.8), 0, -52, "Darken", 1);
$pdf->close_object();
$pdf->add_object ($obj_draft, "all");
}
4. I followed the instructions in Q.4 but it doesn’t work?
Check that the tag
<script type="text/php">is INSIDE the body tag.
5. how do I print a page generated from PHP?
All the examples in the official FAQ use the
$dompdf->load_html($html);function, where $html is a string containing the document to print. But what if the document is the result of the current PHP page. Here the trick consists in buffering the PHP output and then using the load_html() on the content of the buffer. Like this:
<?php
ob_start(); // start buffering
...
// whatever
...
$dompdf = new DOMPDF();
$out = ob_get_clean(); // get the content of the buffer and clear it
$dompdf->load_html($out);
$dompdf->render();
$dompdf->stream ("Filename.pdf");
?>
6. ERROR: Unable to stream pdf: headers already sent
I came across this error few times. The reason was always due to 3 non visible characters at the beginning of the file, as a consequence of using an editor set with a different character encoding (e.g UTF-8, Latin 1, …).
Try to run the command
hexdump -C filename | less
and see what the initial characters are.
Beware that few editors allow to remove them. Emacs is one of these.
7. ERROR: Nesting level too deep - recursive dependency? in (...)/dompdf/include/table_frame_decorator.cls.php on line 143
This error often occurs when a table spans 2 or more pages. DOMPDF tries to split it and repeat the THEAD on the following page. In doing so, it calls the PHP in_array() function, which gives this error. There are 2 workarounds: one is deleting the TBODY tag, the other is patching the split() function found in table_frame_decorator.cls.php, and adding a 3rd argument (true) to the 3 in_array function calls found there. More or less like the following code:
// If $child is a header or if it is the first non-header row, do
// not duplicate headers, simply move the table to the next page.
if ( count($this->_headers) && !in_array($child, $this->_headers, true) &&
!in_array($child->get_prev_sibling(), $this->_headers, true) ) {
...
} else if ( in_array($child->get_style()->display, self::$ROW_GROUPS, true) ) {
8. ERROR: Frame not found in cellmap
I encountered it when using the CSS attribute 'page-break-inside: avoid'. A possible workaround is reported in the DOMPDF forum and consists in replacing all occurrences of
throw new DOMPDF_Internal_Exception("Frame not found in cellmap");
with
return false;
I don't know any possible side effects, but it worked for me till now.
Another fix that worked for me in one occasion was replacing the markup used with the 'page-break-inside: avoid', in that case from DIV to P.
9. Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'DOMPDF_Exception' with message 'Unable to find a suitable font replacement for: ...
Go to the lib/fonts/ directory of the DOMPDF installation and copy or rename dompdf_font_family_cache.dist to dompdf_font_family_cache (without the .dist extension)
10. Alignment problems when using extended ASCII characters
See this post
11. ERROR: Call to undefined function imagecreatetruecolor()
The solution is given to Ubuntu users or other Debian derivatives.
Install the php5-gd package.
sudo apt-get install php5-gd12. Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'DOMPDF_Exception' with message 'Permission denied on /some/path' in path/to/dompdf/include/dompdf.cls.php:284
Could be related to dompdf's "chroot" feature. The config variable "DOMPDF_CHROOT" (file dompdf_config.inc.php) tells the path where all the local documents opened by dompdf must reside.
thanks! I have been using dompdf for about two years now, and i know in the beginning I ran into every problem addressed in this post. This should be helpful, and hopefully it’ll stir up more interest in dompdf from developers… i only wish i were better at programming… benj is amazing!
Thank you for the encouragement, psychoactive! I will try to update this FAQ as I progress in the use of this library.
Thanks! I’ll be aware of your explanations. i’ve got problems rendering img in the footer.
Hi.
I have a tedious problem that I couldn’t to resolve at dompf. I want justify all my html into my flags, I have: my longtext.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Felix,
I am not sure I understand your question. Could you give an example of what you are trying to do?
Luca
Hi Lucas.
I have a HTML page, it has justify paragraphs but DOMPDF is not rendering this style.
How I can justify the paragraphs correctly?
It seems DOMPDF cannot understand the css style that I’ve defined to.
This is my css:
p {
text-align:justify;
font-size:1em;
margin:0.2em;
padding:5px;
}
Thanks for your reply.
Hi Felix,
I tried your style but it runs fine here. That is, it justifies correctly. Can you post the whole page you are trying to print?
Luca
Hi Luca.
This is the html code that works for me:
setNumero($monto);
$html =
”
Untitled Document
Nº “.$codigo.”
Mérida, “.$fecha.”
SEÑORES:
“.$contratista.”Ciudad.
Por medio de la presente me dirijo a Usted, en la oportunidad de notificarle que se le (s) ha asignado la ejecución de la obra que a continuación se refiere:
Objeto del Contrato de obra: “.$obra.”
Ubicado en el Municipio: “.$munici.” DEL ESTADO MÉRIDA. PROGRAMA: FIDES 2007.
Código Presupuestario: 04-27-02-12-10-02-4,04-02-02-10 , Monto Sin IVA Bs.: 362.918.379,17
Código Presupuestario I.V.A: 04-27-02-00-00-02-4,03-18-01-01, Bs. 0,00
Monto total de la Obra: El monto a contratar será hasta por la cantidad de ” .$aletra->letra() .” (BS.: “.$monto.”) cuya forma de pago se hará conforme a Ley de Condiciones Generales para la Contratación de Obras, según Decreto Nro 1417, Publicado en Gaceta Oficial del Nro. 5096 de fecha 16 de septiembre de 1996. A fin de proceder a la respectiva contratación le agradezco ponerse en comunicación con la Gerencia de planificación y Gestión del INMIVI, el cual tiene como domicilio la Av. Cardenal Quintero Centro Comercial El Viaducto Nivel Mezzanina a objeto de formalizar todo lo relativo a la contratación respectiva, en un lapso perentorio de 15 días continuos contados a partir de la fecha de la entrega de la presente comunicación, de lo contrario la Asignación queda sin efecto de inmediato, y será reasignada a otro beneficiario. En caso de ser imposible la notificación de la presente queda rescindida de pleno derecho la presente carta asignación, si no se lograre su notificación dentro de los 5 días hábiles siguientes a la emisión de la presente. La administración del Instituto Merideño de Infraestructura y Vialidad puede dejar sin efecto la presente carta asignación, cuando a bien lo considere no dando lugar a indemnización alguna a favor de quien se emite la presente carta asignación, bastando para ello notificar al beneficiario de la presente Carta Asignación mediante notificación o publicación en periódico local o nacional, como a bien lo considere el ente. El beneficiario de la presente Carta Asignación debe cumplir con todos los trámites administrativos previos y de ley para el otorgamiento del contrato, so pena que el Instituto deje sin efecto la asignación librada a su favor y debidamente notificada, cuando a bien lo considere por incumplimiento de los requisitos. El beneficiario de la presente Carta Asignación debe suscribir el contrato conforme a las condiciones que predetermine el INMIVI y la Ley de Condiciones Generales de Contratación de Obras. En caso de negativa del beneficiario a suscribir el contrato que dimana con base a la presente carta asignación, el Instituto dejará sin efecto la asignación y los efectos legales que dimanan de la misma, sin indemnización alguna a favor del beneficiario.
ING. ROBERTO MOLINA
PRESIDENTE
INSTITUTO MERIDEÑO DE INFRAESTRUCTURA Y VIALIDAD (INMIVI)
Notificado Nombre (s) y Apellidos (s)
_____________________________________
Firma:________________________________
Lugar y Fecha:__________________________
Teléfono.______________________________
Av. Cardenal Quintero. CC. El Viaducto, Nivel Mezzanina, Mérida – Venezuela. Telfs.: (0274) 244 2948 – 244 5112
“;
$dompdf = new DOMPDF();
$dompdf->load_html($html);
$dompdf->render();
$dompdf->stream(“carta_Asignacion.pdf”, array(“Attachment” => 0));
?>
Thanks for your help.
This is the html’s head
Untitled Document
//
Untitled Document
Hi Luca.
Can you give me an email address where I can send the complete raw html?, because the blog is processing the html code.
luca at priorelli dot com
Estoy intentando usar el sistema del script type=”text/php” y no parece que funcione. Mas bien parece que ignora lo que pongo alli ya que no me lo hace.
¿necesito alguna configuracion especial del apache? tengo php5.2
I’m trying to create a header for the A4 page format (vertical orientation) with just an image (a corporate logo), to be added to all the pages in the PDF document, without any success. A little suggestion would be welcome, a snippet, a little hint…
Official docs aren’t helpful on this matter, imho.
Thank you all!
About official dompdf’s support, the official forum seems to be unmanaged by the author; you can find many spam postings, often related with porn content, among the rightful messages by the actual users.
Is dompdf a dismissed project? I’m looking for a reliable PDF generator for my commercial projects, I’ll consider different softwares in this case…
To DeepVoid: Is dompdf a dismissed project? I’d like to know it as well. I asked your same question in the forum, and so did others. Every time the answer is: no, it isn’t. I’d like that those that give such an answer would also explain few other things. It’s a pitty that such a promising software, would be left in the present, uncompleted, state.
There are other options, but those that I tried were worse than this, at least for my needs. In any case, even in its present state, it is adeguate for the prints that I produce.
Maybe the unicode support is awkward, some offically supported tags do not work very well when used in given combinations, the CSS support is lacking, but overall I have always been able in some way to reach the intended result.
To DeepVoid: there is a full example(http://www.digitaljunkies.ca/dompdf/faq.php#image_footers) in the dompdf FAQ. Does not work for you? What is exactly the problem you encountered? In several occasions I found that there is a problem with image rendering. Depending on the image format and the operating system used, images can be visible, invisible or just wrong.
To David: can you post here an example of your code?
hi,
i am suddenly getting below error on my page. what could be the problem? Please help me
Argument #2 should be an array in /var/www/developmentfolder/includes/dompdf/include/abstract_renderer.cls.php on line 689
Hi Luca, love your site!
I’d just like to point out that the image footer example in the official dompdf FAQ is not quite correct. The syntax for $pdf->image varies according to the libs specified in the config file. For example, the one in CPDF lib requires image type.
I hope this helps a lot of people…
Cheers,
Hadi
Hi Luca.
Could you help me with this ?
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=2285096&forum_id=440392
Its about using justify in dompdf.
Thanks in advance
Thanks a lot for answer of 8. ERROR: Frame not found in cellmap. It helps me a lot as my complex html files sometimes generates this Exception, and users get so upset
Hi Luca,
Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time to document these quirks. If you have any additional performance tips, please let me know. My 11-page PDF, which is a single table, is taking almost 2 minutes to convert. I’ll pass along any tips I may discover while looking for ways to fine-tune this.
Best Regards,
James
Hi,
Thank you very much!
The workaround for “Frame not found in cellmap” worked well for me.
Thanks again!
Thanks for this page!
today i have made a working (but not perfect) tcpdf_adapter implementation for dompdf (UTF-8) support -> will be releases soon
@tucek: nice job. Keep up posted!
@tucek: any chance of getting a copy from you? very interested in tcpdf adapter implementations.
@ Luca & Andrew
yep just email me at nospam [at] hellwach.at, the company i’m working for won’t publish it on their website for now >
I am using DOMPDF for some outputs. fine if the size is limited. but i have a case where the PDF goes up 10 pages and there is a field in DB whose data is really toooo big. as soon as i try to populate that field (in a foreach() loop) it gives me an error of execution time out and the output is not rendered. is there any way to just increase the memory size for that variable and then render() the output.
i have done all possible stunts of increasing memory size, execution time etc
ini_set(“memory_limit”,”850M”);
set_time_limit(’120′);
but nothing is helping.
if i remove that field, output is fine
Do u have any suggestions???
Hi, i have the same problem as Felix with the property “text-align”
Mi css code includes:
p
{
text-align: justify;
}
but it doesnt work in mi pdf.
It’s very important to my project the justify alignment. How can i fix it? is this a dompdf bug? in official page appears the library support the “text-align” property.
I couldnt find the answer for Felix in this blog, i think he finished it by private mails.
Thanks!!
Alan (sorry for mi bad english)
Hi people,
I have a problem with tables, everything works fine, but in the cells where there are more than 1 line text, dompdf cut words in the middle to make a new line or goes in the next cell…
cell content example:
—————————————————–
| header cell 1 | header cell 2 | header cell 3 |
—————————————————–
| Doing Wo | I’m trying Worko (content of |
| rkaround | round | this cell overwritten
——————————————————
You can check this, the html file is here:
http://www.isg-uni-mainz.de/admin/PDF/stdpl.html
when u render it check 1st page, 6th cell or 2nd page 3rd cell bottom.
I would apreciate ANY help…
@ Kerinao: your page prints fine here. I tried it giving the command
php dompdf.php -o landscape stdpl.html
@ Alan: I am working on an addition to the FAQ regarding this problem. For the moment the answer that I gave to Felix was the following:
the problem derives from a bug in the underlying PDF library (I assume you use R&OS CPDF).
The problem is described here (http://www.ros.co.nz/pdf/faq.php#9). I tried the fix proposed, and it actually works although I had to patch the DOMPDF code. What I did is modifying the cpdf_adapter.cls.php file adding
static $diff=array(196=>’Adieresis’,228=>’adieresis’,
214=>’Odieresis’,246=>’odieresis’,
220=>’Udieresis’,252=>’udieresis’,
223=>’germandbls’);
at the beginning of the CPDF_Adapter class and changing all the occurrences of
$this->_pdf->selectFont($font);
with
$this->_pdf->selectFont($font,array(‘encoding’=>’WinAnsiEncoding’,'differences’=>self::$diff));
Naturally you have to add to the $diff array all the characters that you use.
Luca, thank you for the quickly answer.
I tried changing the “rare” characters with accents and i get mi pdf justify without problems.
However, i’d like to have those characters so i tried your solution, adding the array in “cpdf_adapter.cls.php” and replacing the ocurrences of “$this->_pdf->selectFont($font);” but when i run it again i get an error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE, expecting ‘)’ in D:\Alan\Pagina WEB\dompdf\include\cpdf_adapter.cls.php on line 651
the line 651 is:
“$name = substr($url,1);” in the funcion add_link and it seems not to have any relationship whit the other changes.
Can u help me (again)?
Thanks,
Alan
i’ve already solved the problem!!
the cause was that in your post you wrote the character ’ for strings and i have to use ‘. Now it works almost perfect!
Thank you anyway!
Alan
HI Luca, thanks for answering.
The PDF is coming out right, but it cut words in the middle…
Check the 6th cell (Samstag 28.02.09), the 4th line, the Word ALTSTADT is cut like this: A
LTSTADT
And in the 7th line, the same with the word GELEGENHEIT…
Could it be that he miscalculate the size because in the text there are german letters like ü ü, it seems to happen exactly in that lines…
Sorry, u cant see it here, the german letters are in the html file expressed like this:
ü
ä
plus semicolon of course, wich I omitted so you can see it…
Anyways, thank u!
PDF not generating second page.
PHP Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /var/www/html/cron/dompdf/include/cellmap.cls.php on line 559
PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function get_id() on a non-object in /var/www/html/xrms/cron/dompdf/include/cellmap.cls.php on line 560
Anyone else have this problem and what is the solution?
Hello Luca,
sorry, i have the same problem of Alan and Felix,
i mean, i have a justified aquoted text, but in pdf lost her justify, i try with your method adding:
static $diff=array(193=>”Aacute”,
201=>”Eacute”,
205=>”Iacute”,
211=>”Oacute”,
218=>”Uacute”,
225=>”aacute”,
233=>”eacute”,
237=>”iacute”,
243=>”oacute”,
250=>”uacute”);
and replacing:
$this->_pdf->selectFont($font,array(‘encoding’=>’WinAnsiEncoding’,'differences’=>self::$diff));
but nothing happens.
in wich format must have the html code?
i mean, with “Á” or “&Aaquote;” or “Д ?
i clarified that not appear any error or bad character, only dont make me the text-justify
this happens only when my text have a aquoted letters, like Á É… etc.
without it, work fine.
i hope you can help me.
Regards
@oolivos: I cannot see any error in the code you posted. Could you send me a full example of the HTML you are trying to print?
you right Luca, the code its fine, got no error, but the justify its wrong, look,
try to export this to PDF:
$html = ‘
body{
margin: 15px 40px;
}
p{
text-align:justify;
}
THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT – THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT – THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT – THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT – THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT – THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT – THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT – THIS SENTENCE HAVE A CUTTED WORD IN IT
THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT – THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT – THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT – THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT – THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT – THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT – THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT – THÍS SÉNTENCE HÁVE Á CÚTTED WÓRD ÍN ÍT
‘;
look into the second sentense, have a unusual behavior, the words appears cutted and almost without spaces between it, in this extreme example you can see the problem, but when you have a normal text with bold words, it worst, i think may can be the function who count the words for the text-justify, but i can find it.
(i realise that if i put just one accent by line, cut me the word badly by one letter in the same line, if i put two accent, cut it by two letters)
dont know if iam correct, maybe you can tell me a better way to follow and fix the problem
i appreciate so much your time and help
Thank Luca.
PD: sorry my terribly english, its not my native languaje
Hi Luca!,
Your page has been a great help for me. But I still have problems printing a page.
The thing is that I need to have the option to print the page that has some mysql information.
I followed every step you told and I’m stuck… do you think I can send you the php file and you can tell me what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks!!
Miguel
@Philip
I had a similar error, but it turned out that a table I had built had empty fields. Example:
Once I deleted that empty guy it was all green lights!
Good luck! Cheers!
Darn, the security monitor deleted my example…. good luck all the same.
Hi Luca,
Thanks for the answers.
I could solve all of my problems in generating PDF. But having an issue with dynamic html headers. When i googled the dompdf forum, i found that it is not possible to use HTML code as header. Is there any work around for this? If so suggest me pls.
Thanks!!
VJ
It seems that DOMPDF development is going to be resumed. There is a new home page at Google (http://code.google.com/p/dompdf/), a new forum (http://groups.google.com/group/dompdf) and there is talk of an upcoming 0.5.2 version. Let’s see what is coming out of it…
Update: in the Google Dompdf SVN there is also an updated CPDF library with unicode support. I haven’t tried it yet, but it might solve the alignment problems here reported.
Hi Luca. Thanks for this great site.
My problem is with alignment on the cells right margin. like other users.
Yesterday (18th May 2009) I try with the beta dompdf 0.5.2 but the same error is displayed. If I have a table with cells, and text in this cells, and dompdf cut my words on the right margin. Anything like this:
dompdf should do this:
My house is
green.
and dompdf does this:
My house is gr
een.
You think that if I use dompdf 0.5.1 and the new CPDF library, then it works fine? It’s possible use the new CPDF library in old dompdf 0.5.1??
Thanks in advance.
Hi:
I’ve found a “workaround”….i must to use PHP function WORDWRAP:
wordwrap($text, $max_cell_width, “\n”);
$text = is the full text in the cell.
$max_cell_width = is the width i think the cell has…eg: 80, 150, etc…you must to probe it (+ or – size, you decide)
“\n” is necessary for me, because if i use “” only, dompdf crashes!!!… then insert a new line at he end of the cell line
I hope this can help you.
oh my god, the third parameter is a html new line “BR” and “\n”, together….(html tags are interpreted by this forum and web browser)
Thanks!
Hi, Luca.
Do you know if there are any way to reduce the top and bottom margin in pages?
I have a logo on page top within a table, but in a4 page format, there are a big margin (i think).
Thanks in advance.
PD: i try your patch for extended ascii + justify in the next days.
Very nice and useful article about DomPDF, nice job!