Generate Laravel Multipage PDF with Image, Padding, Table Data

In this Laravel tutorial, we will discuss how to easily create a Multipage PDF document by using the DomPDF package. The PDF file will contain Images, Background Images, and Table data with padding around the content.

We will walk through a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how we can generate the PDF file from HTML content which can have content of multiple or separate pages.

[lwptoc]

Installing DomPDF in Laravel

To begin, open your terminal and navigate to your Laravel project’s root directory. Then, run the following command to install the DomPDF package:

composer require barryvdh/laravel-dompdf

Configuration

Once DomPDF is installed, you must register its service provider and facade. Open the config/app.php file, and add the following lines to the respective sections:

'providers' => [
    ...
    Barryvdh\DomPDF\ServiceProvider::class,
],

'aliases' => [
    ...
    'PDF' => Barryvdh\DomPDF\Facade::class,
],

Next, publish the configuration file for DomPDF using the following command:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Barryvdh\DomPDF\ServiceProvider"

This command creates a config/dompdf.php file where you can configure various settings for DomPDF.

Creating a PDF View

To generate a PDF file, start by creating a new Blade view for your PDF content. In this example, we will create a file named pdf_example.blade.php in the resources/views directory. You can include any HTML content that you want to appear in the PDF, like the following example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>PDF Example</title>
    <style>
        body {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
        }
        h1 {
            color: #333;
        }
        .content {
            border: 2px solid #333;
            padding: 20px;
            margin: 20px 0;
        }
        table {
            width: 100%;
            border-collapse: collapse;
        }
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid #333;
            padding: 8px;
            text-align: left;
        }
        .page-break {
            page-break-after: always;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="content">
        <h1>PDF Generation with DomPDF in Laravel - FreakyJolly.com</h1>
        <p>This is an example of how to generate PDF files using DomPDF in Laravel.</p>


        <table>
            <thead>
                <tr>
                    <th>Header 1</th>
                    <th>Header 2</th>
                </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
                <tr>
                    <td>Data 1</td>
                    <td>Data 2</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Data 3</td>
                    <td>Data 4</td>
                </tr>
            </tbody>
        </table>
    </div>

    <div class="page-break"></div>

    <div class="content">
        <h1>Second Page</h1>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce eget lectus in diam vehicula bibendum. Quisque commodo odio quis interdum hendrerit.</p>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Generating PDF with DomPDF

Creating a Controller

To handle the PDF generation, create a new controller named PdfController using the following command:

php artisan make:controller PdfController

Inside the PdfController, add a new method called generatePdf:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use PDF; // Add this line

class PdfController extends Controller
{
    public function generatePdf()
    {
        $pdf = PDF::loadView('pdf_example');
        return $pdf->download('pdf_example.pdf');
    }
}

In this method, we use the loadView function to load the pdf_example Blade view we created earlier. Then, we call the download function to generate a PDF file with the given name.

Defining a Route

Next, define a route in the routes/web.php file to map to the generatePdf method in the PdfController:

use App\Http\Controllers\PdfController;

Route::get('/generate-pdf', [PdfController::class, 'generatePdf']);

Creating a PDF File

Now, navigate to http://your-app-url/generate-pdf in your web browser. The system will generate a PDF file named pdf_example.pdf and prompt you to download it. The file should contain the content from your pdf_example.blade.php view.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we demonstrated how to generate PDF files using DomPDF in Laravel for beginners. We covered the installation and configuration of DomPDF, creating a PDF view, generating the PDF, and applying styles. With these steps, you should now be able to create PDF files with customized content in your Laravel applications.

Category: Laravel