PDF Generation & File Exporting 📄

Generate professional invoices, reports, and documents as PDF with TCPDF and dompdf, plus export data as CSV.

What You'll Learn in This Lesson

• Compare PDF libraries: TCPDF, dompdf, mPDF
• Build multi-page invoice PDFs programmatically
• Convert HTML templates to PDF with dompdf
• Add headers, footers, tables, and page numbers
• Export data as CSV for spreadsheet compatibility

Note: PHP runs on a server. Our examples simulate PHP logic using JavaScript. To run real PHP, install PHP.

🎯 Real-World Analogy: PDF generation is like a print shop. TCPDF is like manually placing each text block and image on the page (precise but tedious). Dompdf is like handing the print shop a web page and saying "make this a PDF" (fast and easy). Both produce professional documents — choose based on your control needs.

Building PDFs Programmatically

TCPDF gives you pixel-level control over PDF layout. You add pages, position text at exact coordinates, draw tables, insert images, and set headers/footers. It's ideal for generating invoices, shipping labels, and reports that need consistent, precise formatting.

Try It: Invoice PDF Builder

Build a multi-page invoice with tables, headings, and page numbers

Try it Yourself »

JavaScript

// PDF Generation in PHP: TCPDF & Dompdf
console.log("=== PDF Libraries Comparison ===");
console.log();
console.log("  Library   | Approach        | Best For");
console.log("  ──────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────────");
console.log("  TCPDF     | Programmatic    | Precise control, barcodes");
console.log("  dompdf    | HTML → PDF      | Quick conversion, templates");
console.log("  mPDF      | HTML → PDF      | Unicode, RTL languages");
console.log("  wkhtmltopdf| Headless WebKit
...

HTML to PDF & CSV Export

Dompdf takes a different approach — write your document as HTML with CSS, then convert it to PDF. This is faster for developers who already know HTML. For tabular data, CSV export is simpler and universally supported by Excel, Google Sheets, and databases.

Try It: Dompdf & CSV Export

Convert HTML templates to PDF and export data as CSV

Try it Yourself »

JavaScript

// Dompdf: Convert HTML Templates to PDF
console.log("=== Dompdf: HTML → PDF Workflow ===");
console.log();
console.log("  // Install: composer require dompdf/dompdf");
console.log();

// Simulate HTML template rendering
function renderInvoiceHTML(data) {
  let html = [];
  html.push("<!DOCTYPE html>");
  html.push('<html><head><style>');
  html.push("  body { font-family: Arial; margin: 40px; color: #333; }");
  html.push("  .header { border-bottom: 3px solid #04AA6D; padding-bottom: 20px; }");
...

⚠️ Common Mistakes

⚠️

Not setting memory limits — Large PDFs with images can exhaust PHP's memory. Set ini_set('memory_limit', '256M') for PDF generation scripts.

⚠️

Inline CSS only for dompdf — External stylesheets may not load. Use inline styles or <style> blocks in your HTML templates.

💡

Pro Tip: Generate PDFs as background queue jobs — a 10-page invoice takes 2-5 seconds. Queue it, email a download link when ready.

📋 Quick Reference — PDF & Export

Library	Install & Key Method
TCPDF	`new TCPDF() → AddPage() → Cell() → Output()`
dompdf	`new Dompdf() → loadHtml() → render() → stream()`
fputcsv()	Built-in PHP function for CSV row writing
Content-Disposition	Header to trigger browser download dialog

🎉 Lesson Complete!

You can now generate professional PDFs and export data! Next, learn to build multilingual PHP applications.