📄 littlepdf-php

Minimal PDF creation library for PHP — ~700 lines of code, zero dependencies, makes real PDFs.

Port of littlepdf from TypeScript to PHP.

---

🎯 Philosophy

Ultra-lightweight by design. We stripped away everything non-essential: TTF fonts, PNG/SVG support, HTML-to-PDF conversion, forms, encryption, and compression. What remains is the core 95% use case: putting text and images on a page.

Perfect for building: invoices, receipts, reports, shipping labels, tickets, certificates, contracts, and data exports.

---

📸 Preview

Invoice Example

Shapes & Images Example

---

✨ What's Included

• ✅ Text — Helvetica font, any size, hex colors, left/center/right alignment
• ✅ Shapes — Rectangles and lines
• ✅ Images — JPEG support (photos, logos, signatures)
• ✅ Pages — Multiple pages with custom sizes
• ✅ Markdown — Convert markdown to PDF with headers, lists, and rules

❌ What's Not Included

Custom fonts, PNG/GIF/SVG, vector graphics, forms, encryption, compression, HTML-to-PDF

💡 Need those features? Check out FPDF or TCPDF.

---

📦 Installation

composer require usaikoo/littlepdf-php

---

🚀 Getting Started

Basic Example

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use LittlePdf\LittlePdf;
use LittlePdf\TextOptions;
use LittlePdf\TextAlign;

$doc = LittlePdf::create();

$doc->page(function($ctx) {
    $ctx->rect(50, 700, 200, 40, '#2563eb');           // blue rectangle
    $ctx->text('Hello PDF!', 60, 712, 24, new TextOptions(color: '#ffffff'));
    $ctx->line(50, 680, 250, 680, '#000000', 1);       // black line
});

file_put_contents('output.pdf', $doc->build());

Working with Images

$doc = LittlePdf::create();

$doc->page(function($ctx) {
    $logo = file_get_contents('logo.jpg');
    $ctx->image($logo, 50, 700, 100, 50);
});

file_put_contents('output.pdf', $doc->build());

Text Measurement

use LittlePdf\LittlePdf;

LittlePdf::measureText('Hello', 12); // => 27.34 (points)

Markdown Conversion

use LittlePdf\MarkdownConverter;

$markdown = <<<MD
# Hello World

A minimal PDF from markdown.

## Features
- Headers (h1, h2, h3)
- Bullet lists
- Numbered lists
- Horizontal rules

---

Automatic word wrapping and pagination included.
MD;

$converter = new MarkdownConverter();
$pdf = $converter->convert($markdown);
file_put_contents('output.pdf', $pdf);

---

📚 API Reference

LittlePdf

Main factory class for creating PDF documents.

Methods

static function create(): PDFBuilderInterface

Create a new PDF builder

static function measureText(string $str, float $size): float

Measure text width in points

PDFBuilderInterface

Methods

function page(float|callable $widthOrFn, ?float $height = null, ?callable $fn = null): void

Add a page to the document

function build(): string

Build and return the final PDF content

function measureText(string $str, float $size): float

Measure text width in points

PageContextInterface

Context provided to page callbacks for drawing operations.

Methods

function text(string $str, float $x, float $y, float $size, ?TextOptions $opts = null): void

Render text at specified position

function rect(float $x, float $y, float $w, float $h, string $fill): void

Draw a filled rectangle

function line(float $x1, float $y1, float $x2, float $y2, string $stroke, float $lineWidth = 1.0): void

Draw a line

function image(string $jpegBytes, float $x, float $y, float $w, float $h): void

Render a JPEG image

TextOptions

Value object for text rendering options.

Constructor

new TextOptions(
    TextAlign $align = TextAlign::LEFT,
    ?float $width = null,
    string $color = '#000000'
)

Properties

public TextAlign $align

Text alignment (LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT)

public ?float $width

Width constraint for alignment

public string $color

Text color in hex format (e.g., '#ff0000')

MarkdownConverter

Convert markdown documents to PDF.

Constructor

new MarkdownConverter(
    float $width = 612,
    float $height = 792,
    float $margin = 72
)

Methods

function convert(string $markdown): string

Convert markdown to PDF content

Supported Markdown Features

• Headers (H1-H3): #, ##, ###
• Unordered lists: - or *
• Ordered lists: 1., 2., etc.
• Horizontal rules: ---, ***, ___
• Paragraphs with automatic word wrapping
• Blank lines for spacing

Coordinate System

PDF uses a coordinate system where:

• Origin (0, 0) is at the bottom-left corner
• X increases to the right
• Y increases upward
• Units are in points (1/72 inch)

Common page sizes:

• US Letter: 612 x 792 points
• A4: 595 x 842 points

---

🛠️ Development

Requirements

• PHP 8.1 or higher
• Composer

Installation

composer install

Run Example

php examples/example.php

This generates example.pdf and markdown-example.pdf in the examples/ directory.

Static Analysis

composer test:types

---

📄 License

MIT

Credits

This is a PHP port of littlepdf by Sai Ko.

littlepdf-php