X. ClibPDF Functions
Introduction
ClibPDF lets you create PDF documents with PHP. ClibPDF functionality
and API are similar to PDFlib. This documentation should be
read alongside the ClibPDF manual since it explains the library
in much greater detail.
Many functions in the native ClibPDF and the PHP module,
as well as in PDFlib, have the same name. All functions
except for cpdf_open() take the handle for the document
as their first parameter.
Currently this handle is not used internally since ClibPDF
does not support the creation of several PDF documents at
the same time. Actually, you should not even try it, the
results are unpredictable. I can't oversee what the consequences
in a multi threaded environment are. According to the author
of ClibPDF this will change in one of the next releases
(current version when this was written is 1.10). If you
need this functionality use the pdflib module.
A nice feature of ClibPDF (and PDFlib) is the ability to
create the pdf document completely in memory without using
temporary files. It also provides the ability to pass coordinates
in a predefined unit length. (This feature can also be simulated
by pdf_translate() when using the PDFlib functions.)
Another nice feature of ClibPDF is the fact that any page
can be modified at any time even if a new page has been
already opened. The function cpdf_set_current_page() allows
to leave the current page and presume modifying an other
page.
Most of the functions are fairly easy to use. The most
difficult part is probably creating a very simple PDF document
at all. The following example should help you to get started.
It creates a document with one page. The page contains the
text "Times-Roman" in an outlined 30pt font. The
text is underlined.
Note: If you're interested in alternative free PDF generators
that do not utilize external PDF libraries, see this related
FAQ.
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