Creating PDFs - Browsershot

Browsershot will save a pdf if the path passed to the save method has a pdf extension.

php

// a pdf will be saved
Browsershot::url('https://example.com')->save('example.pdf');

Alternatively you can explicitly use the savePdf method:

php

Browsershot::url('https://example.com')->savePdf('example.pdf');

You can also pass some html which will be converted to a pdf.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)->savePdf('example.pdf');

If you need the base64 version of a PDF you can use the base64pdf method. This can come in handy when you don't want to save the screenshot on disk in environments like Heroku that don't allow you to save a file. You can then proceed to create the file and upload it directly as a base64 string using a package like Laravel Media Library.

php

$base64Data = Browsershot::url('https://example.com')
    ->base64pdf();

A note on security

It is the responsibility of the user to validate the URLs and HTML passed to browsershot. Only pass URLs and HTML that you trust.

Sizing the pdf

You can specify the width and the height.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->paperSize($width, $height)
   ->save('example.pdf');

Optionally you can give a custom unit to the paperSize as the third parameter.

Using a predefined format

You can use the format method and provide a format size:

php

Browsershot::url('https://example.com')->format('A4')->save('example.pdf');

The format options available by puppeteer are:

php

Letter: 8.5in  x  11in
Legal: 8.5in  x  14in
Tabloid: 11in  x  17in
Ledger: 17in  x  11in
A0: 33.1in  x  46.8in
A1: 23.4in  x  33.1in
A2: 16.54in  x  23.4in
A3: 11.7in  x  16.54in
A4: 8.27in  x  11.7in
A5: 5.83in  x  8.27in
A6: 4.13in  x  5.83in

Setting margins

Margins can be set.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->margins($top, $right, $bottom, $left)
   ->save('example.pdf');

Optionally you can give a custom unit to the margins as the fifth parameter.

Headers and footers

By default a PDF will not show the header and a footer generated by Chrome. Here's how you can make the header and footer appear. You can also provide a custom HTML template for the header and footer.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->showBrowserHeaderAndFooter()
   ->headerHtml($someHtml)
   ->footerHtml($someHtml)
   ->save('example.pdf');

In the header and footer HTML, any tags with the following classes will have its printing value injected into its contents.

date formatted print date
title document title
url document location
pageNumber current page number
totalPages total pages in the document

To hide the header or footer, you can call either hideHeader or hideFooter.

Backgrounds

By default, the resulting PDF will not show the background of the html page. If you do want the background to be included you can call showBackground:

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->showBackground()
   ->save('example.pdf');

If you want a transparent background color instead of the default white, you can call transparentBackground:

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->transparentBackground()
   ->save('example.pdf');

Tagged (accessible) pdf

Call taggedPdf if you want the resulting pdf to be tagged (accessible).

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
    ->taggedPdf()
    ->save('example.pdf');

Landscape orientation

Call landscape if you want to resulting pdf to be landscape oriented.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->landscape()
   ->save('example.pdf');

Scale

Scale can be set. Defaults to 1. Scale amount must be between 0.1 and 2.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
    ->scale(0.5)
    ->save('example.pdf');

Only export specific pages

You can control which pages should be export by passing a print range to the pages method. Here are some examples of valid print ranges: 1, 1-3, 1-5, 8, 11-13.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->pages('1-5, 8, 11-13')
   ->save('example.pdf');

Set the initial page number

You can set the initial page number with initialPageNumber. Here's an example that shows how to set the first page to number 8.

php

Browsershot::html($someHtml)
   ->showBrowserHeaderAndFooter()
   ->hideFooter()
   ->headerHtml('<span class="pageNumber"></span>')
   ->initialPageNumber(8)
   ->save('example.pdf');

Output directly to the browser

You can output the PDF directly to the browser using the pdf() method.

php

$pdf = Browsershot::url('https://example.com')->pdf()