272 lines
11 KiB
HTML
272 lines
11 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
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<title>FAQ</title>
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<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="fpdf.css">
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<style type="text/css">
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ul {list-style-type:none; margin:0; padding:0}
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ul#answers li {margin-top:1.8em}
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.question {font-weight:bold; color:#900000}
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</style>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FAQ</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><b>1.</b> <a href='#q1'>What's exactly the license of FPDF? Are there any usage restrictions?</a></li>
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<li><b>2.</b> <a href='#q2'>I get the following error when I try to generate a PDF: Some data has already been output, can't send PDF file</a></li>
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<li><b>3.</b> <a href='#q3'>Accented letters are replaced with some strange characters like é.</a></li>
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<li><b>4.</b> <a href='#q4'>I try to display the Euro symbol but it doesn't work.</a></li>
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<li><b>5.</b> <a href='#q5'>I try to display a variable in the Header method but nothing prints.</a></li>
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<li><b>6.</b> <a href='#q6'>I have defined the Header and Footer methods in my PDF class but nothing shows.</a></li>
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<li><b>7.</b> <a href='#q7'>I can't make line breaks work. I put \n in the string printed by MultiCell but it doesn't work.</a></li>
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<li><b>8.</b> <a href='#q8'>I use jQuery to generate the PDF but it doesn't show.</a></li>
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<li><b>9.</b> <a href='#q9'>I draw a frame with very precise dimensions, but when printed I notice some differences.</a></li>
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<li><b>10.</b> <a href='#q10'>I'd like to use the whole surface of the page, but when printed I always have some margins. How can I get rid of them?</a></li>
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<li><b>11.</b> <a href='#q11'>How can I put a background in my PDF?</a></li>
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<li><b>12.</b> <a href='#q12'>How can I set a specific header or footer on the first page?</a></li>
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<li><b>13.</b> <a href='#q13'>I'd like to use extensions provided by different scripts. How can I combine them?</a></li>
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<li><b>14.</b> <a href='#q14'>How can I open the PDF in a new tab?</a></li>
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<li><b>15.</b> <a href='#q15'>How can I send the PDF by email?</a></li>
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<li><b>16.</b> <a href='#q16'>What's the limit of the file sizes I can generate with FPDF?</a></li>
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<li><b>17.</b> <a href='#q17'>Can I modify a PDF with FPDF?</a></li>
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<li><b>18.</b> <a href='#q18'>I'd like to make a search engine in PHP and index PDF files. Can I do it with FPDF?</a></li>
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<li><b>19.</b> <a href='#q19'>Can I convert an HTML page to PDF with FPDF?</a></li>
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<li><b>20.</b> <a href='#q20'>Can I concatenate PDF files with FPDF?</a></li>
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</ul>
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<ul id='answers'>
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<li id='q1'>
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<p><b>1.</b> <span class='question'>What's exactly the license of FPDF? Are there any usage restrictions?</span></p>
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FPDF is released under a permissive license: there is no usage restriction. You may embed it
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freely in your application (commercial or not), with or without modifications.
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</li>
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<li id='q2'>
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<p><b>2.</b> <span class='question'>I get the following error when I try to generate a PDF: Some data has already been output, can't send PDF file</span></p>
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You must send nothing to the browser except the PDF itself: no HTML, no space, no carriage return. A common
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case is having extra blank at the end of an included script file.<br>
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If you can't figure out where the problem comes from, this other message appearing just before will help you:<br>
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<br>
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<b>Warning:</b> Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at script.php:X)<br>
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<br>
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It means that script.php outputs something at line X. Go to that line and fix it.
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In case the message doesn't show, check if PHP warnings are enabled. If they are not, enable them. If they are,
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try adding this at the very beginning of your script:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>ob_end_clean();</code></pre>
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</div>
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</li>
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<li id='q3'>
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<p><b>3.</b> <span class='question'>Accented letters are replaced with some strange characters like é.</span></p>
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Don't use UTF-8 with the standard fonts; they expect text encoded in ISO-8859-1 or windows-1252.
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You can use utf8_decode() to perform a conversion to ISO-8859-1:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>$str = utf8_decode($str);</code></pre>
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</div>
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But some characters such as Euro won't be translated correctly. If the iconv extension is available, the
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right way to do it is the following:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>$str = iconv('UTF-8', 'windows-1252', $str);</code></pre>
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</div>
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In case you need characters outside windows-1252, take a look at tutorial #7 or
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<a href="http://www.fpdf.org/?go=script&id=92" target="_blank">tFPDF</a>.
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</li>
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<li id='q4'>
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<p><b>4.</b> <span class='question'>I try to display the Euro symbol but it doesn't work.</span></p>
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The standard fonts have the Euro character at position 128. You can define a constant like this
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for convenience:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>define('EURO', chr(128));</code></pre>
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</div>
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</li>
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<li id='q5'>
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<p><b>5.</b> <span class='question'>I try to display a variable in the Header method but nothing prints.</span></p>
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You have to use the <code>global</code> keyword to access global variables, for example:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>function Header()
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{
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global $title;
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$this->SetFont('Arial', 'B', 15);
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$this->Cell(0, 10, $title, 1, 1, 'C');
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}
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$title = 'My title';</code></pre>
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</div>
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Alternatively, you can use an object property:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>function Header()
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{
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$this->SetFont('Arial', 'B', 15);
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$this->Cell(0, 10, $this->title, 1, 1, 'C');
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}
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$pdf->title = 'My title';</code></pre>
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</div>
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</li>
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<li id='q6'>
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<p><b>6.</b> <span class='question'>I have defined the Header and Footer methods in my PDF class but nothing shows.</span></p>
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You have to create an object from the PDF class, not FPDF:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>$pdf = new PDF();</code></pre>
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</div>
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</li>
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<li id='q7'>
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<p><b>7.</b> <span class='question'>I can't make line breaks work. I put \n in the string printed by MultiCell but it doesn't work.</span></p>
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You have to enclose your string with double quotes, not single ones.
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</li>
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<li id='q8'>
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<p><b>8.</b> <span class='question'>I use jQuery to generate the PDF but it doesn't show.</span></p>
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Don't use an AJAX request to retrieve the PDF.
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</li>
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<li id='q9'>
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<p><b>9.</b> <span class='question'>I draw a frame with very precise dimensions, but when printed I notice some differences.</span></p>
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To respect dimensions, select "None" for the Page Scaling setting instead of "Shrink to Printable Area" in the print dialog box.
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</li>
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<li id='q10'>
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<p><b>10.</b> <span class='question'>I'd like to use the whole surface of the page, but when printed I always have some margins. How can I get rid of them?</span></p>
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Printers have physical margins (different depending on the models); it is therefore impossible to remove
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them and print on the whole surface of the paper.
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</li>
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<li id='q11'>
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<p><b>11.</b> <span class='question'>How can I put a background in my PDF?</span></p>
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For a picture, call Image() in the Header() method, before any other output. To set a background color, use Rect().
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</li>
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<li id='q12'>
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<p><b>12.</b> <span class='question'>How can I set a specific header or footer on the first page?</span></p>
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Just test the page number:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>function Header()
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{
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if($this->PageNo()==1)
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{
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//First page
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...
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}
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else
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{
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//Other pages
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...
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}
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}</code></pre>
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</div>
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</li>
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<li id='q13'>
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<p><b>13.</b> <span class='question'>I'd like to use extensions provided by different scripts. How can I combine them?</span></p>
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Use an inheritance chain. If you have two classes, say A in a.php:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>require('fpdf.php');
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class A extends FPDF
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{
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...
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}</code></pre>
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</div>
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and B in b.php:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>require('fpdf.php');
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class B extends FPDF
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{
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...
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}</code></pre>
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</div>
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then make B extend A:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>require('a.php');
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class B extends A
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{
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...
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}</code></pre>
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</div>
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and make your own class extend B:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>require('b.php');
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class PDF extends B
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{
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...
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}
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$pdf = new PDF();</code></pre>
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</div>
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</li>
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<li id='q14'>
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<p><b>14.</b> <span class='question'>How can I open the PDF in a new tab?</span></p>
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Just do the same as you would for an HTML page or anything else: add a target="_blank" to your link or form.
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</li>
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<li id='q15'>
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<p><b>15.</b> <span class='question'>How can I send the PDF by email?</span></p>
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As for any other file, but an easy way is to use <a href="https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer" target="_blank">PHPMailer</a> and
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its in-memory attachment:
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<div class="doc-source">
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<pre><code>$mail = new PHPMailer();
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...
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$doc = $pdf->Output('S');
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$mail->AddStringAttachment($doc, 'doc.pdf', 'base64', 'application/pdf');
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$mail->Send();</code></pre>
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</div>
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</li>
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<li id='q16'>
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<p><b>16.</b> <span class='question'>What's the limit of the file sizes I can generate with FPDF?</span></p>
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There is no particular limit. There are some constraints, however:
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<br>
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<br>
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- There is usually a maximum memory size allocated to PHP scripts. For very big documents,
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especially with images, the limit may be reached (the file being built in memory). The
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parameter is configured in the php.ini file.
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<br>
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<br>
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- The maximum execution time allocated to scripts defaults to 30 seconds. This limit can of course
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be easily reached. It is configured in php.ini and may be altered dynamically with set_time_limit().
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<br>
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<br>
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You can work around the memory limit with <a href="http://www.fpdf.org/?go=script&id=76" target="_blank">this script</a>.
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</li>
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<li id='q17'>
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<p><b>17.</b> <span class='question'>Can I modify a PDF with FPDF?</span></p>
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It's possible to import pages from an existing PDF document thanks to the
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<a href="https://www.setasign.com/products/fpdi/about/" target="_blank">FPDI</a> extension.
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Then you can add some content to them.
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</li>
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<li id='q18'>
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<p><b>18.</b> <span class='question'>I'd like to make a search engine in PHP and index PDF files. Can I do it with FPDF?</span></p>
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No. But a GPL C utility does exist, pdftotext, which is able to extract the textual content from a PDF.
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It's provided with the <a href="https://www.xpdfreader.com" target="_blank">Xpdf</a> package.
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</li>
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<li id='q19'>
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<p><b>19.</b> <span class='question'>Can I convert an HTML page to PDF with FPDF?</span></p>
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Not real-world pages. But a GPL C utility does exist, <a href="https://www.msweet.org/htmldoc/" target="_blank">HTMLDOC</a>,
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which allows to do it and gives good results.
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</li>
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<li id='q20'>
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<p><b>20.</b> <span class='question'>Can I concatenate PDF files with FPDF?</span></p>
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Not directly, but it's possible to use <a href="https://www.setasign.com/products/fpdi/demos/concatenate-fake/" target="_blank">FPDI</a>
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to perform that task. Some free command-line tools also exist:
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<a href="https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/" target="_blank">pdftk</a> and
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<a href="http://thierry.schmit.free.fr/spip/spip.php?article15" target="_blank">mbtPdfAsm</a>.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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</html>
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