Creating PDFs

On this page

  1. Sizing the pdf
  2. Using a predefined format
  3. Setting margins
  4. Headers and footers
  5. Backgrounds
  6. Landscape orientation
  7. Scale
  8. Only export specific pages
  9. Set the initial page number
  10. Output directly to the browser

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

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

Alternatively you can explicitly use the savePdf method:

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

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

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.

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

You can specify the width and the height.

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

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

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

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

The format options available by puppeteer are:

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

Margins can be set.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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