Using the Chrome driver

The Chrome driver uses chrome-php/chrome to generate PDFs directly from PHP. It is a good fit when you want a Chromium-based driver without bringing in Node.js or Puppeteer.

##Getting started

1. Install the Chrome package:

composer require chrome-php/chrome

2. Make sure Chrome or Chromium is installed on the machine that generates the PDFs.

The upstream library requires a Chrome/Chromium 65+ executable. It can auto-discover the browser in common locations, but you can also configure the binary path explicitly.

3. Set the driver in your .env file:

LARAVEL_PDF_DRIVER=chrome

If Chrome cannot be auto-discovered, also set the browser path:

LARAVEL_PDF_CHROME_BINARY=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

That's it. Your existing PDF code will now use the Chrome driver:

use Spatie\LaravelPdf\Facades\Pdf;

Pdf::view('pdfs.invoice', ['invoice' => $invoice])
    ->format('a4')
    ->save('invoice.pdf');

##Supported options

The Chrome driver supports the following PDF options:

• format() — Paper format (a4, letter, legal, etc.)
• paperSize() — Custom paper dimensions
• margins() — Page margins
• landscape() / orientation() — Page orientation
• scale() — Page rendering scale
• pageRanges() — Specific pages to include
• headerView() / headerHtml() — Page headers
• footerView() / footerHtml() — Page footers

##Configuration

The Chrome driver accepts these configuration options in config/laravel-pdf.php:

'chrome' => [
    'chrome_binary' => env('LARAVEL_PDF_CHROME_BINARY'),
    'no_sandbox' => env('LARAVEL_PDF_CHROME_NO_SANDBOX', false),
    'startup_timeout' => env('LARAVEL_PDF_CHROME_STARTUP_TIMEOUT', 30),
    'timeout' => env('LARAVEL_PDF_CHROME_TIMEOUT', 30000),
    'operation_timeout' => env('LARAVEL_PDF_CHROME_OPERATION_TIMEOUT', 5000),
    'user_data_dir' => env('LARAVEL_PDF_CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR'),
    'custom_flags' => [],
    'env_variables' => [],
],

• chrome_binary: The path to the Chrome or Chromium executable. If omitted, the driver will try to auto-discover it.
• no_sandbox: Disables Chrome's sandbox. This is sometimes needed in Docker or restricted server environments.
• startup_timeout: Maximum time in seconds to wait for Chrome to start.
• timeout: Maximum time in milliseconds to wait when setting the page HTML.
• operation_timeout: Maximum time in milliseconds to wait for Chrome PDF operations like binary output and file saves.
• user_data_dir: Custom Chrome profile directory.
• custom_flags: Additional Chrome command-line flags.
• env_variables: Environment variables passed to the Chrome process.

##Using Chrome for specific PDFs only

If you want to use another driver as your default but switch to Chrome for specific PDFs, use the driver method:

use Spatie\LaravelPdf\Facades\Pdf;

Pdf::view('pdfs.invoice', ['invoice' => $invoice])
    ->driver('chrome')
    ->format('a4')
    ->save('invoice.pdf');

##Limitations

• The Chrome driver requires both the chrome-php/chrome package and a local Chrome or Chromium executable. It does not download or bundle a browser for you.
• In Docker or other locked-down environments, you may need to enable no_sandbox.
• This driver only documents and exposes the options supported by Laravel PDF. If you need deeper Chromium customization, use the Browsershot driver instead.
• The tagged(), withBrowsershot() and onLambda() methods have no effect when using the Chrome driver.