php-pdftk

A PDF conversion and form utility based on pdftk.

Features

php-pdftk brings the full power of pdftk to PHP - and more.

• Fill forms, either from a XFDF/FDF file or from a data array (UTF-8 safe for unflattened forms, requires pdftk 2.x !)
• Create XFDF or FDF files from PHP arrays (UTF-8 safe!)
• Create FDF files from filled PDF forms
• Combine pages from several PDF files into a new PDF file
• Split a PDF into one file per page
• Add background or overlay PDFs
• Read out meta data about PDF and form fields
• Set passwords and permissions
• Remove passwords

Requirements

• The pdftk command must be installed and working on your system
• This library is written for pdftk 2.x versions. You should be able to use it with pdftk 1.x but not all methods will work there.
  For details consult the man page of pdftk on your system.
• There is a known issue
  on Ubuntu if you installed the pdftk package from snap. This version has
  no permission to write to the /tmp directory. You can either set another
  temporay directory as described below or use another package. For Ubuntu
  18.10 there’s also a pdftk-java package available via apt which should work
  fine. You can also install this package on Ubuntu 18.04 if you download it
  manually. Also check this answer
  on askubuntu.

Note: The pdftk version from the alternative PPA ppa:malteworld/ppa is
no longer available. The author instead now points to his answer on askubuntu
linked above.

Installation

You should use composer to install this library.

composer require mikehaertl/php-pdftk

Examples

Create instance for PDF files

There are several ways to tell the Pdf instance which file(s) it should use.
Some files may also require a password or need an alias to be used as a handle
in some operations (e.g. cat or shuffle).

Note: In version 2.x of pdftk a handle can be one or more upper case letters.

// Create an instance for a single file
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/to/form.pdf');

// Alternatively add files later. Handles are autogenerated in this case.
$pdf = new Pdf();
$pdf->addFile('/path/to/file1.pdf');
$pdf->addFile('/path/to/file2.pdf');

// Add files with own handle
$pdf = new Pdf();
$pdf->addFile('/path/to/file1.pdf', 'A');
$pdf->addFile('/path/to/file2.pdf', 'B');
// Add file with handle and password
$pdf->addFile('/path/to/file3.pdf', 'C', 'secret*password');

// Shortcut to pass all files to the constructor
$pdf = new Pdf([
  'A' => ['/path/to/file1.pdf', 'secret*password1'],
  'B' => ['/path/to/file2.pdf', 'secret*password2'],
]);

Operations

Please consult the pdftk man page for each operation to find out how each operation works
in detail and which options are available.

For all operations you can either save the PDF locally through saveAs($name) or send it to the
browser with send(). If you pass a filename to send($name) the client browser will open a download
dialogue whereas without a filename it will usually display the PDF inline.

IMPORTANT: You can always only perform one of the following operations on a single PDF instance.
Below you can find a workaround if you need multiple operations.

Fill Form

Fill a PDF form with data from a PHP array or an XFDF/FDF file.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Fill form with data array
$pdf = new Pdf('/full/path/to/form.pdf');
$result = $pdf->fillForm([
        'name'=>'ÄÜÖ äüö мирано čárka',
        'nested.name' => 'valX',
    ])
    ->needAppearances()
    ->saveAs('filled.pdf');

// Always check for errors
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Fill form from FDF
$pdf = new Pdf('form.pdf');
$result = $pdf->fillForm('data.xfdf')
    ->saveAs('filled.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Note: When filling in UTF-8 data, you should always add the needAppearances() option.
This will make sure, that the PDF reader takes care of using the right fonts for rendering,
something that pdftk can’t do for you. Also note that flatten() doesn’t really work well
if you have special characters in your data.

If you use pdftk-java >= 3.3.0 and the embedded font does not support UTF-8
characters you can also replace it with a local font:

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Fill form with data array
$pdf = new Pdf('/full/path/to/form.pdf');
$result = $pdf->fillForm($data)
    ->replacementFont('/usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf')
    ->saveAs('filled.pdf');

Create a XFDF/FDF file from a PHP array

This is a bonus feature that is not available from pdftk.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\XfdfFile;
use mikehaertl\pdftk\FdfFile;

$xfdf = new XfdfFile(['name' => 'Jürgen мирано']);
$xfdf->saveAs('/path/to/data.xfdf');

$fdf = new FdfFile(['name' => 'Jürgen мирано']);
$fdf->saveAs('/path/to/data.fdf');

Cat

Assemble a PDF from pages from one or more PDF files.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Extract pages 1-5 and 7,4,9 into a new file
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/to/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->cat(1, 5)
    ->cat([7, 4, 9])
    ->saveAs('/path/to/new.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Combine pages from several files
$pdf = new Pdf([
    'A' => '/path/file1.pdf',                 // A is alias for file1.pdf
    'B' => ['/path/file2.pdf','pass**word'],  // B is alias for file2.pdf
    'C' => ['/path/file3.pdf','secret**pw'],  // C is alias for file3.pdf
]);
$result = $pdf->cat(1, 5, 'A')                // pages 1-5 from A
    ->cat(3, null, 'B')             // page 3 from B
    ->cat(7, 'end', 'B', null, 'east') // pages 7-end from B, rotated East
    ->cat('end',3,'A','even')       // even pages 3-end in reverse order from A
    ->cat([2,3,7], 'C')             // pages 2,3 and 7 from C
    ->saveAs('/path/new.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Shuffle

Like cat() but create “streams” and fill the new PDF with one page from each
stream at a time.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$pdf = new Pdf([
    'A' => '/path/file1.pdf',     // A is alias for file1.pdf
    'B' => '/path/file2.pdf',     // B is alias for file2.pdf
]);

// new.pdf will have pages A1, B3, A2, B4, A3, B5, ...
$result = $pdf->shuffle(1, 5, 'A')    // pages 1-5 from A
    ->shuffle(3, 8, 'B')    // pages 3-8 from B
    ->saveAs('/path/new.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Burst

Split a PDF file into one file per page.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->burst('/path/page_%d.pdf');     // Supply a printf() pattern
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Add background PDF

Add another PDF file as background.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Set background from another PDF (first page repeated)
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->background('/path/back.pdf')
    ->saveAs('/path/watermarked.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Set background from another PDF (one page each)
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->multiBackground('/path/back_pages.pdf')
    ->saveAs('/path/watermarked.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Add overlay PDF

Add another PDF file as overlay.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Stamp with another PDF (first page repeated)
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->stamp('/path/overlay.pdf')
    ->saveAs('/path/stamped.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Stamp with another PDF (one page each)
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->multiStamp('/path/overlay_pages.pdf')
    ->saveAs('/path/stamped.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Attach Files

Add file attachments to the document or to a specific page.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$files = [
    '/path/to/file1',
    '/path/to/file2',
]

// Add files at the document level
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->attachFiles($files)
    ->saveAs('/path/withfiles.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Add files to a specific page
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$page = 7;
$result = $pdf->attachFiles($files, $page)
    ->saveAs('/path/withfiles.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Unpack Files

Copy file attachments from a PDF to the given directory.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->unpackFiles('/path/to/dir');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Generate FDF

Create a FDF file from a given filled PDF form.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Create FDF from PDF
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/form.pdf');
$result = $pdf->generateFdfFile('/path/data.fdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Get PDF data

Read out metadata or form field information from a PDF file.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Get data
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$data = $pdf->getData();
if ($data === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Get form data fields
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$data = $pdf->getDataFields();
if ($data === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Get data as string
echo $data;
$txt = (string) $data;
$txt = $data->__toString();

// Get data as array
$arr = (array) $data;
$arr = $data->__toArray();
$field1 = $data[0]['Field1'];

How to perform more than one operation on a PDF

As stated above, you can only perform one of the preceeding operations on a single PDF instance.
If you need more than one operation you can feed one Pdf instance into another:

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

// Extract pages 1-5 and 7,4,9 into a new file
$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$pdf->cat(1, 5)
    ->cat([7, 4, 9]);

// We now use the above PDF as source file for a new PDF
$pdf2 = new Pdf($pdf);
$result = $pdf2->fillForm(['name' => 'ÄÜÖ äüö мирано čárka'])
    ->needAppearances()
    ->saveAs('/path/filled.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Options

You can combine the above operations with one or more of the following options.

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');

$result = $pdf->allow('AllFeatures')      // Change permissions
    ->flatten()                 // Merge form data into document (doesn't work well with UTF-8!)
    ->compress($value)          // Compress/Uncompress
    ->keepId('first')           // Keep first/last Id of combined files
    ->dropXfa()                 // Drop newer XFA form from PDF
    ->dropXmp()                 // Drop newer XMP data from PDF
    ->needAppearances()         // Make clients create appearance for form fields
    ->setPassword($pw)          // Set owner password
    ->setUserPassword($pw)      // Set user password
    ->passwordEncryption(128)   // Set password encryption strength
    ->saveAs('new.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Example: Fill PDF form and merge form data into PDF
// Fill form with data array
$result = $pdf = new Pdf('/path/form.pdf');
$pdf->fillForm(['name' => 'My Name'])
    ->flatten()
    ->saveAs('/path/filled.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

// Example: Remove password from a PDF
$pdf = new Pdf;
$result = $pdf->addFile('/path/my.pdf', null, 'some**password')
    ->saveAs('/path/new.pdf');
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}

Shell Command

The class uses php-shellcommand to execute
pdftk. You can pass $options for its Command class as second argument to the constructor:

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf', [
    'command' => '/some/other/path/to/pdftk',
    // or on most Windows systems:
    // 'command' => 'C:\Program Files (x86)\PDFtk\bin\pdftk.exe',
    'useExec' => true,  // May help on Windows systems if execution fails
]);

Solve issues with UTF-8 characters in filenames or infofile content

If you have files with UTF-8 encoded characters in their filename or if you
pass an infofile with such characters to updateInfo() you should supply the
correct locale when excuting pdftk. You can therefore add these options:

$pdf = new Pdf($file, [
    'locale' => 'en_US.utf8',
    'procEnv' => [
        'LANG' => 'en_US.utf-8',
    ],
]);

Note: You need to ensure that the locale you set here is available on
your system. On Linux you can check with locale -a which locales are
installed. This article explains
the concept in more detail.

Temporary File

Internally a temporary file is created via php-tmpfile.
You can also access that file directly, e.g. if you neither want to send or save the
file but only need the binary PDF content:

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$result = $pdf->fillForm(['name' => 'My Name'])
    ->execute();
if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdf->getError();
}
$content = file_get_contents( (string) $pdf->getTmpFile() );

If you have permission issues you may have to set a directory where your
pdftk command can write to:

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

$pdf = new Pdf('/path/my.pdf');
$pdf->tempDir = '/home/john/temp';

API

Please consult the source files for a full documentation of each method.