Re: Does anyone here use TCPDF?

On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 02:58:52AM +0900, Dave M G wrote: > PHP List, > > > I posted this question on the TCPDF forum on SourceForge, but it's > getting no response. I'm not even sure how active their list is. > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/tcpdf/forums/forum/435311/topic/3400663 > > So I'm hoping someone here might be able to help if they are using > TCPDF. I just need to get the key details to get started, and then I can > probably start to roll on my own. > > This is the question: > > > Forgive me for what I would assume is a very obvious question, but I can > not locate any clear instructions on what I want to do. > > Simply, I want to take an existing PDF and write text on top of it. > > The PDF is a single page, and it is a form that people fill out. What I > need to do is fill out some of the fields in the form before sending it > to the recipient. > > So I need to do two simple tasks. One is to load an existing PDF file. > The second is to place short lines of text into specific locations on > the page (A4 size). > > I know these two functions must be dead simple, and yet I am lost in the > documentation. > > If someone could tell me the right function calls or point me to the > right place so that I can RTFM on my own, I would be very grateful. > > Thank you for any advice. I don't use TCPDF; I use FPDF, but I imagine the drill is about the same. When I have to do what you're doing, I first write the code (using the FPDF API/methods) to build the form fresh. I test this to ensure everything is where it needs to be. Then I add code to that form which fills in whatever fields need filling in. Then I output that. What you're asking sounds like you want to *edit* an existing PDF via a PHP class, and I don't know of a tool that does this except for Adobe Acrobat and a few other non-PHP tools. It's something that's very difficult to get right. Therefore, I'd suggest instead using your existing TCPDF methods to actually *build* the PDF from scratch, with additional method calls to put in your content. That is, build and populate each time you need the form. Paul -- Paul M. Foster