NAME

PDF::Create - create PDF files

SYNOPSIS

  use PDF::Create;

  my $pdf = new PDF::Create('filename'     => 'mypdf.pdf',
                            'Version'      => 1.2,
                            'PageMode'     => 'UseOutlines',
                            'Author'       => 'John Doe',
                            'Title'        => 'My Title',
                            'CreationDate' => [ localtime ],
                           );
  # add a A4 sized page
  my $root = $pdf->new_page('MediaBox' => $pdf->get_page_size('A4'));

  # Add a page which inherits its attributes from $root
  my $page = $root->new_page;

  # Prepare 2 fonts
  my $f1 = $pdf->font('Subtype'  => 'Type1',
                      'Encoding' => 'WinAnsiEncoding',
                      'BaseFont' => 'Helvetica');
  my $f2 = $pdf->font('Subtype'  => 'Type1',
                      'Encoding' => 'WinAnsiEncoding',
                      'BaseFont' => 'Helvetica-Bold');

  # Prepare a Table of Content
  my $toc = $pdf->new_outline('Title' => 'Document',
                              'Destination' => $page);
  $toc->new_outline('Title' => 'Section 1');
  my $s2 = $toc->new_outline('Title' => 'Section 2',
                             'Status' => 'closed');
  $s2->new_outline('Title' => 'Subsection 1');

  $page->stringc($f2, 40, 306, 426, "PDF::Create");
  $page->stringc($f1, 20, 306, 396, "version $PDF::Create::VERSION");

  # Add another page
  my $page2 = $root->new_page;
  $page2->line(0, 0, 612, 792);
  $page2->line(0, 792, 612, 0);

  $toc->new_outline('Title' => 'Section 3');
  $pdf->new_outline('Title' => 'Summary');

  # Add something to the first page
  $page->stringc($f1, 20, 306, 300, 'by John Doe <john.doe@example.com>');

  # Add the missing PDF objects and a the footer then close the file
  $pdf->close;

DESCRIPTION

PDF::Create allows you to create PDF documents using a number of primitives. The result is as a PDF file or stream.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format.

Documents can have several pages, a table of content, an information section and many other PDF elements.

Methods

• new

  Create a new pdf structure for your pdf.

  Example:

    my $pdf = new PDF::Create('filename'     => 'mypdf.pdf',
                              'Version'      => 1.2,
                              'PageMode'     => 'UseOutlines',
                              'Author'       => 'John Doe',
                              'Title'        => 'My title',
                              'CreationDate' => [ localtime ],
                             );

  filename:

  destination file that will contain the resulting PDF or an already opened filehandle or '-' for stdout.

  Version:

  can be 1.0 to 1.3 (default: 1.2)

  PageMode:

  how the document should appear when opened.

  Allowed values are:

  - UseNone: Open document with neither outline nor thumbnails visible. This is the default value.

  - UseOutlines: Open document with outline visible.

  - UseThumbs: Open document with thumbnails visible.

  - FullScreen: Open document in full-screen mode. In full-screen mode, there is no menu bar, window controls, nor any other window present.

  Author:

  the name of the person who created this document

  Creator:

  If the document was converted into a PDF document from another form, this is the name of the application that created the original document.

  - Title: the title of the document

  - Subject: the subject of the document

  - Keywords: keywords associated with the document

  - CreationDate: the date the document was created. This is passed as an anonymous array in the same format as localtime returns. (ie. a struct tm).

  If you are writing a CGI and send your PDF on the fly to a browser you can follow this CGI Example:

    use CGI; use PDF::Create;
    print CGI::header( -type => 'application/x-pdf', -attachment => 'sample.pdf' );
    my $pdf = new PDF::Create('filename'     => '-', # Stdout
                              'Author'       => 'John Doe',
                              'Title'        => 'My title',
                              'CreationDate' => [ localtime ],
                             );

  The created object is returned.

• close

  Most of the real work building the PDF is performed in the close method. It can there fore not be omitted, like a file close.

• get_data

  If you didn't ask the $pdf object to write its output to a file, you can pick up the pdf code by calling this method. It returns a big string. You need to call close first, mind.

• add_comment [string]

  Add a comment to the document.

• new_outline [parameters]

  Add an outline to the document using the given parameters. Return the newly created outline.

  Parameters can be:

  - Title: the title of the outline. Mandatory.

  - Destination: the destination of this outline. In this version, it is only possible to give a page as destination. The default destination is the current page.

  - Parent: the parent of this outline in the outlines tree. This is an outline object.

  Example:

    my $outline = $pdf->new_outline('Title' => 'Item 1',
                                    'Destination' => $page);
    $outline->new_outline('Title' => 'Item 1.1');
    $pdf->new_outline('Title' => 'Item 1.2',
                      'Parent' => $outline);
    $pdf->new_outline('Title' => 'Item 2');

• new_page

  Add a page to the document using the given parameters. Return the newly created page.

  Parameters can be:

  - Parent: the parent of this page in the pages tree. This is a page object.

  - Resources: Resources required by this page.

  - MediaBox: Rectangle specifying the natural size of the page, for example the dimensions of an A4 sheet of paper. The coordinates are measured in default user space units. It must be the reference of a 4 values array. You can use get_page_size to get the size of standard paper sizes. get_page_size knows about A0-A6, A4L (landscape), Letter, Legal, Broadsheet, Ledger, Tabloid, Executive and 36x36.

  - CropBox: Rectangle specifying the default clipping region for the page when displayed or printed. The default is the value of the MediaBox.

  - ArtBox: Rectangle specifying an area of the page to be used when placing PDF content into another application. The default is the value of the CropBox. [PDF 1.3]

  - TrimBox: Rectangle specifying the intended finished size of the page (for example, the dimensions of an A4 sheet of paper). In some cases, the MediaBox will be a larger rectangle, which includes printing instructions, cut marks, or other content. The default is the value of the CropBox. [PDF 1.3].

  - BleedBox: Rectangle specifying the region to which all page content should be clipped if the page is being output in a production environment. In such environments, a bleed area is desired, to accommodate physical limitations of cutting, folding, and trimming equipment. The actual printed page may include printer's marks that fall outside the bleed box. The default is the value of the CropBox. [PDF 1.3]

  - Rotate: Specifies the number of degrees the page should be rotated clockwise when it is displayed or printed. This value must be zero (the default) or a multiple of 90. The entire page, including contents is rotated.

• get_page_size

  Returns the size of standard paper sizes to use for MediaBox-parameter of new_page. get_page_size has one required parameter to specify the paper name. Possible values are a0-a6, letter, broadsheet, ledger, tabloid, legal, executive and 36x36. Default is a4.

• font

  Prepare a font using the given arguments. This font will be added to the document only if it is used at least once before the close method is called.

  Parameters can be:

  - Subtype: Type of font. PDF defines some types of fonts. It must be one of the predefined type Type1, Type3, TrueType or Type0.

  In this version, only Type1 is supported. This is the default value.

  - Encoding: Specifies the encoding from which the new encoding differs. It must be one of the predefined encodings MacRomanEncoding, MacExpertEncoding or WinAnsiEncoding.

  In this version, only WinAnsiEncoding is supported. This is the default value.

  - BaseFont: The PostScript name of the font. It can be one of the following base fonts: Courier, Courier-Bold, Courier-BoldOblique, Courier-Oblique, Helvetica, Helvetica-Bold, Helvetica-BoldOblique, Helvetica-Oblique, Times-Roman, Times-Bold, Times-Italic or Times-BoldItalic.

  The Symbol or ZapfDingbats fonts are not supported in this version.

  The default font is Helvetica.

• image filename

  Prepare an XObject (image) using the given arguments. This image will be added to the document if it is referenced at least once before the close method is called. In this version GIF, interlaced GIF and JPEG is supported. Usage of interlaced GIFs are slower because they are decompressed, modified and compressed again. The gif support is limited to images with a lwz min code size of 8. Small images with few colors can have a smaller min code size.

  Parameters:

  - filename: file name of image (required).

Page methods

This section describes the methods that can be used by a PDF::Create::Page object.

In its current form, this class is divided into two main parts, one for drawing (using PostScript like paths) and one for writing.

Some methods are not described here because they must not be called directly (e.g. new and add).

• new_page params

  Add a sub-page to the current page.

  See PDF::Create::new_page

• string font size x y text

  Add text to the current page using the font object at the given size and position. The point (x, y) is the bottom left corner of the rectangle containing the text.

  Example :

      my $f1 = $pdf->font('Subtype'  => 'Type1',
                          'Encoding' => 'WinAnsiEncoding',
                          'BaseFont' => 'Helvetica');
      $page->string($f1, 20, 306, 396, "some text");

• stringl font size x y text

  Same as string.

• stringr font size x y text

  Same as string but right aligned.

• stringc font size x y text

  Same as string but centered.

• printnl text font size x y

  Similar to string but parses the string for newline and prints each part on a separate line. Lines spacing is the same as the font-size. Returns the number of lines.

  Note the different parameter sequence. The first call should specify all parameters, font is the absolute minimum, a warning will be given for the missing y position and 800 will be assumed. All subsequent invocations can omit all but the string parameters.

• string_width font text

  Return the size of the text using the given font in default user space units. This does not contain the size of the font yet.

• line x1 y1 x2 y2

  Draw a line between (x1, y1) and (x2, y2).

• set_width w

  Set the width of subsequent lines to w points.

• setrgbcolor r g b

  Set the color of the subsequent drawing operations. R,G and B is a value between 0.0 and 1.0.

Low level drawing methods

• moveto x y

  Moves the current point to (x, y), omitting any connecting line segment.

• lineto x y

  Appends a straight line segment from the current point to (x, y). The current point is (x, y).

• curveto x1 y1 x2 y2 x3 y3

  Appends a Bezier curve to the path. The curve extends from the current point to (x3 ,y3) using (x1 ,y1) and (x2 ,y2) as the Bezier control points. The new current point is (x3 ,y3).

• rectangle x y w h

  Adds a rectangle to the current path.

• closepath

  Closes the current subpath by appending a straight line segment from the current point to the starting point of the subpath.

• newpath

  Ends the path without filling or stroking it.

• stroke

  Strokes the path.

  A typical usage is

    $page->newpath;
    $page->setrgbcolorstroke 0.1 0.3 0.8;
    $page->moveto 100 100;
    $page->lineto 200 100;
    $page->stroke;

• closestroke

  Closes and strokes the path.

• fill

  Fills the path using the non-zero winding number rule.

• fill2

  Fills the path using the even-odd rule

• image image_id xpos ypos xalign yalign xscale yscale rotate xskew yskew

  Inserts an image.

  Parameters can be:

  - image: Image id returned by PDF::image (required).

  - xpos, ypos: Position of image (required).

  - xalign, yalign: Alignment of image. 0 is left/bottom, 1 is centered and 2 is right, top.

  - xscale, yscale: Scaling of image. 1.0 is original size.

  - rotate: Rotation of image. 0 is no rotation, 2*pi is 360° rotation.

  - xskew, yskew: Skew of image.

SEE ALSO

PDF::Create::Page, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pdf/pdf_reference.html http://github.com/markusb/pdf-create

AUTHORS

Fabien Tassin (fta@sofaraway.org)

GIF and JPEG-support: Michael Gross (info@mdgrosse.net)

Maintenance since 2007: Markus Baertschi (markus@markus.org)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1999-2001, Fabien Tassin. All rights reserved. It may be used and modified freely, but I do request that this copyright notice remain attached to the file. You may modify this module as you wish, but if you redistribute a modified version, please attach a note listing the modifications you have made.

Copyright 2007-, Markus Baertschi