PHP - Create a PDF Trimbox

Question

I'm using FPDF to create PDF files. But I need the file to have trimbox settings. How to do that.

The trimbox needs to be 210mm x 297mm and the file has cropmarks of 7mm so the actual size of the file is bigger... 214mm x 311mm

I found PDFLib but there is no budget to buy this server-side software.

What have you tried? What is your specific programming problem with FPDF? Stackoverflow is not a croudsourcing service for finding libraries. — Blackbam, Nov 29 '18 at 14:19

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 30 '18 at 04:45

There appear to be two tools for doing this:

Briss (as described in this stackoverflow post): PHP Insert Trim box or bleed box into PDF document

pdfboxer by nicknux (as described in this stackoverflow post): Ghostscript: adding BleedBox

Hope one of these two helps.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 02 '18 at 16:46

if you wish to stay the full php code route, you could use this derivate of FPDF: TCPDF by Nicola Asuni

he supports setting the page format and specifying values for trimbox, mediabox, cropbox, bleedbox and artbox as evidenced in some of his examples. The following code is one of his examples and shows it in action.

even though its github repository says TCPDF should be considered obsolete, the successor's repository tc-lib-pdf says to not use it yet because it still being under development, so for now it's probably a safer bet to use the old one and keep tabs on the new one for any developments.

<?php
//============================================================+
// File name   : example_060.php
// Begin       : 2010-05-17
// Last Update : 2013-05-14
//
// Description : Example 060 for TCPDF class
//               Advanced page settings.
//
// Author: Nicola Asuni
//
// (c) Copyright:
//               Nicola Asuni
//               Tecnick.com LTD
//               www.tecnick.com
//               info@tecnick.com
//============================================================+

/**
* Creates an example PDF TEST document using TCPDF
* @package com.tecnick.tcpdf
* @abstract TCPDF - Example: Advanced page settings.
* @author Nicola Asuni
* @since 2010-05-17
*/

// Include the main TCPDF library (search for installation path).
require_once('tcpdf_include.php');

// create new PDF document
$pdf = new TCPDF(PDF_PAGE_ORIENTATION, PDF_UNIT, PDF_PAGE_FORMAT, true, 'UTF-8', false);

// set document information
$pdf->SetCreator(PDF_CREATOR);
$pdf->SetAuthor('Nicola Asuni');
$pdf->SetTitle('TCPDF Example 060');
$pdf->SetSubject('TCPDF Tutorial');
$pdf->SetKeywords('TCPDF, PDF, example, test, guide');

// set default header data
$pdf->SetHeaderData(PDF_HEADER_LOGO, PDF_HEADER_LOGO_WIDTH, PDF_HEADER_TITLE.' 060', PDF_HEADER_STRING);

// set header and footer fonts
$pdf->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
$pdf->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));

// set default monospaced font
$pdf->SetDefaultMonospacedFont(PDF_FONT_MONOSPACED);

// set margins
$pdf->SetMargins(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
$pdf->SetHeaderMargin(PDF_MARGIN_HEADER);
$pdf->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);

// set auto page breaks
$pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);

// set image scale factor
$pdf->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);

// set some language-dependent strings (optional)
if (@file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php')) {
    require_once(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php');
    $pdf->setLanguageArray($l);
}

// set font
$pdf->SetFont('helvetica', '', 20);

// ---------------------------------------------------------

// set page format (read source code documentation for further information)
$page_format = array(
    'MediaBox' => array ('llx' => 0, 'lly' => 0, 'urx' => 210, 'ury' => 297),
    'CropBox' => array ('llx' => 0, 'lly' => 0, 'urx' => 210, 'ury' => 297),
    'BleedBox' => array ('llx' => 5, 'lly' => 5, 'urx' => 205, 'ury' => 292),
    'TrimBox' => array ('llx' => 10, 'lly' => 10, 'urx' => 200, 'ury' => 287),
    'ArtBox' => array ('llx' => 15, 'lly' => 15, 'urx' => 195, 'ury' => 282),
    'Dur' => 3,
    'trans' => array(
        'D' => 1.5,
        'S' => 'Split',
        'Dm' => 'V',
        'M' => 'O'
     ),
    'Rotate' => 90,
    'PZ' => 1,
);

// Check the example n. 29 for viewer preferences

// add first page ---
$pdf->AddPage('P', $page_format, false, false);
$pdf->Cell(0, 12, 'First Page', 1, 1, 'C');

// add second page ---
$page_format['Rotate'] = 270;
$pdf->AddPage('P', $page_format, false, false);
$pdf->Cell(0, 12, 'Second Page', 1, 1, 'C');

// ---------------------------------------------------------

//Close and output PDF document
$pdf->Output('example_060.pdf', 'I');

//============================================================+
// END OF FILE
//============================================================+

PHP - Create a PDF Trimbox

2 Answers2