1. What is TCPDF and why is it needed?

\n TCPDF (from English "Transparent Communication PDF") is a powerful and widely used library for the PHP language, designed for programmatically creating PDF documents. It is one of the oldest and most feature-rich libraries in its niche, providing developers with full control over the PDF generation process without the need for external tools or extensions (except for the standard GD extension for working with images).\n

\n Why is TCPDF needed? In modern web development, there is often a need to generate documents in PDF format on the fly: invoices, waybills, reports, certificates, contracts, e-books, and much more. TCPDF allows you to solve this problem by working on the server side. It supports all major PDF features, including fonts (TrueType, Type1, Unicode), images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, SVG), HTML content, tables, annotations, forms, bookmarks, encryption, and digital signatures. Thanks to Unicode support, the library works correctly with Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, and other languages.\n

\n The main advantage of TCPDF over alternatives (e.g., FPDF or Dompdf) is its rich functionality "out of the box" and excellent support for complex layouts. It can convert HTML to PDF with high accuracy, making it an ideal choice for generating documents based on ready-made templates. The library is actively maintained by the community, has detailed documentation, and a huge number of examples, which greatly simplifies the learning process and solving common tasks.\n

2. Installation

\n Installing TCPDF is easiest done through the dependency manager Composer. This is the recommended method, as it automatically includes the library and manages its versions.\n

Run the following command in the root of your project:

composer require tecnickcom/tcpdf

\n After running this command, a vendor folder will appear in your project, and a dependency entry will be added to the composer.json file. To use the library in a PHP script, you need to include the Composer autoloader:\n

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

\n If you are not using Composer, you can download the archive from GitHub and manually include the main library file:\n

require_once('/path/to/tcpdf/tcpdf.php');

However, the manual method is not recommended as it complicates updating the library.

3. Quick Start — Minimal Working Example

\n Let's create a simple PDF document that outputs the text "Hello, World!". This example demonstrates the basic lifecycle of working with TCPDF: creating an object, adding a page, outputting text, and saving the file.\n

<?php\n// Include the Composer autoloader\nrequire_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';\n\n// 1. Create a new PDF document\n// Parameters: orientation (P - portrait, L - landscape), unit of measure (mm), page format (A4)\n$pdf = new TCPDF('P', 'mm', 'A4', true, 'UTF-8', false);\n\n// 2. Remove default header and footer (for simplicity)\n$pdf->setPrintHeader(false);\n$pdf->setPrintFooter(false);\n\n// 3. Add a page\n$pdf->AddPage();\n\n// 4. Set the font\n$pdf->SetFont