NAME
CtrlO::PDF - high level PDF creator
SYNOPSIS
use CtrlO::PDF;
use Text::Lorem;
my $pdf = CtrlO::PDF->new(
logo => "sample/logo.png", # optional
logo_scaling => 0.5, # Default
width => 595, # Default (A4, portrait mode)
height => 842, # Default (A4, portrait mode)
orientation => "portrait", # Default
margin => 40, # Default, all 4 sides
top_padding => 0, # Default
header => "My PDF document header", # optional
footer => "My PDF document footer", # optional
PDFlib => "API2", # Default is Builder
);
# width, height page dimensions in points (default A4 paper)
# orientation defaults to portrait (taller than wide)
# margin in points on all four sides
# top padding below header in points
# header, footer text line to place at top or bottom
# PDFlib actually checked only for '[aA]' or '[bB]', permitting a wide
# range of formats to specify the PDF support library
# Add a page
$pdf->add_page;
# Add headings
$pdf->heading('This is the main heading');
$pdf->heading('This is a sub-heading', size => 12);
# Add paragraph text
my $lorem = Text::Lorem->new();
my $paras = $lorem->paragraphs(30);
$pdf->text($paras);
# Add a table
my $data =[
['Fruit', 'Quantity'], # Table header
['Apples', 120],
['Pears', 90],
['Oranges', 30],
];
my $hdr_props = {
repeat => 1,
justify => 'center',
font_size => 8,
};
$pdf->table(
data => $data,
header_props => $hdr_props,
);
my $file = $pdf->content;
# output the file
open my $pdf_out, '>', 'out.pdf';
binmode $pdf_out;
print $pdf_out $file;
close $pdf_out;
DESCRIPTION
This module tries to make it easy to create PDFs by providing a high level interface to a number of existing PDF modules. It aims to "do the right thing" by default, allowing minimal coding to create long PDFs. It includes pagination, headings, paragraph text, images and tables. Although there are a number of other modules to create PDFs with a high-level interface, I found that these each lack certain features (e.g. image insertion, paragraph text). This module tries to include each of those features through another existing module. Also, it is built on either PDF::Builder or PDF::API2, and provides access to that object, so content can also be added directly using that, thereby providing any powerful features required.
METHODS
Returns the PDF::Builder
or PDF::API2
object used to create the PDF.
page
Returns the current PDF page.
add_page
Adds a PDF page and returns it.
Note that when a PDF page is added (either via this method or automatically) the is_new_page flag records that a new page is in use with no content. See that method for more details.
is_new_page
Whether the current page is new with no content. When the heading or text methods are called and this is true, additional top margin is added to account for the height of the text being added. Any other content manually added will not include this margin and will leave the internal new page flag as true.
clear_new_page
Manually clears the is_new_page flag.
orientation
Sets or returns the page orientation (portrait or landscape). The default is Portrait (taller than wide).
PDFlib
Sets or returns the PDF-building library in use. The choices are "PDF::Builder" and "PDF::API2" (case-insensitive). "PDF::Builder" is the default, indicating that PDF::Builder will be used unless it is not found, in which case PDF::API2 will be used. If neither is found, CtrlO::PDF will fail.
width
Sets or returns the width. Default is A4.
height
Sets or returns the height. Default is A4.
margin
Sets or returns the page margin. Default 40 pixels.
top_padding
Sets or returns the top padding (additional to the margin). Default 0.
header
Sets or returns the header text.
footer
Sets or returns the footer text. Page numbers are added automatically.
font
Sets or returns the font. This is based on PDF::Builder or PDF::API2 ttfont, which returns a TrueType or OpenType font object. By default it assumes the font is available in the exact path truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf
. A future version may make this more flexible.
fontbold
As font, but a bold font.
logo
The path to a logo to include in the top-right corner of every page (optional).
logo_scaling
The scaling of the logo. For best results a setting of 0.5 is recommended (the default).
logo_padding
The padding below the logo before the text. Defaults to 10 pixels.
y_position
Returns the current y position on the page. This value updates as the page is written to, and is the location that content will be positioned at the next write. Note that the value is measured from the bottom of the page.
set_y_position($pixels)
Sets the current Y position. See "y_position".
move_y_position($pixels)
Moves the current Y position, relative to its current value. Positive values will move the cursor up the page, negative values down. See "y_position".
heading($text, %options)
Add a heading. If called on a new page, will automatically move the cursor down to account for the heading's height (based on the assumption that one pixel equals one point). Options available are:
- size n
-
n
is the font size in points, default 16 - indent n
-
n
is the amount (in points) to indent the text, default 0 - topmargin n
-
n
is the amount (in points) of vertical skip for the margin above the heading, default 0 - bottommargin n
-
n
is the amount (in points) of vertical skip for the margin below the heading, default 10
text($text, %options)
Add paragraph text. This will automatically paginate. Options available are:
- size n
-
n
is the font size in points, default 10 - indent n
-
n
is the amount (in points) to indent the paragraph first line, default 0 - color name
-
name
is the string giving the text color, default 'black'
table(%options)
Add a table, based on PDF::Table. Options available are data
to pass in the data for the table; all other options are passed to the table method of PDF::Table.
image($file, %options)
Add an image. Options available are:
content
Return the PDF content.
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2018-2021 Ctrl O Ltd
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Perl Artistic License (PAL).
See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.