40.4. Working with Pages

40.4.1. Page Creation

The pages in a PDF document are represented as Zend_Pdf_Page instances in Zend_Pdf.

PDF pages either are loaded from an existing PDF or created using the Zend_Pdf API.

New pages can be created by instantiating new Zend_Pdf_Page objects directly or by calling the Zend_Pdf::newPage() method, which returns a Zend_Pdf_Page object. Zend_Pdf::newPage() creates a page that is already attached to a document. Unattached pages can't be used with multiple PDF documents, but they are somewhat more performant. [5]

The Zend_Pdf::newPage() method and the Zend_Pdf_Page constructor take the same parameters specifying page size. They can take either the size of page ($x, $y) in points (1/72 inch) or a predefined constant representing a page type:

  • Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4

  • Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4_LANDSCAPE

  • Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_LETTER

  • Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_LETTER_LANDSCAPE

Document pages are stored in the $pages public attribute of the Zend_Pdf class. The attribute holds an array of Zend_Pdf_Page objects and completely defines the instances and order of pages. This array can be manipulated like any other PHP array:

Example 40.4. PDF document pages management

...
// Reverse page order
$pdf->pages = array_reverse($pdf->pages);
...
// Add new page
$pdf->pages[] = new Zend_Pdf_Page(Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4);
// Add new page
$pdf->pages[] = $pdf->newPage(Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4);

// Remove specified page.
unset($pdf->pages[$id]);

...

40.4.2. Page cloning

Existing PDF page can be cloned by creating new Zend_Pdf_Page object with existing page as a parameter:

Example 40.5. Cloning existing page

...
// Store template page in a separate variable
$template = $pdf->pages[$templatePageIndex];
...
// Add new page
$page1 = new Zend_Pdf_Page($template);
$pdf->pages[] = $page1;
...

// Add another page
$page2 = new Zend_Pdf_Page($template);
$pdf->pages[] = $page2;
...

// Remove source template page from the documents.
unset($pdf->pages[$templatePageIndex]);

...

It's useful if you need several pages to be created using one template.

[Caution] Caution

Important! Cloned page shares some PDF resources with a template page, so it can be used only within the same document as a template page. Modified document can be saved as new one.



[5] It's a limitation of current Zend Framework version. It will be eliminated in future versions. But unattached pages will always give better (more optimal) result for sharing pages between documents.