NAME

PDF::Create - create PDF files

DESCRIPTION

PDF::Create allows you to create PDF documents using a large number of primitives, and emit the result 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. More functionnalities will be added as needs arise.

Documents are constructed on the fly so the memory footprint is not tied to the size of the pages but only to their number.

It's main advantage over the other PDF modules is that it does not depend on other modules and is perl only (no compiler needed). If you want a quick and dirty way of creating pdf's, PDF::Create is for you. If you need a complete Framework to create complex PDF stuff, you better dive into the PDF::API2 based modules.

More information about this module is included in this package.

SYNOPSIS

use PDF::Create;

        my $pdf = new PDF::Create('filename' => 'mypdf.pdf',
                                  'Version'  => 1.2,
                                  'PageMode' => 'UseOutlines',
                                  'Author'   => 'Fabien Tassin',
                                  'Title'    => 'My title',
                             );
        my $root = $pdf->new_page('MediaBox' => [ 0, 0, 612, 792 ]);

        # 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');
        $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 Fabien Tassin <fta@oleane.net>');

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

INSTALLATION

Quick answer:

perl -MCPAN -e 'install PDF::Create'

Long answer:

To install manually, cd to the directory containing the unpacked distribution and do one of the following:

1. Create a makefile by running Makefile.PL using the perl program into whose library you want to install and then run make three times:

            perl Makefile.PL
            make
            make test
            make install

b. To install into a private library, for example your home

directory

            perl Makefile.PL INSTALLSITELIB=$HOME/lib INSTALLMAN3DIR=$HOME/man
            make
            make test
            make pure_install

AUTHORS

• Fabien Tassin

Original Author of PDF::Create

• Markus Baertschi, markus@markus.org

I have taken over maintenence of PDF::Create as Fabien has disappeared and did no longer maintain it in the last years. The last version of PDF::Create from Fabien is 0.06. All never versions have been modified by me.

I maintain PDF::Create in git. You can access the repository directly at http://github.com/markusb/pdf-create.