Programmer's Reference Guide
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Working with Pages
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. [1]
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:
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Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4
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Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4_LANDSCAPE
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Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_LETTER
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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 #1 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]); ...
Page cloning.
Existing PDF page can be cloned by creating new Zend_Pdf_Page object with existing page as a parameter:
Example #2 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.
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.
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