Migration guides · PHP

Replace wkhtmltopdf with pdfkiln in phpwkhtmltopdf

mikehaertl/phpwkhtmltopdf builds wkhtmltopdf command lines from PHP arrays. It finds the program in the PATH, or in its binary option.

1. Install pdfkiln

On a Linux server, take the Debian package: it brings Chromium’s system libraries, and its fixes with apt upgrade.

curl -fsS https://apt.pdfkiln.org/pdfkiln-archive-keyring.asc | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/pdfkiln-archive-keyring.asc > /dev/null
printf 'Types: deb\nURIs: https://apt.pdfkiln.org\nSuites: stable\nComponents: main\nSigned-By: /usr/share/keyrings/pdfkiln-archive-keyring.asc\n' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pdfkiln.sources
sudo apt update && sudo apt install pdfkiln

On a development machine, or wherever the Debian package does not fit, the Composer package puts wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage in vendor/bin; the program is fetched on first use, SHA-256 checked:

composer require pdfkiln/pdfkiln

2. Point phpwkhtmltopdf at it

use mikehaertl\wkhtmlto\Pdf;
use mikehaertl\wkhtmlto\Image;

$pdf = new Pdf(['binary' => '/usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf']);
$image = new Image(['binary' => '/usr/bin/wkhtmltoimage']);

// With the Composer package
$pdf = new Pdf(['binary' => Pdfkiln\binary()]);

With the Debian package, /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf is in the PATH: the option can go.

3. Check

wkhtmltopdf --version
# wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6 (with patched qt), pdfkiln 1.0.4, Chromium 156.0.8078.80

The answer starts as wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6’s does: libraries that read the version keep working.