How do I convert a PDF document to a preview image in PHP? [closed]
Asked Answered
M

10

221

What libraries, extensions etc. would be required to render a portion of a PDF document to an image file?

Most PHP PDF libraries that I have found center around creating PDF documents, but is there a simple way to render a document to an image format suitable for web use?

Our environment is a LAMP stack.

Mccafferty answered 22/1, 2009 at 1:47 Comment(2)
I would love to be able to do this and have the file have a .jpg extension. I tried the .htaccess AddHandler method and it didn't work.Complexity
Alternatives for Ubuntu: askubuntu.com/q/50170/238253Berber
P
251

You need ImageMagick and GhostScript

<?php
$im = new imagick('file.pdf[0]');
$im->setImageFormat('jpg');
header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');
echo $im;
?>

The [0] means page 1.

Pearce answered 22/1, 2009 at 1:57 Comment(17)
yes, it works. You can also do: $im->setResolution( 300, 300 ) for example to render your pdf at desire resolution.Sapwood
I haven't tried it, but if you're using google docs, and don't mind the iFrame, this suggestion might work (it's also a wp plugin) forrst.com/posts/PDF_thumbnails_with_Google_Docs-6G6Euboea
but how to include ImageMagick and GhostScript in php fileAhrendt
@LuisMelgratti Hmm, that setResolution thingy doesn't seem to work. I put it after the $im = new imagick('file.pdf[0]'); line from Paolo's example. Doesn't seem to do anything. What if I wanted an image from a PDF with a width of say, 1500, a height to scale, and a high resolution? How would I do that? Thanks.Christian
@think123 use $im->thumbnailImage(1500, 0); That will set your jpg image to a width of 1500 and retain scale. See documentationWelldisposed
How long will it take to build Imagick, I can't wait much, still its building... having cofee :DBreakneck
From my answer below - If you're loading the PDF from a blob this is how you get the first page instead of the last page: $im->readimageblob($blob); $im->setiteratorindex(0);Junitajunius
@LuisMelgratti will it work in windows 7??? Is it possible to install in win 7??Deliquesce
I tried it however it gave me: "error no decode delegate for this image format `\path\filename.pdf' @ error/constitute.c/ReadImage/532". I tried $exec = "convert -scale $width $source $dest";exec($exec); and it worked like a charm.Midwife
Did any of you felt this is slow ? I felt this very slow and wanted to use Ghostscript only which is more faster.. if any of you interested I wrote a wrapper for it github.com/imalhasaranga/PDFLibKatelyn
@Paolo Bergantino.i have tried your example but i am getting following error. Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'ImagickException' with message 'UnableToOpenBlob `file.pdf': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2657' in D:\xampp\htdocs\learn\index.php:39 Stack trace: #0 D:\xampp\htdocs\learn\index.php(39): Imagick->__construct('file.pdf') #1 {main} thrown in D:\xampp\htdocs\learn\index.php on line 39Fivespot
Can you help me on this ?Fivespot
Set the image format to JPG otherwise the image may not render correctly in PNG. Thank you very much ;)Selffulfillment
In case the Ghostscript link dies, here the Github page: github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl-downloads/releasesKalli
I used this but opted to have the server serialize/cache the resulting thumbnail. The next time the API is requested to provide a thumbnail, it checks if a cached thumbnail is available and provides that by unserializing the resulting image. It has made thumbnail retrieval using this method incredibly fast and I'm not even storing them in a database. Would probably be even faster if properly stored in a DB.Importation
"ImageMagick was not designed to securely handle untrusted PDF files. Enabling PDF file handling is dangerous if any malicious PDF files are ever processed." from serverpilot.io/docs/…Berber
How to store this image in variable that can be directly use in <img src=""/>Tibia
R
38

For those who don't have ImageMagick for whatever reason, GD functions will also work, in conjunction with GhostScript. Run the ghostscript command with exec() to convert a PDF to JPG, and manipulate the resulting file with imagecreatefromjpeg().

Run the ghostscript command:

exec('gs -dSAFER -dBATCH -sDEVICE=jpeg -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 -r300 -sOutputFile=whatever.jpg input.pdf')

To manipulate, create a new placeholder image, $newimage = imagecreatetruecolor(...), and bring in the current image. $image = imagecreatefromjpeg('whatever.jpg'), and then you can use imagecopyresampled() to change the size, or any number of other built-in, non-imagemagick commands

Reminiscence answered 7/3, 2011 at 15:10 Comment(4)
To just get a image of the first page, add the switches -dFirstPage=1 -dLastPage=1 to the command.Inshrine
If it's still not working, you might need to give the full path to the gs binary.Gladwin
This looks like it is running a system command. What if the user uploads a file named something;rm -rf /?Suburb
If i want all page of pdf to convert into image. then how to do?Northern
P
35

You can also get the page count using

$im->getNumberImages();

Then you can can create thumbs of all the pages using a loop, eg.

'file.pdf['.$x.']'
Propagation answered 24/1, 2009 at 8:25 Comment(2)
(This should actually be a comment on Paolo Bergantino's answer)Conclave
smart answer. not given by other but you notice and wrote.Cobbie
H
18

Use the php extension Imagick. To control the desired size of the raster output image, use the setResolution function

<?php    
$im = new Imagick();
$im->setResolution(300, 300);     //set the resolution of the resulting jpg
$im->readImage('file.pdf[0]');    //[0] for the first page
$im->setImageFormat('jpg');
header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');
echo $im;
?>

(Extension on Paolo Bergantino his answer and Luis Melgratti his comment. You need to set the resolution before loading the image.)

Heteromerous answered 17/11, 2014 at 18:57 Comment(0)
P
11

You can also try executing the 'convert' utility that comes with imagemagick.

exec("convert pdf_doc.pdf image.jpg");
echo 'image-0.jpg';
Publishing answered 22/1, 2009 at 1:47 Comment(4)
Instead of pdf_doc.pdf, pdf_doc.pdf[0] is preferred.Algebraist
convert is part of the package ImageMagick; try sudo yum install ImageMagickJenevajeni
If it's still not working, you might need to provide the full path to the convert binary.Gladwin
echo 'image-0.jpg'; returns a string.Jussive
J
11

If you're loading the PDF from a blob this is how you get the first page instead of the last page:

$im->readimageblob($blob);
$im->setiteratorindex(0);
Junitajunius answered 14/6, 2011 at 4:23 Comment(1)
(This should actually be a comment on Paolo Bergantino's answer)Conclave
K
5

I'm the author of PDFlib which is a GhostScript wrapper for php, advantage of using this library is, it is already tested and it does not require ImageMagic

Always GhostScript commands are faster than ImageMagic when it comes to pdf so you should either go for a GhostScript wrapper or pure GhostScript commands

$pdflib = new ImalH\PDFLib\PDFLib();
$pdflib->setPdfPath($pdf_file_path);
$pdflib->setOutputPath($folder_path_for_images);
$pdflib->convert();
Katelyn answered 22/8, 2017 at 3:3 Comment(3)
Hi, I am using your PDFlib to create PNG's from PDFs. $pdflib = new ImalH\PDFLib\PDFLib(); $pdflib->setPdfPath($pdf_file_path); $pdflib->setOutputPath($folder_path_for_images); $pdflib- >setImageFormat(\ImalH\PDFLib\PDFLib::$IMAGE_FORMAT_PNG); $pdflib->setDPI(100); $pdflib->setPageRange(1,$pdflib->getNumberOfPages()); $pdflib->convert(); Does PDFlib have an option to set the width and height of the created PNG files?Demurral
Hi, no PDFLib does not provide methods to manipulate images but you can do like this. once you generated the pngs using PDFLib you can use another Image manipulation libraray like github.com/Treinetic/ImageArtist to get your work done...Katelyn
I will give a try. Thanks for the suggestion.Demurral
E
5

Think differently, You can use the following library to convert pdf to image using javascript

http://usefulangle.com/post/24/pdf-to-jpeg-png-with-pdfjs

Emissivity answered 29/3, 2018 at 17:58 Comment(4)
If I want to display the preview image in server how can we use that?Forrester
You may want to take a look at this: github.com/scandel/pdfThumbnails. I think you can upload the image thumbnail generated here alongside the actual file and save it, this way you will save more computational time on your server (since the thumbnailing process were done in a client-side computer).Bakerman
And only receiving and allowing an image file is saver than using ImageMagick on untrusted PDFs.Berber
The only problem with this solution: The necessary pdf.min.js is 328 KB in size.Berber
W
3

I install finished! It's worked!

You may be do base install imagemagick on windows.

In php (local) use call exec(<command line>) ex:

<?php
$pdf = "filename.pdf";
$info = pathinfo($pdf);
$file_name =  basename($pdf,'.'.$info['extension']);
echo $file_name;
$pdf = "filename.pdf[0]";
exec("convert $pdf convert-img/$file_name.jpg");    
?>

Besides, you may be use class imagick in PHP Imagick class

Thanks all helped me!

Whoop answered 7/4, 2012 at 15:5 Comment(0)
D
1

Here is a simple class I've written and used on a couple of projects. It just wraps imagick and handles writing each page out to disk. If anyone is still looking for an easy way to do this, this link might be helpful.

Denazify answered 11/5, 2012 at 17:1 Comment(1)
Link-only answers are low value on StackOverflow because if the link moves or dies, the answer is rendered absolutely useless. To improve your answer, the bulk of your solution should be hardcoded here.Liechtenstein

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