How to create TCPDF HTML table with variable row paddings

Question

I'm trying to create an HTML table in TCPDF, with few rows having grater space between rows (padding), and others having smaller padding.

$html = '<table border="0" cellpadding="6">
        <tr>
            <td style="width="52%">' . lang('ticket_name') . '</td>
            <td style="width="18%">' . lang('ticket_price') . '</td>
            <td style="width="12%">' . lang('quantity') . '</td>
            <td style="width="18%">' . lang('total') . '</td>
        </tr>
    <tr>
            <td style="padding: 10px">' . $item['name'] . '</td>
            <td style="padding: 10px">' . $item['unit_price'] . '</td>
            <td style="padding: 10px">' . $item['quantity'] . '</td>
            <td style="padding: 10px">' . $item['row_total'] . '</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td style="text-align:right" colspan="3">' . lang('price_basis') . ': </td>
            <td>' . $totals['total_before_tax'] . '</td>
        </tr>
            <tr>
            <td style="text-align:right" colspan="3">' . 'Ukupni popust' . ': </td>
            <td>' . $totals['total_discount'] . '</td>
        </tr>
            <tr>
            <td style="text-align:right" colspan="3">' . 'Sveukupno' . ': </td>
            <td>' . $totals['grand_total'] . '</td>
        </tr>
    </table>';
$pdf->writeHTML($html, $linebreak = true, $fill = false, $reseth = true, $cell = false, $align = '');

As you can see, I have a cellpadding attribute in the table tag, which is working fine, but I want to have a different padding in the second row. Padding style obviously isn't working on 'td' nor on 'tr' tags.

I know it can be done with two separate tables with different cellpaddings, but it seems pretty wrong. There must be another way.

Declamation

@Deadlock How could styling with CSS class work, when direct inline CSS isn't working? I tried putting style="padding:10px" both on <tr> and <td> and none of them worked. – Declamation

There is no problem in your code, maybe TCPDF doesn't support this... – Allegorical

Answer 1

TCPDF doesn't support all CSS attributes, for example TCPDF doesn't support padding and margin attributes. You can simulate paddings by inner table:

<tr>
 <td>
  <table><tr>
   <td style="width:10px;"></td>
   <td>' . $item['name'] . '</td>
   <td style="width:10px;"></td>
  </tr></table>
 </td>
</tr>

Or you can use different tables with different cellpadding for each row:

<table border="0" cellpadding="6">
 <tr>
  <td>' . lang('ticket_name') . '</td>
  <td>' . lang('ticket_price') . '</td>
  <td>' . lang('quantity') . '</td>
  <td>' . lang('total') . '</td>
 </tr>
</table>
<table border="0" cellpadding="5">
 <tr>
  <td>' . $item['name'] . '</td>
  <td>' . $item['unit_price'] . '</td>
  <td>' . $item['quantity'] . '</td>
  <td>' . $item['row_total'] . '</td>
 </tr>
</table>

Jugendstil

Answer 2

The other answer here provides for an all round padding however if you need padding at the top or bottom the solution is to use a transparent PNG with a set height/width.

private function padding($width,$height){
    return '<img src="/imagepath/images/transparent.png" width="'.$width.'" height="'.$height.'">'; 
}

Then in the TD which needs the padding:

$this->padding(82,11)

So you need a defined width on the table cell. This might also work for left/right padding too but havent tried it.

Daylong