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.
It's a limitation of current ZF version. It will be eliminated in future versions.
But unattached pages will always give better (more optimal) result for sharing pages between documents.
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:
Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4
Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_A4_LANDSCAPE
Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_LETTER
Zend_Pdf_Page::SIZE_LETTER_LANDSCAPE
Document pages are stored in the $pages public attribute of the Zend_Pdf class.
The attribute holds an array of Zend_Pdf_Page objects and completely defines the instances and order of pages.
This array can be manipulated like any other PHP array:
PDF document pages management
pages = array_reverse($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[$id]);
...
]]>
Page cloning
Existing PDF page can be cloned by creating new Zend_Pdf_Page object with existing page as a parameter:
Cloning existing page
pages[$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.