In yii2, we can generate pdf using yii2-mpdf (kartik).
So, in this tutorial i will show you how to generate a pdf included with text, image, and link.

Let’s start the tutorial :

INSTALL

1) Install kartik-mdpf by composer :

composer require kartik-v/yii2-mpdf "dev-master"

Problem

– If you get message ‘Token (hidden)’, you must create an account in github.com to get that token.
a) After create an account, then open the link https://github.com/settings/tokens
b) Clik ‘Generate new token’
c) Create a token with the following :
d) After that, it will create a token:
e) Now, we can include the tokens in the composer, copy the script below to the command prompt:
[php]composer self-update[/php] [php]composer config -g github-oauth.github.com 23b8a7809e368788c4268b599ddaf486b2f764ef[/php] f) Install again kartik-mpdf

HOW TO USE

3) Now, create file MpdfController.php inside fronted/controllers/ and copy script below :

<?php
namespace frontend\controllers;

use Yii;
use yii\web\Controller;
use kartik\mpdf\Pdf;
use yii\helpers\Url;

class MpdfController extends Controller
{
	public function actionReport() {

		// get your HTML raw content without any layouts or scripts
		$content = "
			<b style='color:red'>bold</b>
			<img src='".Url::to('@web/img/ava.gif', true)."'/>
			<a href='http://latcoding.com'>Latcoding.com</a>
			";
		
		// setup kartik\mpdf\Pdf component
		$pdf = new Pdf([
			// set to use core fonts only
			'mode' => Pdf::MODE_CORE, 
			// A4 paper format
			'format' => Pdf::FORMAT_A4, 
			// portrait orientation
			'orientation' => Pdf::ORIENT_PORTRAIT, 
			// stream to browser inline
			'destination' => Pdf::DEST_BROWSER, 
			// your html content input
			'content' => $content,  
			// format content from your own css file if needed or use the
			// enhanced bootstrap css built by Krajee for mPDF formatting 
			'cssFile' => '@vendor/kartik-v/yii2-mpdf/assets/kv-mpdf-bootstrap.min.css', 
			 // call mPDF methods on the fly
			'methods' => [ 
				'SetHeader'=>['THIS IS REPORT'], 
				'SetFooter'=>['{PAGENO}'],
			]
		]);

		// http response
		$response = Yii::$app->response;
		$response->format = \yii\web\Response::FORMAT_RAW;
		$headers = Yii::$app->response->headers;
		$headers->add('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');

		// return the pdf output as per the destination setting
		return $pdf->render(); 
	}
}

– Line 6, we must put kartik\mpdf\Pdf to call the class of PDF.
– Line 14, we can put (HTML and CSS) to making the content.
** To include an image, you have to put your image in frontend/web/img/
– Line 21 is configuration of mpdf. You can set format of letter, orientation, header, page number and etc.
– Line 43 is response header. It is used so that the pdf file can be downloaded.
– Line 49 is output your pdf.

4) The last, test your pdf. Open :

http://localhost/yii2advanced/frontend/web/index.php?r=mpdf/report

After you open that url, it will be downloaded an pdf :

This contain :