PHP to PDF Converter - TestMu AI (Formerly LambdaTest)

What Is a PHP to PDF Converter?

A PHP to PDF converter transforms PHP source code files into professionally formatted PDF documents. This is invaluable for code reviews, documentation, archiving source code, and printing PHP files with proper formatting, line numbers, and monospace fonts that preserve code indentation and structure.

Under the hood, the tool uses pdfmake, a client-side PDF generation library loaded via CDN. Everything runs entirely in your browser, so your PHP code never leaves your device. The code is rendered in Courier monospace font with line numbers on A4 pages, complete with margins and automatic page breaks.

It helps to separate the two things people mean by "PHP to PDF." The first is turning a PHP source file into a readable document — exactly what this converter does. The second is generating a PDF programmatically from inside a running PHP application, which is handled by server-side libraries such as TCPDF, Dompdf, and FPDF. This tool focuses on the first job; the section below explains the library-based approach for developers who need the second.

How to use the PHP to PDF Converter

Converting a PHP file to a clean PDF takes just a few seconds, and you can supply the code in whichever way suits you. Follow these steps.

• Paste Code: Copy your PHP code and paste it directly into the text area above.
• Upload File: Click the upload icon to select a .php file from your device.
• Load from URL: Click the URL icon and enter the link to a raw PHP file (e.g., from GitHub).
• Download PDF: Click "Download PDF" to generate and download a formatted PDF with line numbers and monospace font.

PDF Output Settings

The generated PDF is optimized for readability and printing:

Use cases of the PHP to PDF Converter

Turning PHP into a PDF is useful wherever code needs to leave the editor and live inside a shareable document. Below are the most common use cases.

• Code Reviews: Share formatted PHP code with team members for offline review and annotation.
• Documentation: Include properly formatted source code in technical documentation and reports.
• Archival: Create permanent, printable records of PHP source code with consistent formatting.
• Printing: Print PHP code with clean monospace formatting, line numbers, and proper page breaks.
• Education: Share PHP code examples in teaching materials, presentations, and coursework.
• Client Deliverables: Include source code in professional project deliverables.
• Privacy: Everything runs in your browser — code never leaves your device.

Features of the PHP to PDF Converter

As a tool built to make PHP code look right on the page, the converter offers several capabilities that keep the output clean and readable. The following are some of its features.

• Three Input Methods: Paste code directly, upload .php files, or load from a URL.
• Line Numbers: Every line is numbered for easy reference during reviews.
• Monospace Font: Courier font preserves code indentation and alignment perfectly.
• Automatic Page Breaks: Long files are split across pages cleanly.
• 100% Client-Side: No server required — all processing happens in your browser using pdfmake.
• Smart Filenames: The PDF filename matches your uploaded file name (or "phpcode.pdf" by default).

How to Convert PHP to PDF Programmatically (Using PHP Libraries)

The converter on this page renders existing PHP source code as a document. If instead you want your PHP application to generate a PDF on the fly — an invoice, a report, a shipping label — you do that in server-side code with a dedicated library. The most widely used open-source options are below.

For most projects that already have an HTML template, Dompdf is the quickest start. After installing it with Composer (composer require dompdf/dompdf), a working example is only a few lines.

<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use Dompdf\Dompdf;

$dompdf = new Dompdf();
$dompdf->loadHtml('<h1>Invoice #1024</h1><p>Total: $250.00</p>');
$dompdf->render();
$dompdf->stream('invoice.pdf');

TCPDF and FPDF instead draw the page cell by cell, which gives you precise positioning for barcodes and signatures at the cost of more code. Whichever you pick, the PDF is produced on your server — unlike this browser-based tool, which never uploads your code. To turn source files from other languages into PDFs, see our Code to PDF Converter.

Exporting PHP Code with Syntax Highlighting

Syntax highlighting is the color-coding that editors apply to code so that keywords, variables, strings, and comments each stand out. When you export PHP for a code review or documentation, highlighting makes the logic far easier to follow than a flat wall of text.

To keep everything running privately in your browser, this converter exports clean monospace output: indentation, alignment, and line numbers are preserved exactly, so the structure of your code stays readable even though individual tokens are not colored. That makes it ideal for faithful, printable records of your source.

If you specifically need colored tokens in the final PDF, generate the highlighted markup first with a library such as Prism.js or Highlight.js, then feed that styled HTML into an HTML-to-PDF library like Dompdf or mPDF. To simply clean up and re-indent messy PHP before exporting, our PHP Beautifier is a useful first step.

Why Did I Download a .php File Instead of a PDF? (How to Fix)

A common frustration is clicking a "download PDF" link on a website — for an invoice or a report — and receiving a file like invoice.php that will not open. This is not your fault, and the file is usually fine; the server just sent it with the wrong label.

When a PHP script is meant to output a PDF, it has to announce the correct MIME type by sending a Content-Type header of application/pdf before any output. If that header is missing or misconfigured, the browser treats the response as the raw PHP file and downloads it verbatim.

Quick fix (as a user): in most cases you can simply rename the downloaded file, changing its extension from .php to .pdf, and it will open normally in any PDF reader.

Proper fix (as the developer): set the headers before streaming the file, for example:

<?php
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename="invoice.pdf"');
readfile('invoice.pdf');