PHP lays the page out and returns PDF bytes.

Install with Homebrew.

Tap first, then install. The formula’s homepage is the source repository.

1. brew tap dickwu/tap Copy
2. brew install dickwu/tap/html-pdf Copy
3. php -m | grep ironpress_php Copy

Copy install commands

The formula detects installed Homebrew PHP versions, builds a matching extension for each minor version, and writes $(brew --prefix)/etc/php/<php-minor>/conf.d/ext-ironpress_php.ini. On macOS the build produces a dylib; elsewhere it produces a shared library. Either file is installed as ironpress_php.so. Reinstall html-pdf after installing another Homebrew PHP version. Restart long-running PHP processes after install or upgrade.

Three tools in the extension.

Render a document, stamp a PDF you already have, or append pages. Each one is a separate API.

$pdf = ironpress_html_to_pdf('<h1>Hello</h1><p>World</p>');
file_put_contents(__DIR__ . '/hello.pdf', $pdf);

$converter = new Ironpress\HtmlConverter();
$converter->pageSize('letter');
$converter->landscape(true);
$converter->margin(36.0);
$converter->header('Report');
$converter->footer('Page {page} of {pages}');
$pdf = $converter->convert('<h1>Quarterly Report</h1>');

$stamper = new Ironpress\PdfStamper(file_get_contents('form.pdf'));
$stamper->pageCount();
$stamper->text(1, 59.0, 230.8, 'Doe');
$stamper->text(1, 127.0, 655.0, '2026-10-05', 9.0, 'Helvetica', 'center');
$stamper->check(1, 56.2, 146.2, 10.8);
$stamper->addFont('Signature', file_get_contents('Allura-Regular.ttf'));
$stamper->text(1, 236.9, 463.1, 'Jane Doe', 16.0, 'Signature');
file_put_contents('filled.pdf', $stamper->toPdf());
$stamper->reset();

$merger = new Ironpress\PdfMerger(ironpress_html_to_pdf($html));
$merger->maxPages(500);
$merger->maxInputBytes(50 << 20);
foreach ($attachments as $pdf) {
    try {
        $merger->append($pdf);
    } catch (Ironpress\EncryptedPdfException $e) {
        // password-protected, or owner-restricted
    } catch (Ironpress\InvalidPdfException $e) {
        // empty, not a PDF, corrupt, or no pages
    }
}
file_put_contents('out.pdf', $merger->toPdf());

Defaults that change the PDF.

Page size

HtmlConverter starts on A4. pageSize() accepts a4, letter, or legal. customPageSize() takes a width and height in points. landscape(true) swaps the sides when the height is greater than the width.

Header and footer

Both take a string. The README’s footer example is Page {page} of {pages}.

Sanitize

HTML sanitization is on. Call sanitize(false) only when the input is trusted.

Remote URLs

Remote resource loading is off unless you build with the remote feature: cargo build --release --features remote.

Table cells

Legacy table-cell metrics are on, matching ironpress-php 0.2.x: collapsed borders take no layout space, only a cell’s first-top and last-bottom child margins are kept, and tables get no default border-spacing. legacyTableCellMetrics(false) switches to Chromium-like cell metrics. The plain ironpress_* functions use the same default.

Merge limits

5000 pages, and 128 MiB per input. allowOwnerRestricted is off, so an owner-restricted PDF is rejected unless you opt in. Password-protected PDFs are rejected.

Fonts on the converter

addFont($name, $ttf) rejects an empty name, empty bytes, and a font over 50 MB. clearFonts() drops the ones already added.

Version

ironpress_version() returns the extension version string.

Build it into the current PHP.

Requirements for a source build: PHP 8.1+, php-config and the PHP development headers, a Rust toolchain, and Clang. cargo-php 0.2.1 installs the extension. The README also documents a manual cargo build --release and how to load the built library for tests.

1. cargo install cargo-php --version 0.2.1 --locked Copy
2. cargo php install --release --yes Copy
3. php -m | grep ironpress Copy

On macOS, if cargo-php fails to install because the PHP symbols are unresolved during linking, install it with PHP’s extension linker mode:

Add -n when a Homebrew build of the extension is already loaded from conf.d. Otherwise PHP warns that the module is loaded twice and keeps the installed one. The formula itself is in dickwu/homebrew-tap. Release v0.4.4 was published on October 26, 2026.

Questions