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@nicolaasuni@mastodon.social

2026-06-28 13:40 UTC

25 years ago I needed to print an invoice in PHP. So I wrote TCPDF. 109M+ Composer installs. It landed inside Moodle, PrestaShop, Matomo and hundreds more. I once even found its PDFs on NASA's servers. Still a bit surreal. TCPDF has now reached the end of the road. Its successor is tc-lib-pdf: modular, strictly typed, PHP 8.2+, with proper PDF/A, a real CSS engine, CMYK/prepress and signed PDFs. Full story: https://tecnick.com/articles/tcpdf/ #PHP #PDF #OpenSource #TCPDF #tc-lib-pdf

Replies (4)

  • @steinkel@phpc.social 2026-06-28 16:12

    @nicolaasuni@mastodon.social thank you for writing this detailed article. I've used tcpdf along with others mainly from https://github.com/FriendsOfCake/CakePdf I don't remember how long ago (very long ago). I remember picking engines based on the features needed, sometimes more than 1 engine in the same project. Tc-lib-pdf looks like the right step forward.

    Open ##3451319

  • @nicolaasuni@mastodon.social 2026-06-28 13:43

    For the curious: ๐ŸŒ Project home: https://tcpdf.org ๐Ÿ“ฆ tc-lib-pdf source: https://github.com/tecnickcom/tc-lib-pdf

    Open ##3576915

  • @webvision@mastodon.social 2026-06-28 17:15

    @nicolaasuni@mastodon.social how about, if TCPDF would join also the initiate for get open-source work recognised as volunteering for the common good here: https://www.ehrenamt-opensource.de/en/ Would be really awesome ๐Ÿงก ๐Ÿ™

    Open ##3576918

  • @ravetracer_22@phpc.social 2026-07-20 09:41

    @nicolaasuni@mastodon.social I can't really remember when I've used TCPDF for the first time. But I think it was at a new job around 2008/2009 where I had to create PDF contracts which were sent via Mail and had to be small. And this library was my go-to one ever since. I have to thank you a lot for your work and maintenance of TCPDF. It means a lot to me and my carreer. I'm still using it nowadays, not that much as before but it's still in use. Have to update soon!

    Open ##3956247