How to use mPDF for Chinese Language - php

Question

I am using mPDF to save form input data to PDF. For English, it is working fine. Anyone can use this code to save HTML Form data to PDF.
Issue: In order to fulfill my project requirement I need to use the Chinese Language. My current code is not working for that.
Form.html
<form action='processPDF.php' method='post'>
<label for="name">Name</label>
<input name="name" type="text" id="name">
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Download PDF'>
</form>
processPDF.php
<?php
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8');
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
if (isset($_POST['name'])) {
$name = $_POST['name'];
} else {
$Larmtid = '';
}
if (!isset($error)) {
ob_start();
?>
<div style="padding:20px;">
<p>Name: <?php
echo $name;
?></p>
</div>
<?php
$body = ob_get_clean();
$body = iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', $body);
$body = iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//TRANSLIT', $body);
include("mpdf/mpdf.php");
$mpdf = new \mPDF('c', 'A4', '', '', 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0);
$mpdf->SetAutoFont();
$mpdf->autoScriptToLang = true;
$mpdf->autoLangToFont = true;
$mpdf->WriteHTML($body);
$mpdf->Output('SavePDF.pdf', 'D');
}
}
?>
The problem I am having is: In the input field, I typed 怎么用中文说话 and it prints ��������.
If you want to download the source code here is the link to the code

Answer 1

Do not use 'c' as a $mode parameter, that means PDF core fonts only and they do not support chinese characters.
Try '+aCJK' or '-aCJK' instead.
See example – files using chinese font.

Answer 2

My Code is as follow [mpdf v7.0 from composer]
<?php
require_once './vendor/autoload.php';
//report errors
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set("display_errors", 1);
$config = [
'mode' => '+aCJK',
// "allowCJKoverflow" => true,
"autoScriptToLang" => true,
// "allow_charset_conversion" => false,
"autoLangToFont" => true,
];
$mpdf=new \Mpdf\Mpdf($config);
$mpdf->WriteHTML('Hello World 中文');
$mpdf->Output();
This code works fine, you can try it

Answer 3

// We can pass Language code in mpdf config using mode.
<?php
$config = [
'mode' => [LANGUAGE_CODE], // Example: zh-Hans, en, fr etc
];
$mpdf = new \Mpdf\Mpdf($config);

Answer 4

To display Chinese characters correctly, we need to download a fully Chinese support font and place it into a directory, for instance: /app/fonts/yahei.ttf
We can instance it using ConfigVariables and FontVariables:
use Mpdf\Config\ConfigVariables;
use Mpdf\Config\FontVariables;
// Get the default font dirs and append the custom path to it
$defaultConfig = (new ConfigVariables())->getDefaults();
$fontDirs = $defaultConfig['fontDir'];
$fontDirs[] = '/app/fonts/';
// Get the default font data and add the yahei font
$defaultFontConfig = (new FontVariables())->getDefaults();
$fontData = $defaultFontConfig['fontdata'];
$fontData['yahei'] = [
'R' => 'yahei.ttf'
];
$mpdf = new \Mpdf\Mpdf([
'mode' => '+aCJK',
'setAutoTopMargin' => 'stretch',
'setAutoBottomMargin' => 'stretch',
'default_font' => 'yahei',
"autoScriptToLang" => true,
"autoLangToFont" => true,
'fontDir' => $fontDirs,
'fontdata' => $fontData,
]);
Now you can display Chinese characters