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Why the renderer matters
An HTML string is only the starting document. JavaScript can change the DOM, fetch data, render a chart, or populate a template after the initial markup loads. To include those changes, the PDF renderer must execute JavaScript and wait for the resulting page state before printing.
Dompdf accepts HTML through loadHtml(), but its official tutorial says it does not run JavaScript. It is therefore suitable when your document is already represented by static HTML and CSS, not when the desired output depends on browser scripts. mPDF likewise accepts an HTML string through WriteHTML(), but its manual recommends headless Chrome for modern CSS support or mirroring existing HTML pages. The choice is not simply PHP versus non-PHP: it is whether the rendering engine has the browser capabilities your document needs.
Choose an approach for your document
| Approach | JavaScript and CSS | Deployment and useful fit |
|---|---|---|
Headless Chrome with chrome-php/chrome |
Runs page JavaScript in a real browser engine and supports modern browser layout; you control when to print. | Self-hosted. Requires a compatible Chrome or Chromium executable alongside PHP. A good fit when the document depends on scripts or modern CSS. |
| Hosted Chrome service | Can render in a browser environment; available wait conditions and print controls depend on the service. | External service rather than a locally operated browser. ChromeHeadless.io documents a PHP client that accepts an HTML string through export() and offers PDF print options and wait conditions. |
| Dompdf | Does not execute JavaScript; mostly CSS 2.1-oriented. | PHP library. Consider it for deterministic HTML/CSS documents when a browser runtime is not needed. |
| mPDF | Accepts HTML strings, but is not a general browser JavaScript runtime. | PHP library useful for controlled document layouts and features such as pagination, headers, footers, barcodes, and tables of contents. |
| wkhtmltopdf | Uses Qt WebKit. Compatibility with a particular modern JavaScript application is not established universally; validate your page. | Headless command-line executable that PHP can invoke or feed HTML to. Choose it only after testing the required scripts and assets. |
The chrome-php/chrome documentation lists PHP 7.4–8.5 and Chrome/Chromium 65 or newer as requirements. Confirm the package version and browser binary available in your actual deployment before relying on those ranges. No universal speed, memory, or pixel-fidelity winner is established: results depend on document size, scripts, assets, fonts, browser version, and server limits.
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Render an HTML string with PHP and headless Chrome
1. Install the PHP client and browser
Install the chrome-php/chrome package with Composer and make a compatible Chrome or Chromium executable available to the PHP process. The executable must be runnable in the environment where the PHP job runs; a browser installed on your laptop is not automatically available to a web server, worker, or container.
composer require chrome-php/chromeDepending on your environment, Chrome may also require sandbox or shared-memory configuration. Do not disable browser security controls indiscriminately just to make a deployment start; use the browser and operating-system configuration appropriate to your isolated runtime.
2. Assemble complete HTML, including scripts and resolvable assets
Use a complete document string, not just a fragment, when the layout relies on a document head, styles, or script loading order. The example below includes an inline script that inserts content and sets an explicit readiness marker. Replace the sample body and script with your own document. External stylesheets, images, fonts, and scripts need URLs resolvable from the browser’s rendering context; relative paths need a meaningful base URL or should be made absolute.
3. Wait for rendering, then print
This PHP example opens a page, loads the HTML string, waits for the page load event and the application-specific marker, and saves a PDF. It also waits for the browser font set and already-started images before printing. Adapt the readiness marker to your own app: a page-load event alone does not prove that later data fetching, timers, or client-side rendering has finished.
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<?php
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
use HeadlessChromiumBrowserFactory;
$html = <<<'HTML'
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Rendered report</title>
<style>
body { font: 16px Arial, sans-serif; margin: 32px; }
h1 { color: #174ea6; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Monthly report</h1>
<div id="report">Preparing report…</div>
<script>
// Replace with your real rendering work. Set this only when it is done.
document.querySelector('#report').textContent = 'Report data is ready.';
window.__PDF_READY__ = true;
</script>
</body>
</html>
HTML;
$browser = (new BrowserFactory())->createBrowser();
try {
$page = $browser->createPage();
$page->setHtml($html);
// Wait for document loading, the app's explicit ready signal,
// fonts, and images that have already begun loading.
$page->evaluate('new Promise(resolve => {
const check = async () => {
if (document.readyState !== "complete" || window.__PDF_READY__ !== true) return false;
if (document.fonts && document.fonts.ready) await document.fonts.ready;
await Promise.all(Array.from(document.images, image => {
if (image.complete) return Promise.resolve();
return new Promise(done => {
image.addEventListener("load", done, { once: true });
image.addEventListener("error", done, { once: true });
});
}));
return true;
};
const poll = async () => {
if (await check()) resolve(true);
else setTimeout(poll, 50);
};
poll();
})')->waitForResponse();
$page->pdf([
'printBackground' => true,
'paperWidth' => 8.27,
'paperHeight' => 11.7,
])->saveToFile(__DIR__ . '/report.pdf');
} finally {
$browser->close();
}
The example uses A4-like paper dimensions in inches and prints backgrounds. Set those dimensions and print options to match the document you need. If you already have a page-specific promise or DOM marker for completion, wait for that instead of adding a fixed sleep. The image wait handles images already represented in the document; lazy images may require scrolling or another explicit loading step before printing. Fonts that fail to load can still leave the PDF with fallback typography.
Check the exact API signatures against the installed chrome-php/chrome version when upgrading the package. The library exposes browser-page control, JavaScript evaluation, and PDF creation, but method behavior and options are version-dependent. Keep the PHP request or background job alive until the print operation has completed, and close the browser in a finally block so failures do not leave Chromium processes running.
Make readiness and asset loading reliable
Use an application signal, not an arbitrary delay
A short sleep may work on a developer machine and fail under server load or when an API response is slow. Set a marker such as window.__PDF_READY__ = true only after the work that affects the output is complete. If the page fetches data, wait for the data and resulting DOM update. For a page you do not control, a documented network-idle condition can help, but long polling or analytics may prevent network idle indefinitely; an application-specific selector or state is usually more precise.
Resolve every resource from the renderer
A browser loading an HTML string has no automatic knowledge of the directory from which your PHP source came. Absolute asset URLs are simplest. If you use relative URLs, establish a base URL appropriate to the page and ensure the renderer can reach it. Hosted HTML-string rendering may expose a baseUrl or httpHost setting; use the provider’s documented configuration when relative links are necessary. Verify access to fonts, images, stylesheets, and scripts from the actual worker, not only from a browser on your workstation.
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Choose page layout intentionally
Use print CSS, page-break rules, paper dimensions, and margins for a multipage report. Inspect the PDF for clipped elements, unexpected blank pages, missing backgrounds, and content that crosses page boundaries. CSS that appears correct in a screen viewport may paginate differently in print mode. For a chart or other canvas, wait until its rendering code has finished before printing; the PDF captures the page state at print time.
Protect the renderer and the PHP service
Treat HTML as untrusted if any part comes from a user or external system. The mPDF manual specifically warns that mPDF is not meant to receive outside-user HTML/CSS without vetting and sanitization. Apply at least the same discipline to browser-based rendering: executing hostile scripts in a server-side browser creates a broader risk than laying out static markup.
- Sanitize and validate input before rendering; do not assume ordinary browser sanitization is sufficient for your threat model.
- Restrict outbound network access where possible, so supplied HTML cannot use the renderer to reach internal services.
- Control local-file access and do not expose credentials, cookies, or sensitive files to page scripts.
- Run rendering in an appropriately isolated process or container, with sensible time and resource limits.
- Handle failures and temporary files deliberately, and avoid returning raw browser diagnostics or secrets to an untrusted caller.
Common failures and practical fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript-generated content is missing | The renderer does not execute JavaScript, or printing began before scripts finished. | Use a browser engine; wait for the application’s completion signal before calling PDF. |
| PHP cannot start Chrome | The executable is missing, not executable by the PHP user, incompatible, or blocked by the runtime environment. | Check the browser installation and permissions from the same process/container that runs PHP; confirm PHP and Chrome versions meet the package requirements. |
| Images, fonts, or CSS are missing | Relative URLs have no useful base, the browser cannot reach the asset host, or a request fails. | Use resolvable URLs, check access from the renderer, and wait for required assets before printing. |
| PDF sometimes omits late content | Rendering depends on asynchronous requests, timers, or slow assets that were not included in the wait condition. | Wait for an explicit DOM marker or application promise; log readiness and asset failures in the rendering environment. |
| Layout differs from the browser preview | Print pagination, paper size, margins, missing print backgrounds, or font substitution changes the result. | Set paper and print options deliberately, add print CSS, and inspect the output under the same browser version used in production. |
| PDF generation hangs or consumes excessive resources | A page may have endless polling, an unending wait condition, large assets, or expensive scripts. | Set job-level limits, use a bounded readiness strategy, and test representative documents under deployment limits. |
Performance, reliability, and cost trade-offs
Self-hosted Chrome gives you control over browser versions, page timing, and infrastructure, but you also operate the browser process and its isolation, updates, and resource limits. A hosted browser API removes some local browser operations but introduces an external service dependency and requires you to account for that service’s configuration and costs. PHP-only renderers can be simpler for static templates, but they cannot satisfy a requirement for browser JavaScript execution when the engine does not run scripts.
There is no sourced universal benchmark for startup latency, throughput, or memory across these choices. Measure with representative HTML, scripts, images, and fonts in the deployment environment. For reliability, record whether each stage succeeded—page creation, resource loading, readiness, and PDF writing—and make retries bounded so a permanently broken page does not consume a worker indefinitely.
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Or skip the browser setup
If what you need is a screenshot or PDF of a reachable website URL—not conversion of an arbitrary PHP HTML string—ScreenshotNeo offers a one-request API. Its URL-based API is a different input workflow from passing your in-memory HTML string to a browser. Use the local Chrome method above when the HTML string itself is the document to render.
The following cURL example saves a WebP screenshot of a URL. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for the available request and output options.
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- Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits cost nothing; response headers identify the page verdict and whether the request was billed.
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