How to Generate PDF in Laravel (Using DomPDF)

Generating PDFs is one of those features almost every real-world Laravel application eventually needs — invoices, receipts, reports, certificates, you name it. The good news is Laravel makes this incredibly simple with the help of the DomPDF package.

In this tutorial, we'll walk through how to generate PDF files in Laravel 12 using the barryvdh/laravel-dompdf package, from installation to building a real, dynamic invoice example.

What We'll Cover

Installing DomPDF in Laravel 12
Generating a simple PDF from a Blade view
Passing dynamic data into your PDF
Downloading vs. streaming a PDF
Setting paper size and orientation

Prerequisites

A working Laravel application
PHP 8.1 or higher
Composer installed

If you don't have a Laravel project yet, create one with:

composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel-pdf-demo

cd laravel-pdf-demo

Step 1: Install the DomPDF Package

barryvdh/laravel-dompdf is a Laravel wrapper around the DomPDF library, which converts HTML and CSS into PDF documents. It's the most widely used package for this in the Laravel ecosystem, and it supports Laravel 9 through 12+.

Install it via Composer:

composer require barryvdh/laravel-dompdf

Step 2: Publish the Config (Optional)

If you want to customize defaults like paper size, fonts, or remote image loading, publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Barryvdh\DomPDF\ServiceProvider" --tag="config"

This creates config/dompdf.php, where you can tweak things like DPI, default font, and whether remote assets (images from URLs) are allowed.

Step 3: Create a Blade View for Your PDF

resources/views/pdf/sample.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge">
    <title>Document</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div style="display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; height: 100vh;">
        <a href="{{ url('/generate-pdf') }}"
        style="padding: 12px 24px; background-color: #007bff; color: white; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 5px; font-weight: bold;">
            Generate PDF
        </a>
    </div>
    
</body>
</html>

Step 4: Create the Controller

php artisan make:controller PDFController

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Barryvdh\DomPDF\Facade\Pdf;

class PDFController extends Controller
{
    public function generatePDF()
    {
        $data = [
            'title' => 'Laravel PDF',
            'date'  => now()->format('F j, Y'),
        ];

        $pdf = Pdf::loadView('sample', $data)
                    ->setPaper('a4', 'portrait')
                    ->setOptions([
                        'isHtml5ParserEnabled' => true,
                        'isPhpEnabled' => true,
                        'isRemoteEnabled' => true,
                        'dpi' => 115,
                        'defaultFont' => 'sans-serif',
                    ]);;

        return $pdf->download('sample.pdf');
    }
}

Download vs. Stream

You have two main options when returning a generated PDF:

// Force a download
return $pdf->download('sample.pdf');

// Display the PDF directly in the browser
return $pdf->stream('sample.pdf');

Step 5: Add a Route

In routes/web.php:

use App\Http\Controllers\PDFController;

Route::get('/generate-pdf', [PDFController::class, 'generatePDF']);

Step 6: Run your server

php artisan serve

http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Click the Generate PDF button

You can also visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/generate-pdf in your browser — it will automatically trigger a download of sample.pdf

http://127.0.0.1:8000/generate-pdf

Final PDF saved to: C:\Users\username\Downloads\sample.pdf

MWZ

Tutorials

Laravel