What are the limitations of editing existing PDF files with PHP, and are there alternative solutions?

Editing existing PDF files with PHP can be limited due to the complexity of the PDF file format and the lack of native PHP libraries for directly manipulating PDFs. One alternative solution is to use third-party libraries like TCPDF or FPDI, which allow for some level of PDF manipulation. Another option is to convert the PDF to another format like HTML, make the necessary changes, and then convert it back to PDF. 

// Example using TCPDF to edit an existing PDF file
require_once('tcpdf/tcpdf.php');

$pdf = new TCPDF();
$pdf->setSourceFile('existing_file.pdf');
$page = $pdf->importPage(1);
$pdf->AddPage();
$pdf->useTemplate($page);
$pdf->SetFont('helvetica', '', 12);
$pdf->Text(10, 10, 'Hello, World!');
$pdf->Output('edited_file.pdf', 'F');

Keywords

PDF editing limitations PHP alternative solutions libraries error types

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