How To Install php-tcpdf on Ubuntu 20.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install php-tcpdf on Ubuntu 20.04. php-tcpdf is PHP class for generating PDF files on-the-fly

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install php-tcpdf on Ubuntu 20.04.

What is php-tcpdf

php-tcpdf is:

TCPDF is a library to generate PDF files that does not require external extensions. It also includes a class to extract data from existing PDF documents and classes to generate 1D and 2D barcodes in various formats.

TCPDF has been originally derived from the Public Domain FPDF class by Olivier Plathey (https://www.fpdf.org).

Its main features are:

  • an extensive API to control the generated content and its layout (including using XHTML as input);
  • works without external libraries;
  • works with any language (UTF-8 and RTL support);
  • supports TrueTypeUnicode, TrueType, Type1 and CID-0 fonts;
  • supports all page formats (standardized and customized);
  • supports most PDF features:
    • encryption and digital signatures
    • compression
    • bookmarks
    • javascript and forms support
    • PDF annotations, including links, text and file attachments
    • XOBject Templates (layers and object visibility, PDF/A-1b support)
  • supports barcode generation (multiple formats);
  • automatic hyphenation and page break.

There are three methods to install php-tcpdf on Ubuntu 20.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install php-tcpdf Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install php-tcpdf using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install php-tcpdf

Install php-tcpdf Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install php-tcpdf using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install php-tcpdf

Install php-tcpdf Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install php-tcpdf using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install php-tcpdf

How To Uninstall php-tcpdf on Ubuntu 20.04

To uninstall only the php-tcpdf package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove php-tcpdf

Uninstall php-tcpdf And Its Dependencies

To uninstall php-tcpdf and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 20.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove php-tcpdf

Remove php-tcpdf Configurations and Data

To remove php-tcpdf configuration and data from Ubuntu 20.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge php-tcpdf

Remove php-tcpdf configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove php-tcpdf configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge php-tcpdf

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install php-tcpdf package on Ubuntu 20.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.