How to make PDF file downloadable in HTML link using PHP ?

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To Download PDF from HTML link using PHP with the help of header() function in php. The header()function is used to send a raw HTTP header. Sometimes it wants the user to be prompted to save the data such as generated PDF.

Syntax:

http response headers to download any application

header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");

http response headers to set composition and file to download

header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="downloaded.pdf"');

The length of the requested file need to download

header("Content-Length: " . filesize("download.pdf"));

Reads a file and writes it to the output buffer.

readfile('original.pdf');

Note: Remember that HTTP header() must be called before any actual output is sent, either by normal HTML tags, blank lines in a file or from PHP.

Example 1: Save below HTML file as htmllinkpdf.html and save PHP file as downloadpdf.php

Below example to illustrate concept of downloading PDF file using HTML link.
Here downloading file appears to be PDF format but without any content which shows error on opening in any application

HTML code:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  
<head> 
    <title>Download PDF using PHP from HTML Link</title> 
</head> 
  
<body> 
    <center> 
        <h2 style="color:green;">Welcome To GFG</h2> 
        <p><b>Click below to download PDF</b> 
        </p> 
        <a href="gfgpdf.php?file=gfgpdf">Download PDF Now</a></center> 
</body> 
  
</html> 

PHP code:

<?php 
  
$file = $_GET["file"] .".pdf"; 
  
// We will be outputting a PDF 
header('Content-Type: application/pdf'); 
  
// It will be called downloaded.pdf 
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="gfgpdf.pdf"'); 
  
$imagpdf = file_put_contents($image, file_get_contents($file));  
  
echo $imagepdf; 
?> 

Output:

Below example illustrates the concept of downloading PDF file locally (i.e. read gfgpdf.pdf file from local ) using HTML link.

Example 2: Save HTML file as htmllinkpdf.html and save PHP file as downloadpdf.php

HTML code:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  
<head> 
    <title>Download PDF using PHP from HTML Link</title> 
</head> 
  
<body> 
    <center> 
        <h2 style="color:green;">Welcome To GFG</h2> 
        <p><b>Click below to download PDF</b> 
        </p> 
        <a href="downloadpdf.php?file=gfgpdf">Download PDF Now</a> 
    </center> 
</body> 
  
</html> 

PHP code:

<?php 
  
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream"); 
  
$file = $_GET["file"]  . ".pdf"; 
  
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=" . urlencode($file));    
header("Content-Type: application/download"); 
header("Content-Description: File Transfer");             
header("Content-Length: " . filesize($file)); 
  
flush(); // This doesn't really matter. 
  
$fp = fopen($file, "r"); 
while (!feof($fp)) { 
    echo fread($fp, 65536); 
    flush(); // This is essential for large downloads 
}  
  
fclose($fp);  
?> 

Output:

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. You can learn PHP from the ground up by following this PHP Tutorial and PHP Examples.