TCPDF - How to make the printing faster? It is very very slow, 1320 records took 40 minutes

Question

Using Zend framework and TCPDF this is taking 40 minutes to print the Test.pdf. I having now no idea how to reduce this abnormal time to something normal?

set_time_limit(0);
$pdf = new TCPDF(PDF_PAGE_ORIENTATION, PDF_UNIT, PDF_PAGE_FORMAT, true, 'UTF-8', false);
$pdf->SetHeaderData(PDF_HEADER_LOGO, PDF_HEADER_LOGO_WIDTH, PDF_HEADER_TITLE, PDF_HEADER_STRING);
$pdf->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
$pdf->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));
$pdf->SetDefaultMonospacedFont(PDF_FONT_MONOSPACED);
$pdf->SetMargins(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
$pdf->SetHeaderMargin(PDF_MARGIN_HEADER);
$pdf->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);
$pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);
$pdf->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);
$pdf->setLanguageArray($l);
$pdf->setFontSubsetting(true);
$pdf->SetFont('dejavusans', '', 8, '', true);
$pdf->AddPage();
/* Database mysql gives the records and it is wrapped with <table> */
$html = "<table>1310 records.... with some simple <tr><td></td></tr></table>";
$pdf->writeHTMLCell($w=0, $h=0, $x='', $y='', $html, $border=0, $ln=1, $fill=0, $reseth=true, $align='', $autopadding=true);
$pdf->Output('Test.pdf', 'I');
exit;

Follow up: (tune the performance)

1) php.ini: memory_limit = 512M max_execution_time = 0

2) Codeing $pdf->setFontSubsetting(false); // true to false

3) Debug shows, following taking the whole time

$pdf->writeHTMLCell($w=0, $h=0, $x='', $y='', $html, $border=0, $ln=1, $fill=0, $reseth=true, $align='', $autopadding=true);

You should metric which part of your application takes how long, e.g. by profiling your code. Otherwise it's all guessing. — hakre, Nov 18 '11 at 18:17
Why are you assigning values to variables on that method call? (Method call that is taking a long time) — 93196.93, Nov 18 '11 at 20:40
In my experience I've found MPDF (http://www.mpdf1.com/mpdf/) much faster compared to TCPDF. Beware that TCPDF is LGPL whereas MPDF is GPL. — Peter Brooks, Nov 18 '11 at 21:56

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 20 '11 at 01:40

Since no other answers have been forthcoming, I would highly recommend a good look at MPDF (GPL) as it's much faster than TCPDF. I've had operations on one server that took approx three minutes using TCPDF being reduced to seconds with MPDF. I would only assume that some format of my HTML -> PDF was hitting some inefficient function in TCPDF.

Anyway I present the following code which helped me convert HTML -> PDF.

$mpdf = new mPDF('c');
$mpdf->setDisplayMode('fullpage');
$stylesheet = file_get_contents('css/core.css');
$mpdf->WriteHTML($stylesheet,1);
$html = "<table>1310 records.... with some simple <tr><td></td></tr></table>";
$mpdf->WriteHTML($html); 
$mpdf->Output(standardize(ampersand('filename', false)) . '.pdf', 'D');

This code provides a PDF outputted as a downloadable file, the MPDF documentation gives lots of other examples to suit your needs.

I could not reduce the time with TCPDF, it is a hell even not using WriteHTML simple Cell. MPDF made this fastest. — , Nov 20 '11 at 08:56
Thanks for the suggestion on switching from TCPDF to MPDF. Doing so reduced the PDF creation time on a certain doc from 240 seconds to 7 seconds. — user2166860, Mar 13 '13 at 18:34

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 26 '12 at 06:22

We use mpdf mainly because I can just "include" it with no installation. There was some minor tweak that needed to be added to php.ini, mbstring I think.

I was able to get 75 pages a minute up to 100 pages per minute by shrinking the HTML I was feeding the WriteHTML verb. We do not have any graphics.

Then I use ghostscript to sort and cat pdfs (15 or so pages) per person receiving them. That cat process takes about 3 minutes per 800-1000-pages for the 50 or 60 people receiving a report at one destination.

All this on a box mostly sitting there for nothing else.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 15 '18 at 13:59

1

One of the causes of the TCPDF slow performance could be images inserted from external URLs. DNS resolution and file downloading take time and slow down the PDF generation process.

answered Feb 15 '18 at 13:59

Jefferson Pugliese

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TCPDF - How to make the printing faster? It is very very slow, 1320 records took 40 minutes

3 Answers3