Laravel 8 How-To: Convert PDF Document to Image Tutorial

Laravel 8 convert pdf document to an image tutorial; with the help of this extensive guide, you will find out the profound technique on how to convert PDF to image in laravel 8 application using the PHP imagick extension.

The imagick PHP extension is free on top of that, an open-source, cross-platform library for showing, creating, transforming, edition images. It is a robust plugin that supports an extensive array of image file formats; generically, it is broadly used in open source web applications.

In this tutorial, we will share with you how to install PHP imagick extension and how to set it up in a PHP environment using the command line. For this laravel pdf to image tutorial, we will use this impeccable library to convert a PDF file to an image file in the Laravel app.

Laravel 8 Convert PDF to Image Example

Follow the recommended steps gradually to create the demo app:

• Step 1: Construct Laravel Project
• Step 2: Install PHP Imagick Extension
• Step 3: Generate and Configure Controller
• Step 4: Create Route
• Step 5: Try Out Laravel App

Construct Laravel Project

Make sure you have PHP and Composer already installed on your system, after which you can create a new laravel application:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel demo-app

Thereafter, get inside the newly created project:

Install PHP Imagick Extension

This tutorial’s foundational step is to install the PHP Imagick extension, head over to the terminal window, run the suggested command; it will install the imagick extension on the fly.

sudo apt install php-imagick

The recommended command helps in listing all the available versions via Ubuntu repositories:

sudo apt list php-magick -a

The -a tag commands to apt to list down all the package version:

php-imagick/bionic,now 3.4.3~rc2-2ubuntu4 amd64 [installed]

In the subsequent step, you require to restart the apache web server with offred command:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Here is another command which helps you confirms the module’s configuration:

php -m | grep imagick

If you are seeing the extension name on the console screen that means installation done as expected:

imagick

The other way to verify the module installation is to execute the phpinfo() method from the terminal window:

php -r 'phpinfo();' | grep imagick

You can check the given detials about the extention:

imagick
imagick module => enabled
imagick module version => 3.4.4
imagick classes => Imagick, ImagickDraw, ImagickPixel, ImagickPixelIterator, ImagickKernel
imagick.locale_fix => 0 => 0
imagick.progress_monitor => 0 => 0
imagick.set_single_thread => 1 => 1
imagick.shutdown_sleep_count => 10 => 10
imagick.skip_version_check => 1 => 1

On the other hand, the phpinfo() method can also give you access to the module information directly on a web browser:

Please make some update on given path:

/etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml

< policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PDF" / >

To convert:

< policy domain="coder" rights="read|write" pattern="PDF" / >

Generate and Configure Controller

Further, go to terminal use the php artisan command to generate or make a new controller:

php artisan make:controller ImageController

In response to the execution of the above command, a new controller file has generated; hence append the following code in the app/controllers/ImageController.php file:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Blade;
use Imagick;


class ImageController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        $imgExt = new Imagick();
        $imgExt->readImage(public_path('pdf-document.pdf'));
        $imgExt->writeImages('pdf_image_doc.jpg', true);

        dd("Document has been converted");
    }
}

Create Route

In this step, create a new route that will make the GET request in conjunction with the associated controller to convert pdf to image.

Hence open routes/web.php file import the controller on the top section, next define the Route and declare the Route’s name also pass the controller name inside of it.

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\ImageController;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Web Route
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/

Route::get('convert-pdf-to-image', [ImageController::class, 'index'])->name('form');

Start Laravel App

Subsequently, head over to console afterward run the command similarly run the laravel application:

php artisan serve

Here is the url for testing the laravel demo app:

http://localhost:8000/convert-pdf-to-image

Conclusion

Ultimately, the laravel pdf to image converter tutorial is over; in this comprehensive guide, we studied bit by bit how to convert pdf to image using the imagick open-source extension.