PDF Transform is a Craft CMS plugin that transforms a PDF stored in Assets, to an image. This can then be output via Twig in to a template.
A use case for this is to show the preview of a PDF before a user downloads that particular file.
- Transform PDF's to images via Twig (The file needs to be an existing Asset element)
- PDF's are transformed to an image when PDF's are uploaded via Assets or Asset fields.
- Transformed PDF images are indexed and available in Assets like all other asset elements.
- Install with Composer via
composer require bymayo/pdf-transformfrom your project directory - Enable / Install the plugin in the Craft Control Panel under
Settings > Plugins - Customise the plugin settings, especially the
Image Volumeoption.
You can also install the plugin via the Plugin Store in the Craft Admin CP by searching for PDF Transform.
- Craft CMS 3.x
- Imagick / Ghostscript
| Setting | Default | Description |
| Page Number | 1 | Set with page should in the PDF should be converted to an image. |
| Image Volume | null | Choose where converted images should be stored. |
| Image Resolution | 72 | Set the resolution of the converted image. |
| Image Format | jpg | Set the file format of the converted image. |
| Image Quality | 100 | Set the image quality of the converted image. |
To transform a PDF to an image, and then output the URL use the following Twig tag:
{% set asset = entry.pdfAsset.one() %}
{{ craft.pdfTransform.url(asset) }}
If the transformed image doesn't exist then the PDF will be transformed via the template. This may cause the template/page to become slow whilst the PDF is transformed.
Be aware that this also may output a large image, so we'd recommend running this through an image transform. See Dimensions.
The plugin runs PDFs through a PDF library called pdf-to-image. They have known issues with Imagick where transforms may fail if Ghost Script isn't accessible through Imagick (Very easily resolvable)
Read more about this issue - https://github.com/spatie/pdf-to-image#issues-regarding-ghostscript.
PDF Transform does the basic job of converting your PDF to a single image. It will never be it's role to set width and height dimensions (Other than Image Resolution).
I'd recommend running the PDF image through one of the following options/plugins and setting the dimensions that way (Some of these also handle caching the image as well)
Currently the plugin has only been tested with local assets, not assets through Amazon S3 etc. It may, or may not work with remote assets.
If you have any issues (Surely not!) then I'll aim to reply to these as soon as possible. If it's a site-breaking-oh-no-what-has-happened moment, then hit me up on the Craft CMS Slack - @bymayo
- Output asset element, not just the URL so that all Asset methods are available.
- Optional variables (E.g. page, resolution etc)
- Test and support remote assets.
- When PDF assets are updated, ensure old transformed image is removed.