Dynamic Web Solutions

Joomla has a convenient and useful function to output articles to pdf format. However, the resulting document lacks branding beyond just the title of your Joomla site.

This hack allows you to add an image and a subtitle to your Joomla pdf documents. (This is designed for Joomla 1.5)

Note: This has only been tested with .png images other file types may work.

The first step is to upload the image you would like to use in your header to the libraries/tcpdf/images folder via ftp.

Then you will need to edit the file:
libraries/joomla/document/pdf/pdf.php

On line 213 you will edit the function:
$pdf->setHeaderData(”,0,$this->getTitle(), $this->getHeader());

The first parameter is the image you are using.
Change this to /imagename.png
The / is important you will get an error without it.

The second parameter is the width of the image in milimeters. There is no consistent size to use here, but a good maximum would be 40.

The third parameter is the string which generates the article title. Do not change this it is the most important parameter that Joomla uses by default.

The fourth parameter is the subheader, this is a useful place to put a copyright or just the name of your organization.

The resulting change on line 213 should look something like this.

$pdf->setHeaderData(‘/imagename.png’,30,$this->getTitle(), ‘YourCompany’sName’);

Hopefully this helps you better brand your Joomla site.