How to calculate the height of a MultiCell/writeHTMLCell in TCPDF?

Question

I try to create a PDF with multiple pages and need to calculate the height of each individual element (MultiCell) in advance to prepare for a page break. According to the documentation there are a couple of functions out there like GetCharWidth/GetStringWidth to support me in doing it on my own, but besides a potential performance lost I probably will not do it the right anyway. Suggestions to achieve my goal in a more elegant way?

Reference: TCPDF

Answer 1

Go take a look at this post : http://www.onemoretake.com/2009/03/27/revisited-tcpdf-variable-height-table-rows-with-multicell/

Answer 2

From my experience, it is nearly impossible to figure out the cell height in advance. It is much easier to use the page break handling functions of TCPDF that sort of tells you in advance if you're heading into a pagebreak. Here is example code:

$yy = $this->pdf->GetY();

$check_pagebreak = $this->pdf->checkPageBreak($height+$padding,$yy,false);

Change false to true to allow for an automatic page break, otherwise, you can handle the logic of the pagebreak, yourself, which is what I ended up doing.

Also, in case you may need this, here's another little tip: Consider using the transaction features to create your document in two passes. The first pass is used to figure out all the heights and cells, pagebreaks, etc. You can also store all your lineheights and lines per page in arrays. ON the second pass, create your document with all the correct information and no need for pagebreak logic (the second pass could be run from a seperate method, for the sake of keeping the code easier to read, and for your sanity).

Answer 3

I GOT it :D!!!!!

Create another pdf2 object

pdf2 set x margin to pdf1's xmargin, but y margin to zero
pdf2->addpage
pdf2->writeCell
$height = pdf2->getY()
pdf2->deletePage(pdf2->getPage())
pdf1->checkPageBreak($height);
pdf1->writeCell()

W00tness :D