Migrate from mPDF

This guide helps you migrate from mPDF (mpdf/mpdf) to TCPDF-Next. mPDF is an HTML-to-PDF library with broad CSS support and features like CJK text, barcodes, and watermarks. TCPDF-Next offers a superset of mPDF's capabilities with modern standards compliance and zero runtime dependencies.

Feature Comparison

Feature	mPDF	TCPDF-Next
PHP version	7.4+	8.5+
PDF version	PDF 1.4 / 1.7	PDF 2.0
Architecture	HTML/CSS-centric	PDF-native with HTML support
Runtime dependencies	10+ Composer packages	Zero
Encryption	RC4, AES-128, AES-256	AES-256 only (PDF 2.0)
Digital signatures	Not supported	PAdES B-B through B-LTA
PDF/A	PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-3b (partial)	PDF/A-4 (full ISO 19005-4)
Tagged PDF	Limited	Full PDF/UA accessibility
CJK support	Yes (bundled 50+ MB fonts)	Yes (register your own, optimized subsetting)
RTL / BiDi	Yes	Yes (UAX #9 compliant)
Barcodes	Yes (1D and 2D)	Yes (native vector, expanded set)
Watermarks	Yes	Yes
TOC generation	Yes	Yes
Memory usage	High (full DOM in memory)	Moderate (streaming output)

mPDF-Specific Features and TCPDF-Next Equivalents

Custom HTML Tags

mPDF defines non-standard HTML tags. These require adaptation:

mPDF Custom Tag	TCPDF-Next Equivalent
<tocpagebreak>	$pdf->addTableOfContentsPage()
<tocentry content="..." level="0">	$toc->addEntry('...', level: 0)
<barcode code="..." type="C128">	$page->addBarcode(BarcodeFactory::code128('...'))
<columnbreak>	$renderer->columnBreak()
<pagebreak>	<div style="page-break-before: always"> (standard CSS)
<bookmark content="...">	$pdf->addBookmark('...')
<watermarktext content="DRAFT">	$pdf->setWatermark(Watermark::text('DRAFT'))
<watermarkimage src="...">	$pdf->setWatermark(Watermark::image('...'))

HTML Headers and Footers

mPDF (before):

$mpdf->SetHTMLHeader('<div style="text-align: center;">Header</div>');
$mpdf->SetHTMLFooter('<div>Page {PAGENO} of {nbpg}</div>');
$mpdf->SetHTMLHeader('<div>Even header</div>', 'E');

TCPDF-Next (after):

$pdf->setHtmlHeader('<div style="text-align: center;">Header</div>');
$pdf->setHtmlFooter('<div>Page {{pageNumber}} of {{totalPages}}</div>');
$pdf->setHtmlHeader('<div>Even header</div>', pages: 'even');

WriteHTML Modes

mPDF (before):

$mpdf->WriteHTML($css, \Mpdf\HTMLParserMode::HEADER_CSS);
$mpdf->WriteHTML($body, \Mpdf\HTMLParserMode::HTML_BODY);

TCPDF-Next (after):

$renderer = new HtmlRenderer($pdf);
$renderer->addStylesheet($css);
$renderer->writeHtml($body);

Watermarks

mPDF (before):

$mpdf->SetWatermarkText('DRAFT', 0.1);
$mpdf->showWatermarkText = true;

TCPDF-Next (after):

$pdf->setWatermark(
    Watermark::text('DRAFT')
        ->setOpacity(0.1)
        ->setRotation(45)
        ->setColor(Color::rgb(200, 200, 200))
);

Configuration Mapping

mPDF Config	TCPDF-Next Equivalent
mode => 'utf-8'	Always UTF-8 (no config needed)
format => 'A4'	setPageFormat(PageFormat::A4)
margin_left/right/top/bottom	setMargins(new Margins(...))
default_font	$renderer->setDefaultFont(...)
tempDir	PdfDocument::create()->setTempDir(...)
autoScriptToLang	$renderer->setAutoFontDetection(true)
biDirectional	Always enabled (UAX #9)
pdfaAuto	setPdfALevel(PdfALevel::PDF_A_4)

Output Methods

mPDF (before):

$mpdf->Output('/path/to/file.pdf', \Mpdf\Output\Destination::FILE);
$mpdf->Output('doc.pdf', \Mpdf\Output\Destination::DOWNLOAD);
$mpdf->Output('doc.pdf', \Mpdf\Output\Destination::INLINE);
$content = $mpdf->Output('', \Mpdf\Output\Destination::STRING_RETURN);

TCPDF-Next (after):

$pdf->save('/path/to/file.pdf');
$bytes = $pdf->toString();

// Web response (Laravel example)
return response($pdf->toString(), 200, [
    'Content-Type' => 'application/pdf',
    'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="doc.pdf"',
]);

Dependency Reduction

Migrating from mPDF dramatically simplifies your dependency tree:

Removed (mPDF + transitive):

• mpdf/mpdf + 10+ transitive packages
• psr/log, psr/http-message, setasign/fpdi, mpdf/qrcode

Added:

• yeee-fang/tcpdf-next (zero runtime dependencies)

Performance Comparison

Metric	mPDF	TCPDF-Next	Improvement
Simple 1-page PDF	45.3 ms	8.2 ms	5.5x faster
100-page document	3,210 ms	845 ms	3.8x faster
Peak memory (1 page)	18.4 MB	4.2 MB	4.4x less
Peak memory (100 pages)	198.2 MB	28.6 MB	6.9x less
Output file size (1 page)	24.3 KB	12.4 KB	2.0x smaller

See Performance Benchmarks for full methodology and test cases.

Further Reading

• API Mapping Table — Comprehensive method mapping
• Benchmarks — Full performance comparison with mPDF
• API Reference — Full TCPDF-Next API documentation
• FAQ — Common migration questions