README

A zero-dependency PHP library for generating, parsing and converting documents — PDF, HTML, CSV, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, Markdown and more.

Features

Generate documents from scratch (PDF, HTML, CSV, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, Markdown)
Parse existing documents into a unified in-memory model
Convert between any supported formats in one call
Rich document model — typed headings, ordered/bullet lists (nested), bookmarks, code blocks, blockquotes, images, tables, page breaks and typed document properties (author, subject, dates…)
Native rendering core — every block element renders cleanly to DOCX, PDF, HTML and Markdown: typed headings (<h1>/<w:pStyle>), nested lists (<ul>/<w:numPr>), blockquotes, code blocks (with language hint), bookmarks, embedded or on-disk images
Hyperlinks — parse <w:hyperlink> from DOCX and round-trip them to HTML <a>, Markdown [text](url) and DOCX hyperlink relationships, with anchors and tooltips
Batch processing — open and process multiple files at once
Laravel integration — first-class ServiceProvider and Facade
AI-powered features via Neuron AI (OCR, LLM extraction)
Typed exceptions — ParserException, RendererException, UnsupportedFormatException, InvalidDocumentException all extending a common PaperdocException
Zero native binary dependencies — pure PHP

Requirements

Dependency	Version
PHP	^8.2
ext-dom	*
ext-mbstring	*
ext-zip	*
ext-zlib	*

Optional (Laravel)

Package	Version
illuminate/support	^11.0 \| ^12.0

Installation

composer require paperdoc-dev/paperdoc-lib

Laravel auto-discovery

The PaperdocServiceProvider and Paperdoc facade are registered automatically via Laravel's package auto-discovery.

Quick Start

DocumentManager uses static methods (create, save, open, …). A document is built from Section instances: use addSection($section) or addSection() to append an empty section, or openSection() when you want a fluent chain (addParagraph, addHeading, …) on the new section. Bold and other run styles live on TextStyle (see examples/usage.php for tables and advanced composition).

Standalone PHP

use Paperdoc\Support\DocumentManager;
use Paperdoc\Document\Style\TextStyle;

$doc = DocumentManager::create('pdf', 'My Report');

$doc->openSection()
    ->addParagraph('Hello, Paperdoc!', TextStyle::make()->setBold());

DocumentManager::save($doc, 'output/report.pdf');

Laravel (via Facade)

use Paperdoc\Facades\Paperdoc;

// Create
$doc = Paperdoc::create('docx', 'Invoice #1042');
$doc->openSection()->addParagraph('Amount due: $500');
Paperdoc::save($doc, storage_path('invoices/1042.docx'));

// Parse an existing file
$doc = Paperdoc::open('uploads/report.xlsx');

// Convert directly
Paperdoc::convert('report.docx', 'report.pdf', 'pdf');

// Render as string
$html = Paperdoc::renderAs($doc, 'html');

// Batch open
$docs = Paperdoc::openBatch([
    'file1.pdf',
    'file2.docx',
    'file3.xlsx',
]);

Supported Formats

Format	Parse	Render/Generate
PDF	✅	✅
HTML	✅	✅
DOCX	✅	✅
XLSX	✅	✅
PPTX	✅	✅
CSV	✅	✅
Markdown	✅	✅
DOC	✅	✅
XLS	✅	✅
PPT	✅	✅

Document Model

Every format shares the same strongly-typed in-memory structure:

Document (format, title, ?Metadata, metadata[])
└── Section[]
    ├── Heading (level 1-6, runs, ?id)
    ├── Paragraph (TextRun[], ?ParagraphStyle)
    │   └── TextRun (text, ?TextStyle, ?TextLink)
    ├── ListBlock (bullet | ordered, start)
    │   └── ListItem (runs, blocks → nested ListBlock…)
    ├── Blockquote (nested DocumentElement[])
    ├── CodeBlock (code, ?language)
    ├── Bookmark (id) — link target for TextLink anchors
    ├── Table → TableRow[] → TableCell[]
    ├── Image (src | embedded data + mimeType)
    └── PageBreak

All block elements implement Paperdoc\Contracts\BlockElementInterface. Styles live in Document/Style/ (ParagraphStyle, TextStyle, TableStyle), links in Document/Link/TextLink, typed document properties in Document/Metadata.

Example — build a richly-typed document

use Paperdoc\Document\{Document, Section, Metadata, ListBlock};
use Paperdoc\Document\Style\TextStyle;

$doc = Document::make('md', 'Release notes v0.5.0')
    ->setProperties(
        Metadata::make()
            ->setAuthor('Alice')
            ->setKeywords('release, changelog, paperdoc')
            ->setLanguage('en-US')
    );

$section = $doc->openSection();

$section->addElement(\Paperdoc\Document\Heading::make('Getting started', 2, 'intro'));

$section->addBulletList()
    ->addText('Install the library')
    ->addText('Run the quick start')
    ->addText('Read the docs');

$section->addCodeBlock("composer require paperdoc-dev/paperdoc-lib", 'bash');

$section->addBookmark('ready-to-go');

$section->addBlockquote()
    ->addText('You are all set.', TextStyle::make()->setItalic());

Rendering

Since v0.5.0, every element of the document model is natively rendered by all four core renderers — no element is silently dropped, every output is a valid file format.

Element	DOCX	PDF	HTML	Markdown
`Heading` (1–6)	`<w:pStyle w:val="HeadingN"/>` + bookmark anchor	typed font sizes (24/20/16/14/13/12 pt) + navy	`<h1>`…`<h6>` with `id`	`#`…`######`, optional `{#id}`
`Paragraph`	`<w:p>` + run styling	wrapped text + inline run styles	`<p>` + inline `<span>`	plain text + emphasis
`ListBlock`	`<w:numPr>` + `word/numbering.xml`, nested `<w:ilvl>`	`•` / `1.` markers, depth-based indent	`<ul>` / `<ol start="N">`, nested	`-` / `1.`, two-space indent
`Blockquote`	`<w:pStyle w:val="Quote"/>` + indent	indented italic muted-grey	`<blockquote>` (nested children)	`>` prefixed lines
`CodeBlock`	`<w:pStyle w:val="Code"/>` + Consolas + `<w:br/>`	Courier, dedicated spacing	`<pre><code class="language-…">`	fenced ```lang block
`Bookmark`	`<w:bookmarkStart/>` / `<w:bookmarkEnd/>`	rendered silently (PDF annotations: roadmap)	`<a id="…" class="paperdoc-bookmark">`	inline `<a id="…"></a>`
`TextLink`	`<w:hyperlink>` (external rels + `w:anchor` + tooltip)	blue underlined run	`<a href>` with safe `target/rel`	safe `[label](url "title")`
`Image`	`<w:drawing>` + `word/media/imageN.ext` rel	XObject DCT (JPEG/PNG/GIF via GD re-encode)	`<img src>` or `data:` URI	`![alt](path)` or `data:` URI
`Table`	`<w:tbl>` with header rows + `gridSpan`	drawn cells with header bg	`<table>` + striped rows	`\|` rows
`PageBreak`	`<w:br w:type="page"/>`	`newPage()`	`.page-break` divider	blank line
`Metadata`	`docProps/core.xml`	PDF `/Creator`	(HTML head meta — roadmap)	(frontmatter — roadmap)

Both Image::make($path) (on-disk) and Image::fromData($bytes, $mimeType) (in-memory) are accepted everywhere; HTML and Markdown automatically inline embedded images as data: URIs, DOCX writes them to word/media/, and PDF embeds them as DCT XObjects (re-encoding GIF/PNG/WebP through GD when needed).

Typed Exceptions

All library errors extend a single base so consumers can catch them uniformly:

Exception	Thrown when…
`Paperdoc\Exceptions\PaperdocException`	Base (extends `RuntimeException`)
`Paperdoc\Exceptions\ParserException`	A parser cannot read/decode a file (`::forFile($path, $reason, $previous)`)
`Paperdoc\Exceptions\RendererException`	A renderer cannot serialise a document (`::forFormat($fmt, $reason, $previous)`)
`Paperdoc\Exceptions\UnsupportedFormatException`	Unknown format or extension (`::forFormat()` / `::forExtension()`)
`Paperdoc\Exceptions\InvalidDocumentException`	Document is used in an invalid state (e.g. invalid heading level)

use Paperdoc\Exceptions\PaperdocException;

try {
    $doc = Paperdoc::open('report.docx');
} catch (PaperdocException $e) {
    // Any Paperdoc error ends up here.
}

Hyperlinks

Every TextRun can carry an optional Paperdoc\Document\Link\TextLink. Links survive the full round-trip: they're parsed from DOCX (<w:hyperlink>) and rendered natively by the HTML and Markdown renderers.

Add a link programmatically

use Paperdoc\Support\DocumentManager;
use Paperdoc\Document\Section;
use Paperdoc\Document\Link\TextLink;

$doc = DocumentManager::create('md', 'Release notes');
$section = Section::make('main');

$section->addText(
    'See the full changelog',
    null,
    TextLink::make('https://github.com/paperdoc-dev/paperdoc-lib/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md', '', 'Changelog')
);

$doc->addSection($section);
echo DocumentManager::renderAs($doc, 'md');
// [See the full changelog](https://github.com/paperdoc-dev/paperdoc-lib/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md "Changelog")

Supported link flavours

Kind	Construction	HTML output	Markdown output
External URL	`TextLink::make('https://x.com')`	`<a href="…" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">…</a>`	`[label](url)`
Internal anchor	`TextLink::make('', 'section-2')`	`<a href="#section-2">…</a>`	`[label](#section-2)`
URL + fragment	`TextLink::make('https://x.com', 'sect-2')`	`<a href="https://x.com#sect-2" …>…</a>`	`[label](url#sect-2)`
Tooltip / title	`TextLink::make('https://x.com', '', 'Open site')`	`<a … title="Open site" …>…</a>`	`[label](url "Open site")`

External schemes (http, https, mailto, tel, ftp) automatically get target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" in HTML to prevent tabnabbing. Run styling (bold, italic, color, font) is preserved when combined with a link.

Convert DOCX with hyperlinks to Markdown

use Paperdoc\Support\DocumentManager;

// <w:hyperlink r:id="…"> elements are parsed and attached to their TextRun
$doc = DocumentManager::open('report.docx');

// Links are rendered as safe [label](url) — labels with ] and URLs with spaces
// or parentheses are escaped/wrapped automatically.
file_put_contents('report.md', DocumentManager::renderAs($doc, 'md'));

Configuration

Publish the config (Laravel):

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=paperdoc-config

This creates config/paperdoc.php where you can set the default format, text styles, storage paths, and AI/OCR settings.

Testing

composer test
# or
./vendor/bin/phpunit

Integration tests live in tests/Integration/, unit tests in tests/Unit/.

Architecture

src/
├── Concerns/          # Shared traits
├── Console/           # Artisan commands
├── Contracts/         # DocumentInterface, ParserInterface, BlockElementInterface…
├── Document/          # Core model (Document, Section, Paragraph, Heading, ListBlock, Bookmark, CodeBlock, Blockquote, Metadata…)
├── Enum/              # Format enums
├── Exceptions/        # PaperdocException + typed exceptions
├── Facades/           # Laravel Facade
├── Factory/           # Document/Parser factories
├── Llm/               # AI/LLM integration (Neuron AI)
├── Ocr/               # OCR integration
├── Parsers/           # Format-specific parsers
├── Renderers/         # Format-specific renderers
├── Support/           # DocumentManager and helpers
└── PaperdocServiceProvider.php

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to paperdoc-lib. A full list is kept in CONTRIBUTORS.md.

Olivier Mourlevat — @olivM — DOCX hyperlink parsing, HTML/Markdown hyperlink rendering (#4)

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

License

Paperdoc Library is released under the MIT License — free to use, modify and distribute, commercial or not.

paperdoc-dev / paperdoc-lib

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