Generate certificate PDFs in PHP

The simplest way to generate certificate PDFs in PHP is to POST a certificate HTML template plus a JSON data object to the Docweave API — no headless browser to install or run on your server.

Certificate template example

Any HTML works as a template. Use {{ placeholders }} for the recipient name, course or award title, issue date, and issuer:

<article style="font-family: 'Georgia', serif; text-align: center; padding: 64px; border: 8px solid #c9a227;">
  <p style="letter-spacing: 4px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #6b6b6b;">Certificate of Completion</p>
  <h1 style="font-size: 40px; margin: 16px 0;">{{ recipient_name }}</h1>
  <p style="font-size: 18px; margin: 24px 0;">has successfully completed</p>
  <h2 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0 0 32px;">{{ course_title }}</h2>
  <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; margin-top: 48px; font-size: 14px; color: #444;">
    <div>
      <p style="border-top: 1px solid #444; padding-top: 8px;">{{ issue_date }}</p>
      <p>Date issued</p>
    </div>
    <div>
      <p style="border-top: 1px solid #444; padding-top: 8px;">{{ issuer_name }}</p>
      <p>Issued by</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</article>

Generate the certificate PDF from PHP

POST the template and per-recipient data to /api/v1/pdf with cURL, then write the raw response bytes straight to a file:

<?php
// Build the certificate payload: template + per-recipient data.
$payload = [
    "source" => [
        "type" => "template",
        "template" => file_get_contents(__DIR__ . "/certificate-template.html"),
        "data" => [
            "recipient_name" => "Jordan Lee",
            "course_title" => "Advanced PHP for Web APIs",
            "issue_date" => "2026-07-14",
            "issuer_name" => "Acme Training Academy",
        ],
    ],
    "idempotencyKey" => "cert-jordan-lee-advanced-php",
];

$ch = curl_init("https://docweave.dev/api/v1/pdf");
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($payload),
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        "Authorization: Bearer dw_live_your_key",
        "Content-Type: application/json",
        "Accept: application/pdf",
    ],
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
]);

// The response body is the raw PDF bytes — write them straight to a file.
$pdfBytes = curl_exec($ch);
$statusCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

if ($statusCode !== 200 || $pdfBytes === false) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Certificate PDF generation failed with status {$statusCode}");
}

file_put_contents(__DIR__ . "/certificate.pdf", $pdfBytes);

…or from an AI agent

An AI agent can generate the same certificate PDF via the Docweave MCP server, without writing any PHP or HTTP code at all — install it with npx @docweave/mcp and call the generate_pdf tool:

npx @docweave/mcp

// Then, from an AI agent, no HTTP plumbing:
generate_pdf({
  source: {
    type: "template",
    template: "<article>...{{ recipient_name }}...{{ course_title }}...</article>",
    data: {
      recipient_name: "Jordan Lee",
      course_title: "Advanced PHP for Web APIs",
      issue_date: "2026-07-14",
      issuer_name: "Acme Training Academy"
    }
  },
  outputPath: "/tmp/certificate.pdf"
})

FAQ

Related

• Certificate PDF generation API
• Generate PDFs in PHP
• Docweave docs