Automate Chrome with PHP: Install and Use ChromePHP for Screenshots, PDFs, and More

Overview

ChromePHP is a Chrome extension that embeds a PHP interpreter into the browser, enabling developers to write and run PHP code without leaving the current page, which streamlines development workflows and provides convenient debugging tools.

Features

Open Chrome or Chromium from PHP

Create pages and navigate to URLs

Capture screenshots

Execute JavaScript on the page

Generate PDFs

Simulate mouse actions

Simulate keyboard input

IDE‑friendly throughout

Requirements

PHP 7.4 – 8.5

Chrome/Chromium 65+ executable

Tested on Linux; works on macOS and Windows

Installation

Install via Composer:

composer require chrome-php/chrome

Usage Example

use HeadlessChromium\BrowserFactory;

$browserFactory = new BrowserFactory();
$browser = $browserFactory->createBrowser();

try {
    $page = $browser->createPage();
    $page->navigate('http://example.com')->waitForNavigation();

    // Get page title
    $pageTitle = $page->evaluate('document.title')->getReturnValue();

    // Save screenshot
    $page->screenshot()->saveToFile('/foo/bar.png');

    // Save PDF
    $page->pdf(['printBackground' => false])->saveToFile('/foo/bar.pdf');
} finally {
    $browser->close();
}

Using a Different Chrome Executable

$browserFactory = new BrowserFactory('chromium-browser'); // specify path or name

Debug Mode (Non‑Headless)

$browser = $browserFactory->createBrowser(['headless' => false]); // show browser window

Additional Feature Highlights

Custom browser options (window size, no‑image mode, user‑agent, proxy, etc.)

Persistent browser connections (keepAlive)

Page operations: navigation, JS execution, script injection, viewport setting, full‑page or cropped screenshots, PDF generation with custom margins, headers/footers

Mouse and keyboard simulation

Cookie management

DOM manipulation (query elements, click, type text, etc.)

File download support

This library is well suited for automation tasks such as web page screenshots, PDF creation, web crawling, and testing, leveraging Chrome's DevTools protocol to provide powerful capabilities.