Printing Images

EscposPrinter::image() never asks for a type from the underlying ESC/POS library — it takes Derafu\Escpos\ValueObject\RasterImage, a small wrapper around a GD image (\GdImage). You decide how the pixels were produced; this package only knows how to print them.

From an existing GD resource

use Derafu\Escpos\ValueObject\RasterImage;

$gd = imagecreatefrompng('/path/to/logo.png');

$printer->image(new RasterImage($gd));

From raw image bytes

If you already have PNG bytes (downloaded, generated, read from a database, etc.) instead of a GD resource, decode them with the named constructor:

use Derafu\Escpos\ValueObject\RasterImage;

$logo = RasterImage::fromPngData(file_get_contents('/path/to/logo.png'));

$printer->image($logo);

fromPngData() throws Derafu\Escpos\Exception\InvalidImageDataException if the given bytes cannot be decoded as an image — it never returns a broken RasterImage.

PDF417 as a bitmap fallback

EscposPrinter::pdf417() sends the printer’s native PDF417 command. Some cheaper thermal printers do not support it. For those, Derafu\Escpos\Renderer\Pdf417Renderer renders a PDF417 code as a raster image (using tecnickcom/tc-lib-barcode, a required dependency) that you then print like any other image:

use Derafu\Escpos\Renderer\Pdf417Renderer;

$renderer = new Pdf417Renderer();
$image = $renderer->render('some-content-to-encode');

$printer->image($image);

This is a rendering concern, not a printing one, so it lives outside EscposPrinter on purpose: EscposPrinter has no idea Pdf417Renderer exists, and never will need to. You only reach for it when the native command does not work on your printer.