Image & Signature Injection in PHPWord

This guide covers injecting digital signatures and photo uploads into .docx template placeholders.

Image Injection Flow

1. Injecting Base64 Signature Images

Because TemplateProcessor::setImageValue() requires a physical image file path on disk, Base64 strings must be decoded to a temporary file before insertion:

$base64Sig = $appointment->member_signature; // "data:image/png;base64,..."

if (!empty($base64Sig) && str_starts_with($base64Sig, 'data:image/')) {
    // Decode base64 bytes
    $imageParts = explode(';base64,', $base64Sig);
    $imageBase64 = base64_decode($imageParts[1]);

    // Save temporary file
    $tempImagePath = storage_path('app/temp/sig_' . uniqid() . '.png');
    file_put_contents($tempImagePath, $imageBase64);

    // Inject into ${member_signature} placeholder
    $templateProcessor->setImageValue('member_signature', [
        'path'   => $tempImagePath,
        'width'  => 180,
        'height' => 60,
        'ratio'  => true,
    ]);

    // Save output document
    $outputPath = storage_path('app/exports/generated_report.docx');
    $templateProcessor->saveAs($outputPath);

    // Cleanup temporary image
    @unlink($tempImagePath);
}

2. Image Placeholder Parameters

Option	Type	Description
path	string	Absolute server path to the image file on disk.
width	int	Width in pixels (px) or points.
height	int	Height in pixels (px) or points.
ratio	bool	Keep aspect ratio when scaling.