Generate PDF report with PHP

You can generate HTML within a variable and then use tcpdf to generate the pdf.

Using the tcppdf.org example to insert a phrase at the beginning of the html that came from $ _POST [ 'phrase']:

<?php
//============================================================+
// File name   : example_001.php
// Begin       : 2008-03-04
// Last Update : 2013-05-14
//
// Description : Example 001 for TCPDF class
//               Default Header and Footer
//
// Author: Nicola Asuni
//
// (c) Copyright:
//               Nicola Asuni
//               Tecnick.com LTD
//               www.tecnick.com
//               [email protected]
//============================================================+

/**
 * Creates an example PDF TEST document using TCPDF
 * @package com.tecnick.tcpdf
 * @abstract TCPDF - Example: Default Header and Footer
 * @author Nicola Asuni
 * @since 2008-03-04
 */

// Include the main TCPDF library (search for installation path).
require_once('tcpdf_include.php');

// create new PDF document
$pdf = new TCPDF(PDF_PAGE_ORIENTATION, PDF_UNIT, PDF_PAGE_FORMAT, true, 'UTF-8', false);

// set document information
$pdf->SetCreator(PDF_CREATOR);
$pdf->SetAuthor('Nicola Asuni');
$pdf->SetTitle('TCPDF Example 001');
$pdf->SetSubject('TCPDF Tutorial');
$pdf->SetKeywords('TCPDF, PDF, example, test, guide');

// set default header data
$pdf->SetHeaderData(PDF_HEADER_LOGO, PDF_HEADER_LOGO_WIDTH, PDF_HEADER_TITLE.' 001', PDF_HEADER_STRING, array(0,64,255), array(0,64,128));
$pdf->setFooterData(array(0,64,0), array(0,64,128));

// set header and footer fonts
$pdf->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
$pdf->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));

// set default monospaced font
$pdf->SetDefaultMonospacedFont(PDF_FONT_MONOSPACED);

// set margins
$pdf->SetMargins(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
$pdf->SetHeaderMargin(PDF_MARGIN_HEADER);
$pdf->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);

// set auto page breaks
$pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);

// set image scale factor
$pdf->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);

// set some language-dependent strings (optional)
if (@file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php')) {
    require_once(dirname(__FILE__).'/lang/eng.php');
    $pdf->setLanguageArray($l);
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------

// set default font subsetting mode
$pdf->setFontSubsetting(true);

// Set font
// dejavusans is a UTF-8 Unicode font, if you only need to
// print standard ASCII chars, you can use core fonts like
// helvetica or times to reduce file size.
$pdf->SetFont('dejavusans', '', 14, '', true);

// Add a page
// This method has several options, check the source code documentation for more information.
$pdf->AddPage();

// set text shadow effect
$pdf->setTextShadow(array('enabled'=>true, 'depth_w'=>0.2, 'depth_h'=>0.2, 'color'=>array(196,196,196), 'opacity'=>1, 'blend_mode'=>'Normal'));

// Set some content to print

Here you enter the $ _POST. Warning for the EOT delimiter other than the original example

$frase = $_POST['frase'];

$html = <<<EOT
<p>$frase</p>
<h1>Welcome to <a href="http://www.tcpdf.org" style="text-decoration:none;background-color:#CC0000;color:black;">&nbsp;<span style="color:black;">TC</span><span style="color:white;">PDF</span>&nbsp;</a>!</h1>
<i>This is the first example of TCPDF library.</i>
<p>This text is printed using the <i>writeHTMLCell()</i> method but you can also use: <i>Multicell(), writeHTML(), Write(), Cell() and Text()</i>.</p>
<p>Please check the source code documentation and other examples for further information.</p>
<p style="color:#CC0000;">TO IMPROVE AND EXPAND TCPDF I NEED YOUR SUPPORT, PLEASE <a href="http://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=128076">MAKE A DONATION!</a></p>
EOT;

And continue to mount the file normally ...

// Print text using writeHTMLCell()
$pdf->writeHTMLCell(0, 0, '', '', $html, 0, 1, 0, true, '', true);

// ---------------------------------------------------------

// Close and output PDF document
// This method has several options, check the source code documentation for more information.
$pdf->Output('example_001.pdf', 'I');

//============================================================+
// END OF FILE
//============================================================+

Another option, if you do not want to use heredoc (EOT), may include the phrase before:

$html = $frase;
$html .=<<<EOD ...

I did not test the code, if you have any errors let me know I'll take a look.

One suggestion would be to use a report library, which generates outputs like PDF, CSV, World, Excel, etc ... All from HTML

I created this: link

You still have to create the documentation, but if you look at the tests you will know how to use it:)