friebe / letter

Letter generator browser based

Letter

Letter is a simple, highly customizable tool designed to help you create professional letters directly in your browser. This tool allows you to write your letters in a markdown file and load its content into a letter template for easy formatting and presentation.

Background Motivation

Instead of messing around in Word, Pages or even Indesign, you can write your letters in the browser, export them as HTML or PDF (via Apple Preview).

Written in plain HTML, CSS and some PHP, Letter can be installed in seconds and run either on your machine with PHP's built-in server, something like MAMP or on a server.

You can setup your own letter template and customize the design with CSS.

Features

• Markdown Support: Write your letters using Markdown, making it easy to format text.
• Customizable Templates: Load your markdown content into customizable letter templates.
• Browser-Based: Create and edit your letters directly in your web browser.
• Simple File Management: Store your markdown files in a designated folder for easy access.

Screenshot

Original Demo

This is how Letter looks like in original: https://bastianallgeier.com/projects/letter/

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/bastianallgeier/letter.git
cd letter
php -S localhost:8888

How to…

Save Letters

You can save your letters by simply using the browser save dialog. Make sure to choose "Save HTML only" as the export option. You will get a nice and clean HTML file of your letter, which can be kept for later at any place you prefer.

Print Letters

Use your browser's print dialog to print your finished Letters. Make sure to set "No margins" in your printing dialog to avoid broken dimensions of your document.

Export PDFs

On macOS you can use your browser's print dialog to export your Letter to PDF via Apple Preview. As long as you get the printing settings correct, the PDF will look good too.

Create a markdown file with your letter content

Create a new markdown file under the ./letter-boxes directory. For example see the existing file 02_default.md

Setup

Configuration

You can setup the global content of your Letter in config/config.php. Adjust the default settings and add your own data there.

Available options

return [
  'title'      => 'Letter',
  'dateFormat' => 'dmY',
  'name'       => 'John Doe',
  'street'     => 'Infinite Loop 12',
  'city'       => '34512 Examplia',
  'country'    => 'Germany',
  'phone'      => '[phone]',
  'mobile'     => '[phone]',
  'email'      => '[email protected]',
  'website'    => 'doe.com',
  'bank'       => 'GLS',
  'iban'       => 'DE 1283 1982 9182 91',
  'bic'        => 'GENODEM1GLS',
  'vatId'      => 'DE 2128127981729',
  'taxId'      => '31281/12912',
  'closing'    => 'All the best,',
  'placeholders' => [
    'address' => 'Acme Corp.<br>Sesamestreet 23<br>12345 Gotham City<br>USA',
    'subject' => 'Subject',
    'text'    => '<p>Dear…</p><p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium.</p>'
  ],
  'labels' => [
    'phone'   => 'Phone',
    'mobile'  => 'Mobile',
    'email'   => 'Email',
    'website' => 'Web',
    'bank'    => 'Bank',
    'iban'    => 'IBAN',
    'bic'     => 'BIC',
    'vatId'   => 'VAT-ID',
    'taxId'   => 'TAX-ID'
  ]
];

Custom stylesheet

If you want to adjust Letter's custom styles, go to config/styles.css and add your own CSS there. Check out Letter's custom HTML tags in the browser for further information what to adjust.

Signature

Add a signature.png in config/signature.png to load it automatically and put it under your letter

Custom template

If you want to further modify your Letter, you can copy the default template file from app/template.php to config/template.php to overwrite Letter's default HTML.

Requirements

• PHP 5.6+
• Latest Chrome (tested)
• YAML support for PHP (install yaml extension via PECL, enable extension in php.ini)

Firefox and Safari have issues with margins, when you want to print your letter. I haven't tested IE and Edge yet. Help with additional CSS adjustments is highly welcome!

License

http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php

Author of the main code

Bastian Allgeier
[email protected]
http://twitter.com/bastianallgeier

Author of mardown support

Jan Friebe [email protected]