[PHP] Read a PDF File using php

[Pushpinder Singh Garcha]

Hello All

I need to allow a user to access a PDF file, only if he/she is logged 
in as a registered user. So here is the code that I am trying to use. I 
have been able to make this work in the past, when I had to read .html 
file, now since the file in question is a .pdf file, I am having 
trouble. The browser shows a long list of weird characters instead of 
the pdf file

if(session_is_registered("user_valid")){
        
$filepath ="docs/any_file.pdf";
 $h1 = @fopen($filepath,"r");
  
  while (!feof($h1)) {
    $a = fread($h1,4096);
        echo "$a";
    }
    }
Any ideas / suggestions would be welcome. Thanks in advance

Pushpinder