The document provides an introduction and overview of PHP including: - PHP is a widely-used open source scripting language especially for web development. - It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 and is free to use. - PHP typically runs on web servers and is installed on over 20 million websites. - Features include being free, easy to learn, supporting databases and object-oriented programming. - Common tools for PHP development include XAMPP, Notepad++, and Eclipse IDE.