Outputting Generated Images Problem

[Anon]

The script below generates a nice button graphic which I am planning to use to create a dynamic navigation menu. I am having one problem though, if I include any HTML with this script it only returns garbled text. I know this has something to do with the Content-type, but I have tried putting that line as the first line of the page and enclosing the code below (minus the content type line) in HTML (which bombs). I'm not quite sure why this is and was hoping someone with experience with this could help out. Any info would be appreciated.

<?php
$height = 20;
$width = 125;
$im = ImageCreate($width, $height);
$highlightColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, 255, 0, 0);
$backgroundColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, 204, 0, 0);
$shadowColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, 153, 0, 0);
$outlineColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, 0, 0, 0);

ImageFill($im, 0, 0, $outlineColor);
ImageLine($im, 1, 1, 1, 18, $highlightColor);
ImageLine($im, 1, 1, 123, 1, $highlightColor);
ImageLine($im, 2, 18, 123, 18, $shadowColor);
ImageLine($im, 123, 2, 123, 18, $shadowColor);
ImageFilledRectangle($im, 2, 2, 122, 17, $backgroundColor);

Header("Content-type: image/png");
ImagePNG($im);
ImageDestroy($im);
?>

[Anon]

I have solved part of my own problem, by discovering a new piece of info. By calling the image generator script from within an img tag HTML can be placed around it. This is useful, but doesn't solve my problem completely. I am trying to build a generic class for generating buttons to be used in a navigation menu. How can the image generator code be contained within a function so I can pass it color values and text labels while still being able to display the images within an HTML page?

[Anon]

This is an elementary HTML issue, not a PHP copding issue.

By definition, you cannot intermingle HTML and graphics. You use IMG tags that refer to separate objects, and the browser can choose whether to fetch and render those objects. That's how the Web works.

A IMG tag can refer to a script, and that script can be passed any number of urlencoded arguments, including color values and text labels:

<img src="button.php?color=red&text=This+is+red">

[Anon]

I had tried that before, but within the button script I am unable to print any of those passed values back out. I call the script with the line:

<img src="inc/button.php?color=red">

which calls the script with the argument. However when I try to print that value back out (or print anything) I get no output. I figure this has to do with the Content-type, but don't know what the workaround is. Here is the button generating code:

<?php
// initialize colors
$highlight = array(51,0,255);
$background = array(51,0,204);
$shadow = array(51,0,153);
$outline = array(0,0,0);

// set up image
$height = 20;
$width = 125;
$im = ImageCreate($width, $height);
$highlightColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, $highlight[0], $highlight[1], $highlight[2]);
$backgroundColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, $background[0], $background[1], $background[2]);
$shadowColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, $shadow[0], $shadow[1], $shadow[2]);
$outlineColor = ImageColorAllocate($im, $outline[0], $outline[1], $outline[2]);

// draw on image
ImageFill($im, 0, 0, $outlineColor);
ImageLine($im, 1, 1, 1, 18, $highlightColor);
ImageLine($im, 1, 1, 123, 1, $highlightColor);
ImageLine($im, 2, 18, 123, 18, $shadowColor);
ImageLine($im, 123, 2, 123, 18, $shadowColor);
ImageFilledRectangle($im, 2, 2, 122, 17, $backgroundColor);

// output image
Header("Content-type: image/png");
ImagePNG($im);
ImageDestroy($im);

print("Color: $color");
?>

Steve Yelvington wrote:

This is an elementary HTML issue, not a PHP copding issue.

By definition, you cannot intermingle HTML and graphics. You use IMG tags that refer to separate objects, and the browser can choose whether to fetch and render those objects. That's how the Web works.

A IMG tag can refer to a script, and that script can be passed any number of urlencoded arguments, including color values and text labels:

<img src="button.php?color=red&text=This+is+red">