Dynamic image/text

melon

Umm not entirely sure what it is I'm after but I think it's a dynamic image. I've seen on the web where you can type in a URL (i.e http://www.blah.com/pic.php?text=hello) and the image would have that word(s) on it.

I've searched on Google for a tutorial of sorts but to no prevail. I have found ones that let you create a dynamic button with the text you want on it, but what I'm after is a static picture but you can change the words on it via the URL.

Closest reference I've found was:

"If you want to have a page with dynamic text and a dynamic image based on one form, use two php's. One is the page which has a call to the other in an img tag:
<img src="myImage.php?name=value..."

I hope what I've explained is clear. I'm a complete and utter newbie at PHP so go easy on me 🙂

theeper

Take a look at PHP's image functions. It is actually very easy.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.image.php

melon

Like i said I know nothing about PHP.

This may come across as being selfish or rude, but I don't intend it to be. What I need is for someone to give me example code(s) or a tutorial on how to do it. I have searched for a tutorial but nothig that does exactly what I want.

Thanks for the help anyway.

theeper

Well, here is one way to do it, assuming you have the GD library installed with TTF support.

Basically, you will have a script (image.php) that creates the image from an existing image (button.jpg), then samples button.jpg's color palette to get a color for the text you wish to overlay.

Create an image called button.jpg and make it 100X100 px. This will be the background of your button.

Then, image.php might look like this ...

<?php
// declare the content type
Header("Content-type: image/jpeg");

// open the button background
$source = ImageCreateFromJPEG("button.jpg");

// create the new image
$image = ImageCreate(100, 100);

// copy the background image to the new image
$copy = imagecopy($image, $source, 0,0,0,0,100,100);

// get the font color from the image's palette
$col = ImageColorAllocate($image, 155, 155, 155);

// write the text
$text = $_GET["text"];
ImageTTFText($image, 16, 0, 10, 40, $col, "/home/fonts/ARIAL.TTF", "$text");

// create the actual final image
Imagejpeg($image,'',100);

// clean up
ImageDestroy($source);
ImageDestroy($image);
?>

* don't put any white space in image.php above the header function, it will break.

Then, you would use an IMG tag where you wanted to display the image ...

This is just a crude example, but it should get you started. Read up on these functions to learn how to tweak the parameters for image size, colors, font specs and x,y pixel positioning of the text.

melon

Right that works and I'm getting the hang of it.

Thanks a load and then some theeper 😃

melon

Hmmmmm does anyone know it it is at all possible to do line breaks with the generated text? Or is it just constraint to a single line?

theeper

I don't think you can use newlines when using ImageTTFText(), but you can simulate it by simply breaking your text where you want it broken and then use the x,y pixel positioning to set your second line where it needs to go.

JDcrack

Line breaks are possible:

\n
ONLY drops the text to a new line

\r
ONLY returns to the left origin,

so you must use both to get it looking right with imagettftext()

EXAMPLE:

ImageTTFText($img, 10, 0, 0, 20, $white, "trebuchet.ttf", "Your first line here.\r\nYour Second line here.");