The old GIF issue

semmett

OK
So I know there are issues using GIF's. Now my problem is I am using a hosting service so I am limited to installing the version of PHP needed to handle GIF's. Similarly the security policy stops me from executing a utilility e.g. gif2png to convert a gif (not that I can even SSH to the box and compile gif2png anyway).
So does anybody have any suggestions on a PHP class or any technique I can use to convert a gif so I can load it an manipulate it in PHP???
Any help is gratefully appreciated
Simon

matto

hi!

have a look at
http://www.imagemagick.com/

if you're working on a linux host, the imagemagick tools may be installed already. if you have shell access, type "mogrify". if there's a response (help info), I think you've got all you need for converting. read the pages mentioned above for instructions on format conversion.

you can download the imagemagick command-line tools from that site, for linux/unix as well as for windows servers.

I use it for image resizing only but the toolkit is much more powerful than that. it can replace some of the gd functionality which php relies upon for image manipulation.

semmett

Unfortunately I do NOT have shell access......I was hoping for something that did not require command line access....

Thanks
Simon

matto

well, you still can hope imagemackick is already installed. if passthru() is allowed for your scripts, you can try calling mogrify by a script. here's my function.

function resizepic($filename)
{
        if($filename != '' && is_file($filename))
        {
                $command = "mogrify -geometry 175x250 $filename";
                passthru($command);
        }
}

this is just to find out if imagemagick is available on the system! upload an image to your webspace, than use a script calling this function to resize an image (note: $filename contains the linux path; it's not an URL. example: /home/myusername/public_html/test/image.gif). if it works, the imagemagick toolkit should be installed.

laserlight

Could you contact your hosting provider to make the changes for you?

semmett

Thanks - I'll try the passthru approach and see if it works. I know it works for 'ls' but I couldn't get it to work for things like 'make'....I suspect the hosting company have set up the security pretty tight but you never know!!

Also to the suggestion to get the hosting company to install it - yep that is my next step I figured I would try a few options first....
Thanks
Simon