how okcounter does its digits

dodozhang21

hi, okcounter.com recently start charging for their counters. i want to provide a free service similar to theirs. but i can't seem to figure out how they did their digits. if you browse their counter images, they use very unique fonts for their counter digits.
the only way i can think of to do that is have a directory of digits in different fonts saved as pictures. and then put them on top of the background image. i doubt that's how they did it tho. does anyone have a better idea? thanks!

drew010

they probably have the background images in one place and a bunch of ttf fonts uploaded somewhere else, and they dynamically print the text on the images using [man]gd[/man].
there is a script you could purchase to set up your own free counter service. it lets you upload the background images and allows you to choose the coordinates at which to draw the numbers onto specific images. last time i used it, there were no options to use ttf text fonts on them, but maybe that has changed in newer versions. it is at http://www.countercode.com

dodozhang21

thanks

i probably will go with css and have members themselves host the background image and the digits.

i don't have that much resource and b/w to spare.

drew010

ok but if you choose to do it that way, it will most likely result in them not needing your site at all. they would need to have code on their own site to track the count and place the numbers on the image, and that would totally remove the need to use your service at all. plus, the numbers arent really placed on the images since they are ttf fonts, the images are actually created dynamically by the server.

dodozhang21

good point. i will check GD and see hard it is to code one myself.