Dynamic Image creation in PHP

lloydi

I have a number of buttons that I need to create. I can build up a library that will cover most uses, but not all. What I'd like is to have a web page where the user can:

* Enter the text forn the button
* The PHP can make a judgement about the size of the button reqd and then supply the appropriate button background image
* Place the text so that it is aligned center (horisontal and vertical)
* And it needs to do this in three iterations (one image each for normal, hover and click mode)

I've looked around and it appears that I can do this but ...

When I tried some of the scripts that already exist, I'm getting errors all over the place. I won't list them here yet because frankly I'm not even over the first hurdle. Apparantly the Mac default install of PHP does not include the required libraries/modules for PHP-based image manipulation. So, I'll take a few steps back to ask some beginner questions:

Assuming I have nothing for image manipulation, what should I download (and where from)? Note - I am running PHP 4.3.11
Is there anthing I should know that's Mac-specific? For example, I've noticed on this script (http://www.phpbuilder.com/snippet/detail.php?type=snippet&id=223) that the font location does not match OS X location for fonts. I changed that, but the script still failed to find the fonts in that folder.

Anything that you think might help to get me up to speed would be good.

The best kick starter - a simple script that you know works on Mac with Apache/PHP that I can drop in to a file to test whether it works in a basic format, then at least I have a starting point and can verify that it will work with custom text/backgrounds thrown at it.

Many thanks

Stasonis

Do you know if that version of PHP even has GD built into it? Check your PHP info and look for GD support. Without that you can go nowhere. Since PHP 4.3 GD has been bundled, but not enabled by default. If GD is not enabled you will have to recompile PHP with the configure option '--with-gd'

bokehman

WHy build a button with GD? Why not just use CSS. Use two background images the expand and contract with the amount of text.

Jack_McSlay

I can't simply input a text and let a simple php code to figure out how much it'll be in length - unless you use a monospace font each char will have a different length. i'd hear what bokehman said. CSS might be far more effective

bokehman

The reason I sugested CSS is because all that is needed is two background images for 100 buttons. The text of course can be written with HTML and styled with CSS. Using GD would be simple also but would mean one specific image per button; certainly not a good idea for either bandwidth or data transfer.

lloydi

bokehman wrote:
WHy build a button with GD? Why not just use CSS. Use two background images the expand and contract with the amount of text.

Because the style of the background does not lend itself to that technique - curved edges on the corners. I would always use that technique if it were available, but in this case it's not.