Rasterize HTML Commands

subhendu

Hello,

I'm seeking a way to rasterize (that is convert to a raster of bits) HTML commands. My belief is that I'd do this by directing the HTML to an off-screen window or port, and then asking to get back a JPEG or other image format of the bits of that window. This is done often in Windows. How does one do this in PHP?

Thanks.

MarkR

This is certainly a nontrivial task. You'd need a web browser capable of operating headless and saving the image.

I've been looking into how to do this with Mozilla, it seems possible to write a XUL application which will contain a browser window, load a page, render it, then use a canvas to store it into an image and save this out as a (e.g.) PNG.

It's not easy.

There are some third party services who will do this for you though.

Mark

brianadkins

Just so I understand...

You're wanting to do a browser "screen capture" on the server-side and then display that image in the visitor's browser window?

like the site previews on Ask.com I'm guessing?

Brian

brianadkins

after some googling...

http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-40896.html

http://www.thumbshots.org/