August 2000
Intermediate to advanced
800 pages
13h 15m
English
Dynamic Buttons
Generating Graphs on the Fly
Bar Graphs
Pie Charts
Stretching Single-Pixel Images
This chapter explores generating graphics using the GD extension functions described in Chapter 12. "Image Functions." It is important to be aware of the issues involved with the creation of graphics on the fly. The first is that it is relatively costly in terms of CPU time. In most cases the flexibility of dynamic graphics is not worth what you pay in the load imposed on the server. Another issue is that making nice-looking graphics from PHP functions is not easy. Common techniques like drop shadows are next to impossible. As you will see in the examples that follow, a lot of work goes into creating ...
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