PHP Cookbook

Chapter 15. Graphics

Introduction

With the assistance of the GD library, you can use PHP to create applications that use dynamic images to display stock quotes, reveal poll results, monitor system performance, and even create games. However it’s not like using Photoshop or GIMP; you can’t draw a line by moving your mouse. Instead, you need to precisely specify a shape’s type, size, and position.

GD has an existing API, and PHP tries to follows its syntax and function-naming conventions. So, if you’re familiar with GD from other languages, such as C or Perl, you can easily use GD with PHP. If GD is new to you, it may take a few minutes to figure it out, but soon you’ll be drawing like Picasso.

The feature set of GD varies greatly depending on which version GD you’re running and which features were enabled during configuration. Versions of GD up to 1.6 supported reading and writing GIFs, but this code was removed due to patent problems. Instead, newer versions of GD support JPEGs, PNGs, and WBMPs. Because PNGs are generally smaller than GIFs, allow you to use many more colors, have built-in gamma correction, and are supported by all major web browsers, the lack of GIF support is classified as a feature, not a bug. For more on PNG, go to http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/ or read Chapter 21, “PNG Format,” of Web Design in a Nutshell written by Jennifer Niederst (O’Reilly).

Besides supporting multiple file formats, GD lets you draw pixels, lines, rectangles, polygons, arcs, ellipses, ...