Programming PHP, 2nd Edition

Images with Text

Often it is necessary to add text to images. GD has built-in fonts for this purpose. Example 9-5 adds some text to our black square image.

Example 9-5. Adding text to an image

<?php
 $im = ImageCreate(200,200);
 $white = ImageColorAllocate($im,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF);
 $black = ImageColorAllocate($im,0x00,0x00,0x00);
 ImageFilledRectangle($im,50,50,150,150,$black);
 ImageString($im,5,50,160,"A Black Box",$black);
 Header('Content-Type: image/png');
 ImagePNG($im);
?>

Figure 9-3 shows the output of Example 9-5.

Figure 9-3. The black box image with added text

The ImageString( ) function adds text to an image. Specify the top-left point of the text, as well as the color and the font to use:

ImageString(image, font, x, y, text, color);

Fonts

Fonts in GD are identified by numbers. The five built-in fonts are shown in Figure 9-4.

Figure 9-4. Native GD fonts

The code used to show you these fonts follows:

<?php $im = ImageCreate(200,200); $black = ImageColorAllocate($im,0x00,0x00,0x00); ImageString($im,1,10,10,"Font 1: ABCDEfghij",$black); ImageString($im,2,10,30,"Font 2: ABCDEfghij",$black); ImageString($im,3,10,50,"Font 3: ABCDEfghij",$black); ImageString($im,4,10,70,"Font 4: ABCDEfghij",$black); ImageString($im,5,10,90,"Font 5: ABCDEfghij",$black); Header('Content-Type: image/png'); ImagePNG($im); ...