Programming PHP, 3rd Edition

Creating and Drawing Images

For now, let’s start with the simplest possible GD example. Example 9-1 is a script that generates a black-filled square. The code works with any version of GD that supports the PNG image format.

Example 9-1. A black square on a white background (black.php)

<?php
$image = imagecreate(200, 200);

$white = imagecolorallocate($image, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF);
$black = imagecolorallocate($image, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00);
imagefilledrectangle($image, 50, 50, 150, 150, $black);

header("Content-Type: image/png");
imagepng($image);

Example 9-1 illustrates the basic steps in generating any image: creating the image, allocating colors, drawing the image, and then saving or sending the image. Figure 9-1 shows the output of Example 9-1.

Figure 9-1. A black square on a white background

To see the result, simply point your browser at the black.php page. To embed this image in a web page, use:

<img src="black.php" />

The Structure of a Graphics Program

Most dynamic image-generation programs follow the same basic steps outlined in Example 9-1.

You can create a 256-color image with the imagecreate() function, which returns an image handle:

$image = imagecreate(width, height);

All colors used in an image must be allocated with the imagecolorallocate() function. The first color allocated becomes the background color for the image^[4]:

$color = imagecolorallocate(image, red, green, blue);

The arguments ...