Comments on: Graphical images script

Question: Graphical images script

xmutex — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:23:24 -0800

I am looking for a simple script (perl,php,whatever) or even binary utility that can programatically render graphical images in this manner: take XYZ font (true-type/postscript/whatever) and render an image with the text ABC.

Does such a thing exist?

By: Eamon

Eamon — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:29:01 -0800

What platform are you using? I know that ImageMagick can do this on the command line. It also has bindings for most scripting languages, and is available on every platform.

By: jpburns

jpburns — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:31:40 -0800

By render, I don't suppose you'd be happy with it rendered in a browser window (easy to do with JavaScript)?

By: RustyBrooks

RustyBrooks — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:33:00 -0800

I've used ImageMagick and GD for these things, both work OK.

By: xmutex

xmutex — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:35:11 -0800

Unix platform. Not wanting it to render in a browser, but to output files. Think like a GIF-based blog.

But not annoying!

By: terrapin

terrapin — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:43:59 -0800

I was thinking you were looking for a way to create spam-proof email addresses on the fly.

By: Eamon

Eamon — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:44:56 -0800

If you're going to be writing a LOT of text (e.g., for a "GIF-based blog"), you may want to look into using LaTeX.

It will typeset your text and produce a DVI file, which can then be converted to GIF. This way, you won't have to worry about things like line-breaks. Don't worry, LaTeX isn't hard to learn for simple prose. Anyone who knows HTML should be able to pick it up in minutes.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:47:23 -0800

photomatt has been doing this for a while on his blog (here's a random entry). The title is a graphic, which I'm guessing imagemagik did on the fly using the GD php libraries.

By: xmutex

xmutex — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:53:14 -0800

Thanks all. ImageMagick seems to be the solution. Time to go hack away.

By: delfuego

delfuego — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:56:50 -0800

A List Apart did an article about this, Dynamic Text Replacement. Looks like just want you want.

By: holloway

holloway — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 16:40:39 -0800

Use PHP GD. The standard builds include it and it's apparently 6 lines of code to make one, here:



header ("Content-type: image/png"); 

$img_handle = ImageCreate (250, 80) or die ("Cannot Create image");

$back_color = ImageColorAllocate ($img_handle, 0, 10, 10);

$txt_color = ImageColorAllocate ($img_handle, 255, 255, 255);

ImageString ($img_handle, 31, 50, 5,  "GET UP OFFA THAT THING", $txt_color);

ImagePng ($img_handle);

By: holloway

holloway — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 16:43:26 -0800

Oh, and then you could just wget that webserver/makeimage.php?text=GET%20UP%20OFFA%20THAT%20THING to get a local copy.

By: Nothing

Nothing — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 17:33:25 -0800

You may want to look into sIFR, which uses javascript and flash. Advantages: pulls the text straight out of the web page. Disadvantages: without javascript or flash available, plain text is displayed.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 21:21:11 -0800

I have used the "dynamic text replacement" script on ALA, and it works like a charm, provided your internet provider has enabled the GD image library in PHP.