PHP create image from text and save

In this article, you will learn how to create an image from the text using the PHP programming language.

PHP has several built-in functions that are used to create some advanced applications. It also has built-in functions for processing images. In many cases, we need to dynamically convert text to an image, such as when generating CAPTCHA, adding a watermark to an image, creating a logo, or generating some signatures.

Before we get started, we need to have GD extensions enabled. You can quickly check this by using the phpinfo() function. If the GD extension is not enabled, simply open php.ini and search for extension=gd2 and remove the semicolon in front of this.

These are some PHP predefined functions used for generating images.

PHP imagecreatetruecolor() function

This function is used to create an image of the specified size. It takes width and height as parameters.

imageceatetruecolor(int $width, int $height);

PHP imagecolorallocate() function

This function is used to fill the background color of the image, and it returns an identifier for that particular color. It takes four parameters. Image resource in the first parameter, and the other three parameters contain color code in RGB component form.

imagecolorallocate(resource $image, int $red, int $green, int $blue);

PHP imagefilledrectangle() function

This function is used to draw a filled rectangle with the given start and end coordinates. It takes six parameters. In the first parameter, it takes image resource and in the next four parameters, it takes the rectangle coordinates and in the last parameter, it takes the color code to fill the rectangle.

imagefilledrectangle(resource $image, int $x1, int $y1, int $x2, int $y2, $fillcolor );

PHP imagestring() function

The imagestring() function is used to write text to the image. In the first parameter, it takes the image source, second parameter is the font size, which can be from 1 to 5 (smaller to bigger), third and fourth parameters are the coordinates from the left corner and the fifth parameter is the string to be written and the sixth parameter contains string color.

imagestring(resource $image,  int $font , int $x , int $y , string $string , int $color );

PHP imagesetthickness() function

The imagesetthickness() function is used to set the thickness of line drawing. In the first parameter, it takes an image resource, and in the second parameter it takes the thickness size in pixels.

imagesetthickness(resource $image,  int $size);

PHP imagepng() function

The imagepng() function is used to generate image in png format.

imagepng(resource $image);

PHP imagedestroy() function

The imagedestroy() function is used at last to free the allocated memory associated with the image.

imagedestroy();

PHP Generate Image From Text Example

Here is a very simple PHP program to generate an image from text and save the generated image in png format.

<?php
// Set the content-type
header('Content-Type: image/png');

// Create the image
$img = imagecreatetruecolor(310, 60);

// Create some colors
$lightsky = imagecolorallocate($img, 135, 206, 250);
$blue = imagecolorallocate($img, 25, 25, 112);
imagefilledrectangle($img, 0, 0, 319, 59, $lightsky);

// The text to draw
$text = 'Welcome to etutorialspoint!';

imagestring( $img, 5, 30, 20, $text, $blue ); 
imagesetthickness( $img, 10 ); 

// Using imagepng() results in clearer text compared with imagejpeg() 
imagepng($img);
imagedestroy($img); 
?>

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