Question

All the examples I’ve found on the web seem to create pngs with text from an existing png. Is it possible to create a transparent png from scratch and then add text?

The code ive got so far follows (but it doesnt work. just outputs a blank image source)

<?php
    $width = 150;
    $height = 30;
    $text = "My Text";
    $fontsize = 5;

    $im = imagecreate($width, $height);
    $transcolor = imagecolortransparent($im);

    imagestring($im, $fontsize, 0, 0, $text, $transcolor);

    header('Content-type: image/png');
    imagepng($im);
    imagedestroy($im);
?>

Answer 1

<?php
    $font = 25;
    $string = 'My Text';
    $im = @imagecreatetruecolor(strlen($string) * $font / 1.5, $font);
    imagesavealpha($im, true);
    imagealphablending($im, false);
    $white = imagecolorallocatealpha($im, 255, 255, 255, 127);
    imagefill($im, 0, 0, $white);
    $lime = imagecolorallocate($im, 204, 255, 51);
    imagettftext($im, $font, 0, 0, $font - 3, $lime, "droid_mono.ttf", $string);
    header("Content-type: image/png");
    imagepng($im);
    imagedestroy($im);
?>

Use imagestring instead of imagettftext if you don’t want custom font.