Create Dynamic Images with ImageMagick

[ArticleBot]

This is an article discussion thread for discussing the SitePoint article, "Create Dynamic Images with ImageMagick"

[chris_fuel]

mm, maybe it's just me, but I tend to notice more of my clients work with GD lib than imagemagik.. and I thought imagemagik had to be run through exec or something (even when using a class)?

[Rubble]

I have ben having a go with Imagemagic over the last couple of weeks and there is a lot more you can do with it over GD. Wether its useful or not though !

Some examples I have tried here www.rubblewebs.co.uk/imagemagick

As you say chris_fuel I think you ned to run it as a "shell" script and it will not work if the server has "Safe mode" turned on.

GD seems to have come to a stop in devolpment as the last update I could see was in 2004 ?

P.S. How sad am I - posting here while I am away on holiday

[didimo]

great article, im currently using GD but considering switching to imagemagik.

[zeke_the_geek]

Two things I look for when using a new tool is ease of installation and use. I installed ImageMagick with no problem; however, MagicWand is still not working. I am running PHP 5.1.4 in Windows with IIS. The DLL (php-5.0.4_magickwand_dyn.dll or php-5.0.4_magickwand_q16_st.dll) will not load. I will keep trying over time to get MagicWand to work, but I would like to see it install without having to troubleshoot installation and then I can checkout how easy it is to use.

How useful is this? Rotate, crop, resize, sure... but how about generating a bar graph? What about generating wavy text graphic security confirmation images? The possibilities presented seem of limited usefulness.

Developers need articles that demonstrate the techniques required, PLUS real world quality examples that tackle common problems developers face, ideally that can slot right in to an either current, or future project.

This tutorial provides neither as far as I'm concerned.

The ACID test for me when reading articles from anywhere is, go straight to the final product and if it's cool then the tutorial is worth reading. If it isn't, then you may be better off reading something else!

Regarding the ImageMagick book from Apress, we have also starting giving a free color eBook with every purchase of the print book. Just wanted to make sure everyone was aware...

[mtjo]

it is more commonly supported by web hosting services than any other package

As opposed to GD2 or NetPBM? GD2 only has to be enabled via the php.ini during install/compile as opposed to installing external packages to get IM to run. Not to mention that hosts with safemode enabled rules out IM. Not trying to state whether any graphics package is superior, but GD2 is the most commmonly installed package on general hosting.

[Gator99]

Image Magick produces far better results than the stock php image manipulation functions. Personally I don't use the extensions, just call the utilities through exec. The examples listed here are just the tip of the iceburg, for full capabilities check out the docs. If you know what you're doing you'll never go back to the built in php functions.

[_theworks]

How useful is this? Rotate, crop, resize, sure... but how about generating a bar graph? What about generating wavy text graphic security confirmation images? The possibilities presented seem of limited usefulness.

I disagree. the things you want to do are possible in just-about any image manipulation library inlucding GD and ImageMagick.

Tho ImageMagick boast vast amounts of functionality i think it's ease of use that normaly has people saying GD is better.

in my opinion GD is better for simple things but in terms of power, IM prevailes

[chris_fuel]

bah, back in my days we used fopen, fread, and fwrite!

[AnilG]

Originally Posted by _theworks

I disagree. the things you want to do are possible in just-about any image manipulation library inlucding GD and ImageMagick.

I not sure you realise:
I wasn't suggesting this was not possible.
I was only saying these examples weren't demonstrated in the article.

Anil G

[ikeo]

I suggest there be more on how to install ImageMagick for PHP in this tutorial.

Its less than obvious that you have to go here
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/api.php
and download MagickWand for PHP.

I think adding that section would really make this tutorial accessible to beginners (unless that isn't your target audience of course).

[didimo]

installing this is a nightmare heres from INSTALL file

--------------------
MagickWand Extension for PHP :: Installation Instructions

** REQUIRED ** ImageMagick version :: 6.2.4-1
Last-known-good ImageMagick version :: 6.2.4-1


Installation Steps

1) Either install the required ImageMagick version or make sure that it
is installed (running "Wand-config --version" should give you the
required information).

2) Extract the contents of the archive this file was in, or copy the
entire directory the this file is in (make sure that it is still called
"magickwand") to the "ext" directory in the PHP source folder. So, if
your PHP source folder is called "PHP_SRC_DIR", you should end up with
a directory structure like the following:

PHP_SRC_DIR/ext/magickwand/

3) Go into the "PHP_SRC_DIR/ext/magickwand/" directory, and run "phpize".
(A note: if this is the first time PHP is being installed, you have to
install PHP without MagickWand, because "phpize" is a part of the PHP
distribution.)

4) Go back to the main PHP source directory (from the example above, it
would be "PHP_SRC_DIR", and run:

rm ./configure

and then

./buildconf --force

to remove and rebuild the PHP configure script.

5) Follow the PHP installation instructions, but add

--with-magickwand=IMG_MGCK_DIR

to your ./configure command, replacing "IMG_MGCK_DIR" with the full path
of the directory where ImageMagick is installed (in most cases "/usr").

can we convert html to image. it displays image as html is displayed?

MagickEchoImageBlob() function will not display image under HTML tags.

Do anybody have any idea which function will display image on table.

Snowby: No. HTML pages have a content-type of 'text/html' or something similar, images are 'image/png', 'image/jpeg', etc.

You can only send one type per session.

If you want dynamic images you must create them in another php file such as "dyn_image.php" which sends NOTHING but the single image.

Then in your HTML in an image tag you would do src=dyn_image.php

[Jip]

Is there an issue with MagickRotateImage()in Windows? I can get all the examples to work but that one.

what version of php and imagemagick are you using? i got imagemagick 6.3.5 and php 5.0.3 and it's not working.

The link to "IM Examples" in the above is broken, and site has also moved, to the offical imagemagick domain.
http://imagemagick.org/Usage/
Enjoy. -- Anthony Thyssen - IM Examples