NAME

WE_Frontend::TextImages - create text images

SYNOPSIS

    use WE_Frontend::TextImages qw(text2gif);

    text2gif(qw(-o /tmp/test.gif
                -c 000000
                -b FFFFFF
                -f font.ttf
                -s 10
                -l 0
                -bl 0 -bt 0 -br 0 -bb 0
                -text test_string));

DESCRIPTION

This module contains function for creating images with text.

text2gif

text2gif is a function to create a text image file. The following options are supported:

-o filename: If specified, the put the generated GIF file into the filename. Otherwise the image is available in the return value (see below).
-c color: Text color as rrggbb. Example: 'FF0000' for full red. Default: '000000' (black).
-b color: Background color as rrggbb. Default: 'FFFFFF' (white).
-f file.ttf: Font file (e.g. timesbd.ttf). There is no default.
-s size: Font size in pixels. Default: '16'.
-l pixels: Leading (distance from left border) in pixels.
-bl pixels: Size of left border. Default: 0.
-bt pixels: Size of top border. Default: 0.
-br pixels: Size of right border. Default: 0.
-bb pixels: Size of bottom border. Default:0.
-width pixels: Width of the generated picture. This is optional, normally the width is calculated by the text width and used borders.
-height pixels: Height of the generated picture. This is optional, normally the height is calculated by the text height and used borders.
-text text: The generated text.

RETURN VALUE

The function returns a hash with the following keys:

Image: (Only if -o is not specified). The GIF image as a string.
Bounds: An array of the bounding coordinates. See the getBounds method in GD for the exact format.

REQUIREMENTS

The GD module with GIF support. Alternatively GD with PNG support and GD::Convert can also work.

CAVEATS

Please note that the PATH variable in CGI scripts is normally crippled to something like /bin:/usr/bin. You have to add the path containing ppmtogif or convert (maybe /usr/local/bin) to make the gif conversion in GD::Convert work:

    BEGIN { $ENV{PATH} .= ":/usr/local/bin" }
    use WE_Frontend::TextImages qw(text2gif);

AUTHOR

Slaven Rezic - slaven@rezic.de