Turn Text into an Image using the PHP GD Library

While developing a site for a client, I needed to figure out a way to convert certain text elements into images. I had no clue how to do this but after doing a bit of research, I discovered a nifty library of functions already available through PHP. The GD library offers tons of cools way to dynamically create PNG, JPEG or GIF files and output them directly to your browser, but you need to make sure that your server has the library enabled.

You can check to see if the GD library available on your server by placing the code:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

into a test.php file and uploading it to your site’s main directory. Open the file online and look to see if GD Support is Enabled. If it is, you are good to go.

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