Overlay image with text and convert to image

Question

I want to add text to a jpg creating a new image.

There will be image_1.jpg already on the server and I want to take the user submitted copy and put it on top of image_1.jpg creating a new image that combines the copy and the original image into a new rasterized jpg

I know you can use GD Libraries in php to rasterize copy but can you layer it? My site is written in PHP but I am open to using 3rd party plug-ins.

ANSWER:(OLD POST) but what I need http://blog.rafaeldohms.com.br/2008/02/12/adding-text-to-images-in-real-time-with-php/

Answer 1

Using GD and Freetype2, if both installed, then you can add text to a JPEG using the following steps.

1. create an image resource from the file using imagecreatefromjpeg()

2. add text to that image using the Freetype2 library, via the function imagefttext() (note you can also use the function imagettftext() if you only have Freetype installed and not Freetype2).

3. save the modified image using imagejpeg()

Example:

[I've literally just typed this in to the browser, never run it - so if it needs amendment, apologies.]

/**
 * Annotate an image with text using the GD2 and Freetype2 libraries
 *
 * @author Orbling@StackOverflow
 *
 * @param string $sourceFileName Source image path
 * @param string $destinationFileName Destination image path
 * @param string $text Text to use for annotation
 * @param string $font Font definition file path
 * @param float $fontSize Point size of text
 * @param array $fontColour Font colour definition, expects
                            array('r' => #, 'g' => #, 'b' => #),
                            defaults to black
 * @param int $x x-coordinate of text annotation
 * @param int $y y-coordinate of text annotation
 * @param float $rotation Angle of rotation for text annotation,
                          in degrees, anticlockwise from left-to-right
 * @param int $outputQuality JPEG quality for output image
 *
 * @return bool Success status 
 */
function imageannotate($sourceFileName, $destinationFileName,
                       $text, $font, $fontSize, array $fontColour = NULL,
                       $x, $y, $rotation = 0, $outputQuality = 90) {
    $image = @imagecreatefromjpeg($sourceFileName);

    if ($image === false) {
        return false;
    }

    if (is_array($fontColour) && array_key_exists('r', $fontColour)
                              && array_key_exists('g', $fontColour)
                              && array_key_exists('b', $fontColour)) {
        $colour = imagecolorallocate($image, $fontColour['r'],
                                             $fontColour['g'],
                                             $fontColour['b']);

        if ($colour === false) {
            return false;
        }
    } else {
        $colour = @imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 0);
    }

    if (@imagefttext($image, $fontSize, $rotation,
                     $x, $y, $colour, $font, $text) === false) {
        return false;
    }

    return @imagejpeg($image, $destinationFileName, $outputQuality);
}

NB. For debugging, I would remove the @ symbols.