PHP Manual: Output GD image to browser or file

Description

bool imagegd(GdImage $image, stringnull $file = null)

Outputs a GD image to the given file.

Parameters

image: A GdImage object, returned by one of the image creation functions, such as imagecreatetruecolor.
file: The path or an open stream resource (which is automatically closed after this function returns) to save the file to. If not set or null, the raw image stream will be output directly.

Return Values

Returns true on success or false on failure.

Caution

However, if libgd fails to output the image, this function returns true.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.0.3	`file` is now nullable.
8.0.0	`image` expects a GdImage instance now; previously, a valid `gd` resource was expected.
7.2.0	imagegd now allows to output truecolor images. Formerly, these have been implicitly converted to palette.

Examples

Example #1 Outputting a GD image

<?php
// Create a blank image and add some text
$im = imagecreatetruecolor(120, 20);
$text_color = imagecolorallocate($im, 233, 14, 91);
imagestring($im, 1, 5, 5,  "A Simple Text String", $text_color);

// Output the image
imagegd($im);

// Free up memory
imagedestroy($im);
?>

Example #2 Saving a GD image

<?php
// Create a blank image and add some text
$im = imagecreatetruecolor(120, 20);
$text_color = imagecolorallocate($im, 233, 14, 91);
imagestring($im, 1, 5, 5,  "A Simple Text String", $text_color);

// Save the gd image
// The file format for GD images is .gd, see http://www.libgd.org/GdFileFormats
imagegd($im, 'simple.gd');

// Free up memory
imagedestroy($im);
?>

Notes

Note:
The GD format is commonly used to allow fast loading of parts of images. Note that the GD format is only usable in GD-compatible applications.

Warning

The GD and GD2 image formats are proprietary image formats of libgd. They have to be regarded obsolete, and should only be used for development and testing purposes.

imagegd