I need to align texts of varying length on a background image with known (fixed) width and height and have everything converted to an image all in PHP. I am still combing the WWW for a logical approach to achieve this.

Here's my code so far (you can use it as a base)
<?php
function make_text($text, $fontfile, $fontsize, $width)
{
$words = explode(' ', $text);
$lines = array($words[0]);
$currentLine = 0;
for($i = 1; $i < count($words); $i++)
{
$lineSize = imagettfbbox($fontsize, 0, $fontfile, $lines[$currentLine] . ' ' . $words[$i]);
if($lineSize[2] - $lineSize[0] < $width)
{
$lines[$currentLine] .= ' ' . $words[$i];
}
else
{
$currentLine++;
$lines[$currentLine] = $words[$i];
}
}

return implode("\n", $lines);
}




$font_file = 'ambient.ttf';
$image_file = 'image.png';
$font_size = 17 ;

$text = make_text("hey knlkner dafds dsfdsf df dfdf dfd fd fdf dfdfd fdf dfdfd fdf dfd fdfd fd f d f dfffewr er erqewrw fw", $font_file, $font_size, "267" ) ;


$font_color = '#000';
$mime_type = 'image/png' ;
$extension = '.png' ;
$image = imagecreatefrompng($image_file);
$font_color = ImageColorAllocate($image,0,0,0) ;

imagettftext($image, $font_size, 0, 10,20, $font_color, $font_file, $text);

header("Content-type: $mime_type" ) ;
ImagePNG($image) ;
ImageDestroy($image) ;
exit ;
?>


The output of the code above is this image attached. Looking at it I have been able to break the string into different lines already. What's needed is to change the left alignment to center alignment.

Note: You must have a TTF font file (ambient.ttf) and a png image (image.png) all in the same directory as the code.

#PHProcksLOL

@Dual Core,
I just tried your code and I was able to produce the result show on the attached image.


I also add this code snippet to get the width and height boundaries of the text.

$width = abs($lineSize[4] - $lineSize[0]); 
$height = abs($lineSize[5] - $lineSize[1]);

$x = $width/2; 

$y = $height/2;

//echo $x

I found that the output result of the width boundary of each text varies since there are not of the same length.

49 58.5 52.5 38 30 34.5 25.5 25.5 39 39 39 39 30 34.5 30 16.5 12 12 39.5 44 49 50.5

I think for the text to be centered or align-center, you can also return the width boundary of each text and compute the center positioning of the text with the main image width.

This is my thought. I will give it a try after champions league.

Keep up the good work dudes!

Thank nollyj, I was thinking along the line of treating each line of text independently. Still scouring through ideas. The present nature of the script now will suffice for the project while I try out ideas.

dhtml4: Keep up the good work dudes!

You try.

Have you guys solved the problem already? I hav a suggestion which might work, but I prefer to code it fast.

^^^ I think Dual Core said he has found a temporal solution for the time been.

dhtml4: Have you guys solved the problem already? I hav a suggestion which might work, but I prefer to code it fast.

What's the suggestion?

I decided to work with the present output pending when I get a better idea or suggestion because I had to move on to complete the next phase of the task which is to filter the background image "instagram style" so that the background has an old school, retro feel which will make the text stand out better. Looking at the output now with the filter done, its good to go.

Uhm, why not try to know the width of characters of the text.

I AM A BOY
MY
NAME IS ALLI
MY
FATHER IS MR
GOAT

If we can assume that each character is 1 pixel
then, the first line, I AM A BOY = 11 characters
second line MY is 2 characters
that way, you can apply space to centralize the various lines in your output.
I hope you get the picture or should i be more explicit?

Also, you can calculate the length a given block of text should give you - of course based on the size of the texts you are using.

To get that calculation, you may generate a long text - and measure the length of pixels. . . .i am too tired to explain clearer, just getting back from tedious work