How Do You Directly Embed An Image Into Another PHP GD Image?

[webster08]

I am trying to create a completely PHP GD image based advert, so far I am able to add shapes, lines, and text. The next step is to directly embed an image(s) into my base PHP GD image advert. Here's where the problem comes in; I'm not sure how to go about doing this. I don't want to create a separate php file to watermark the main image with external images. I want to be able to directly embed images into the base image. Can anyone advise as to what would be way to accomplish this; my code is below?

 

<?php

// set the HTTP header type to PNG
header("Content-type: image/png"); 

// set the width and height of the new image in pixels
$width = 1000;
$height = 1000;

// create a pointer to a new true colour image
$im = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);

// text
$mainTitle="2011 Chrystler Town And Country LX";

// font path
$font = 'arial.ttf';

// sets background to white
$white = ImageColorAllocate($im, 255, 255, 255); 
ImageFillToBorder($im, 0, 0, $white, $white);

// define a black colour
$black = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 0);
imagefilledrectangle($im, 0, 0, 525, 100, $white);

// display text on image
imagettftext($im, 35, 0, 100, 70, $black, $font, $mainTitle);

// make a new line and add it to the image
ImageLine($im, 0, 100, 1000, 100, $black);

// draw rectangle
ImageRectangle($im, 0, 0, 999, 999, $black);

// add image

$pic1="2011-Chysler-Town-And-Country-pic1.jpg";

imagecreatefromjpeg($im, $pic1, 0, 0, 640, 480, 50);

// send the new PNG image to the browser
ImagePNG($im);

// destroy the reference pointer to the image in memory to free up resources
imagepng($im);
ImageDestroy($im);

?>

 

This is the piece of code that I know is not correct; this is where I need help at.

 

// add image

$pic1="2011-Chysler-Town-And-Country-pic1.jpg";

imagecreatefromjpeg($im, $pic1, 0, 0, 640, 480, 50);

[webster08]

How about a little direction; any help would be great?

[webster08]

Ok... let me see if I can get the ball rolling then. Is it possible for me to do this (in some way); with the imagelayereffect() global GD function?

[Alex]

imagecopymerge is what you're looking for.

[webster08]

Hey AlexWD, thank you for the reply. Yeah... I looked at that function, but I am having problems figuring out how to incorporate that into my current code. The example in the manual is rather vague; when it comes to inserting an image into your current image. Would I need to create a totally different php file to do this or can I incorporate something like the example (that the manual gives) into my current code?

[Alex]

First you'll need to create the image resource for the image you want to merge onto your existing GD image:

 

$pic1="2011-Chysler-Town-And-Country-pic1.jpg";
$pic = imagecreatefromjpeg($pic1);

 

Now you can merge your two resources: $im and $pic using imagecopymerge:

 

imagecopymerge($im, $pic, 0, 0, 0, 0, 640, 480, 50);

 

Look at the manual to see what the parameters mean to get exactly what you're after.

[webster08]

WOW! Thank You So Much AlexWD; That Is Exactly What I Was Wanting To Do!