Base64 vs Readfile: Display Secured Image

[ChenXiu]

Which is better? Why and why not?

An image is secured in the root directory, to be displayed to customer in html document.

This image can be displayed as a link to a php readfile page
The readfile page uses getimagesize("../rootdir/abc.png"), headers, and readfile()
echo "<img src='READFILE.php?image_name=abcd.png'>";
-or-
The image can be displayed directly to browser using
file_get_contents("../rootdir/abc.png"), base64_encode(), and data:image;base64.
echo '<img src="data:image;base64, ' .$img. ' " style="width:5in;height:5in;">';

Thank you.

[Barand]

You have already posted this question. Closing.