Colors while creating an image.

[tc48]

Hello,

I am dynamically creating an image with this code

$badge = imageCreate(450,120);
$resource="../images/covers/212.jpg";
$resourcepic=@imagecreatefromjpeg($resource);

imageColorAllocate($badge, 255, 255, 255);
$whitetextcolor=imageColorAllocate($badge, 255, 255, 255);
$blacktextcolor=imageColorAllocate($badge, 0, 0, 0);
$siderectcolor= imageColorAllocate($badge, 0, 104, 163);
$gothicbfontfile="../../fonts/gothicb.ttf";
$impactfontfile="../../fonts/gothic.ttf";
imagefilledrectangle ($badge, 0, 0, 20, 120, $siderectcolor );
imagefilledrectangle ($badge, 448, 0, 451, 120, $siderectcolor );
imagefilledrectangle ($badge, 0, 0, 450, 1, $siderectcolor );
imagefilledrectangle ($badge, 0, 118, 450, 120, $siderectcolor );
$text="TEXTHERE";
imagettftext ( $badge, 12, 90, 15, 118, $whitetextcolor, $gothicbfontfile, $text );
imagettftext ( $badge, 10.0, 0, 320, 40, $blacktextcolor, $impactfontfile, "$firstname $lastname");
imagettftext ( $badge, 10.0, 0, 150, 40, $blacktextcolor, $impactfontfile, "$traveldate");
imagettftext ( $badge, 11, 0, 145, 20, $blacktextcolor, $gothicbfontfile, $title);

for($i=1;$i<=4;$i++){
$ylocation=60+(14*($i-1));
imagettftext ( $badge, 9.0, 0, 200, $ylocation, $blacktextcolor, $impactfontfile, "$org[$i] $dest[$i]");

}
for($i=5;$i<=8;$i++){
$ylocation=60+(14*($i-5));
imagettftext ( $badge, 9.0, 0, 300, $ylocation, $blacktextcolor, $impactfontfile, "$org[$i] $dest[$i]");

}
imagecopy ( $badge, $resourcepic, 30, 17,  0, 0,  111, 83 );
Imagejpeg($badge,"badge.jpg",100);
ImageDestroy($pic);

 

The problem is that the image appears to be comprised of shades of just a few different colors, instead of being smooth.  It kind of looks like a GIF with maybe about 4 different colors.

 

Thanks for your help

[tc48]

Ok nevermind I just used imagecreatetruecolor() instead.  Now my next question is, is there any type of anti-aliasing that I can apply to the text in the image? It all looks kind of rough.  Thanks

[phpknight]

That TTF function usually creates smooth text.  You could try increasing the overall size of the image and font.  It should be anti-aliasted already.  Does the font normally look good? 

 

[tc48]

here is what the generated image looks like...

 

<img src="http://www.airpinions.com/members/images/badges/231.jpg">

 

Notice how the text looks all shaky n theres noise around the white lettering on the left, and the click to view.

The click to view is originally pulled from here..

 

<img src="http://www.airpinions.com/images/clicktoview.jpg">

 

which you can see is clean and without artifacts.

[phpknight]

First, make it a PNG.  That will get rid of the artifacts. 

 

With a font of that size, anti-aliasing might not be the best idea.  If the font is small (like 10-14 pt.), then anti-aliasing does not give the best results.

 

Personally, I would just make the font 16-18 pt.