See how you can create graphic effects on text with PHP and GD - drop shadows, arcs, fonts and colors.
Problem
A-tec Signs and Sraphics Inc. launched a web site with the idea to sell decals online. To achieve better customers ineterest the website had to integrate online decal builder. The company is offering also decals for vehicles which brought some specific requirements to the builder like having the decal text turning arround 4 types of arcs.
Goals
Solution
Because of the need for increasing customers interest we had to think about not for perfect math formulas when showing the graphs in the preview area, but for the people who will look at them.
As we will reaveal below, there were few problems going arround human appreceptions for something 'perfectly smooth' and the matchematical perfect figures.
Methodology
We were going to extensively use PHP GD library for the text effects. It provided easy changing of fonts and colors, adding drop shawdows and rotating the texts.
We had also to create color palletes which to appear when user click and disappear when color is selected (You can personally try the decals creating here). Using hidden layers and javascript was supposed to do the work.
The main problem in this site was to create 4 types of arcs so when the user selects one of them the text is created arround imaginary arc (like in the vector graphical softwares). We were going to study Bezie's formulas and create these arcs with its help.
Implementation
PIM Team Bulgaria had the task to build the full functional online decals builder with the following features:
- Decal background
Some users were supposed to have their decals placed on colored background. We had to allow the preview area to be painted in a selected background. First we created the image in temp folder:
// the name of destination image
$dest='decals/'.time().'.jpg';
//the background
imagefilledrectangle ( $im, 0, 0, 590, 60, $colors[$_POST['bcolors']]);
$colors array contains the available color which are stored by the administrator in the database.
Thus, when the visitor selects a background it is passed as parametter to imagefilledrectangle function.
- Font selection
Users should be able to select fonts for their future decals. Knowing that we can't consider all the fonts will be available on all visitor's computers we had to upload them on the web server directory.
We allowed the admin to manage the fonts, adding their names and uploading files in admin area.
The fonts in the select box came from the database. Selected font was passed in the call to imagettftext funtion which is drawing on the previously created image.
- Color Selections
The color selections had to be a palettes which appear when user clicks and disappear when color is selected. The palette had to look as a table with colors and these colors are also defined in the
admin area so they had to come dynamicly. We had to seed a static javascript function with dynamic content.
We created a PHP cycle which was taking the colors from the database and then creating a string for HTML table. This table is then passed to a javascript function which creates the palletes with the help of hidden layers:
function showTable(table)
{
mouseX = window.event.x + document.body.scrollLeft+25;
if(table=='background')
{
var content="";
var y=460;
}
if(table=='fonts')
{
var content="";
var y=690;
}
if(table=='shadows')
{
var content="";
var y=810;
}
document.getElementById('tabler').style.pixelLeft=mouseX;
document.getEle mentById('tabler').style.pixelTop=y;
document.getElementById('tabler').style.visibility='visib le';
document.getElementById('tabler').innerHTML=content;
}
Of course, once the user select the desired color we had to hide the pallette:
function setColor(elid,color,fromid,shc)
{
document.getElementById(elid).value=color;
docum ent.getElementById('tabler').style.visibility='hidden';
}
Thus we created nice palettes which appear and disappear on a single click and don't take much space on the screen.
- Drop Shawdows
The decals offered has the ability to have a drop shadow added so we had to add this option to the online builder. PHP however didn't offered a nice function for that. We created a procedure which draws the texts twice - once the original 100% saturated text and once the shadow with a percentage of the color and appropriate displacement. Of course the shadow was drawn on the image before the main text.
@imagettftext($img, 20, $gr[$i], $x+$dx, $ys[$i]+$dy, $scolors[$shadowcolor], "fonts/".$_POST['fonts'],$word[$i]);
- Arcs
The main problem came when we had to 'rotate' the texts thru arcs. First we created perfect Bezie funtion which to draw the curves and adjust the letter above them. But what a surprise - the curves looked perfect alone, but when we adjusted the letters above them they seemed rough.
After studying this problem we realised that the rough screen resolution and the disability to antialise the images wouldn't allow us to create nice arcs. We were standing against insoluble problem.
We decided to create few arcs with a graphical software (CorelDraw) and to see what could be wrong.
We noticed that Corel's curves were looking great after they are manually adjusted. However you can't just leave the program to create perfect curves automaticly. A human eye was needed to judge when a curve looks right and when not.
We got a totally different direction. There wasn't an universal function to help us. The solution we found was to 'manually' adjust each letter. We created a procedure with cases which were adjusting each letter on the appropriate place and with appropriate rotation depending on how long was the text. It worked!
We created 2 arrays for each arc type - one array with the positions and one array with the rotations.
The rest was simple:
if($arctype)
{
$start=(35-$l)/2;
if($start%2) $start+=1;
$gr=array_slice($gr,$start,$l);
$ys=array_slice($ys,$start,$l);
}
if(!$arctype)
{
$ys=array();
$gr=array();
//making the arrays
for($i=0;$i
You can go on the atec's site and try the arcs we achieved (http://atecsigns.com/decal/step_1.php).
Results
Now A-tec Sings's web builder creates perfect decals with graphs, calculates the price and allows you to add the decals to your shopping cart and chgeckout (the shopping cart software is also created by PIM Team Bulgaria).
The builder allows the visitor to create the desired decals with any color, dropped shadow, background and shape, to preview it and to calculate the cost for different sizes and quantities.
The website and builder were promoted with massive radio advertising company. At that time it was the only decal builder which allowed creating texts arround arcs.
Conclusions
About The Author
Bobby Handzhiev is a senior developer in PIM Team Bulgaria
http://atecsigns.com/decal/step_1.php
http://atecsigns.com/decal/step_1.php
executive chauffeured services Bradford .. Madison to Airport carThe growth in Internet usage around the world is astounding... Read More
Just like all things in life, the ways to run... Read More
Any new website competing on the internet, needs to take... Read More
When people think about the Internet, they think about technology.... Read More
One of the most important parts of establishing a new... Read More
So your prospect, Mary, is sitting at the computer reading... Read More
The internet has taken over our lives with a vengeance,... Read More
Optimal website design is the art of logical navigation.It will... Read More
Launching a new small business website is often a long... Read More
Everyone wants one.Everyone wishes they knew how to make one.SOME... Read More
Why do some sites succeed while the vast majority of... Read More
If you are like me you have wanted to build... Read More
When used to describe a web site, the term "sticky"... Read More
Let's begin by setting some limits. If you're like me,... Read More
Part of the success of most home-based businesses is their... Read More
So you finally decided to invest in a web presence... Read More
One of my most salient memories from when I sold... Read More
A company must earn and keep trust or sales don't... Read More
If you haven't made the sales and built your clients... Read More
Today it seems everyone is jumping on the entrepreneur bandwagon,... Read More
While creating a Web site may seem like... Read More
After years of working with entrepreneurs who developed their first... Read More
Do you make your website just to entertain yourself or... Read More
As increasing numbers of people search for information on the... Read More
1. Many people are not getting good or complete advice.... Read More
O'Hare Chicago prom limo ..Go to any internet marketing forum you want these days... Read More
Installment 1Developing State-enabled Applications With PHPWhen a user is browsing... Read More
Why do some web sites reap huge benefits while others... Read More
What is web accessibility & why is it important?Web accessibility... Read More
URL rewriting are major needs for your sites that produce... Read More
The definition of the phrase "Content Management" depends on what... Read More
When building a relationship, listening is more important than talking.A... Read More
Psychology is a long word which everyone thinks, "no, that's... Read More
Recently I was reviewing the keyword specific conversion rate data... Read More
How do you decide on the content, products and or... Read More
How can we add Word Rich Content to our Websites... Read More
In my previous life.....Actually, my previous JOB life, I was... Read More
You've put up a website to promote a product or... Read More
With more and more countries around the world passing laws... Read More
We all start out the same. Some have budgets, some... Read More
Wow, we`ve already taken a domain and chosen a web... Read More
Huge Mistake #1: Creating a Website with Flash -- Did... Read More
1) Word of Mouth The single most powerful form of... Read More
When you take a look at the most visited sites... Read More
A website is the most versatile and cost-effective marketing tool... Read More
You don't believe in astrology but you check your horoscope... Read More
Analyzing traffic to a site is a key factor in... Read More
Alternate medicine finds its own place in the hearts and... Read More
Below, I have listed 8 simple steps that you can... Read More
You hear a great deal about the Internet these days... Read More
Web Development |