Topic awaiting preservation: Dynamically Created Image Headings

I have a client who wants to use on his site a particular font for paragraph headings, which will have to be created as images, and I've just recently realized it's possible to render these server-side rather than creating each one manually in Photoshop.

(Incidentally, let's not get into the whole accessibility thing. I have to admit I'm interested in doing this myself for certain things, and as long as I'm sure to use proper alt and title attributes, I'm not worried.)

I've discovered plug-ins for things like Smarty and WordPress, but I'm looking for something standalone. I came across this at ALA, but it incorporates JS. I'd prefer to accomplish my goal entirely with PHP, but I don't think I'm adept enough yet to begin recrafting it myself.

Does anyone know of a standalone script that will handle this? I believe the only requirement I have is that it should work with just about any TrueType font and not just those that come with the GD library.

[quick_reply] The accessibility aspect can be covered by an Image Replacement technique. You even go for something like sIFR : ShaunInman Flash Replacement [/quick_reply]

the alt text should be enough

This isn't exactly what you're asking for, but it may be sufficient:
http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorial/php_gd/

As for accessibility, as reisio said, the alt text is there for exactly that purpose. Just be sure to still use the proper header tags.

This Zend article should get you going on the right path; gd is the best library to use for good php integration. Read through it.

- Stephen
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(Edited by twItch^ on 05-28-2005 01:15)

ColdForged created a plugin for Wordpress to do this (http://www.coldforged.org/plugins/) Perhaps you could view the code and find something that can help you in there?

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Wes: I wrote the tutorial DL linked to above and have played around with this sort of thing a lot. I also have a working example of what you are talking about here: http://workshop.liminality.org/ (the heading at the top of the page (not the title) is dynamically generated). It's not that difficult to do, and I could send you a code snippet or help you create/customize your own. Send me an email if you're interested.

___________________________
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This is all good information, thanks. I think I got ahead of myself, though. As it stands, I don't think I'll even be able to do it with my templating system the way I've got it working. I need to figure that out, then try to work this in.

Woohoo! Spent the afternoon going through your tutorial there, Suho, and I'm surprised how easy it actually is.

Here is a lovely result just for you:



Now I'm going to attempt to work it into my templating script so I can use special tags (e.g. {imgheading "Suho Rules"} ) to generate the output.