Write Multiple Lines Of Text On Image With PHP GD

Last Updated: January 11, 2024

Welcome to a quick tutorial on how to write multiple lines of text with PHP GD. So you have probably messed with GD to write some text, only to realize there is no way to “automatically break into multiple lines”.

At the time of writing, the only way to write multiple lines of text with PHP GD is to call imagettftext() many times to write text at different positions.

Yes, it’s a real pain. So here’s a quick example of how I “automated” the line breaks – Read on!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

DOWNLOAD & NOTES

Here is the download link to the example code, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything.

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download

The example code is released under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

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PHP GD WRITE MULTIPLE LINES

All right, let us now get into the example of writing multiple lines text with PHP GD.

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO

 

PART 1) IMAGE & TEXT SETTINGS

multi-lines.php
// (A) LOAD IMAGE
$img = imagecreatefrompng("demo.png");
 
// (B) TEXT SETTINGS
$txtSize = 28;
$txtAngle = 0;
$txtX = 30;
$txtY = 280;
$txtColor = imagecolorallocate($img, 0, 0, 0);
$txtFont = "C:/Windows/Fonts/impact.ttf";
$txt = "TAKE A BREAK. DRINK A BUBBLE TEA!";

We begin by loading the source image and defining a whole bunch of settings. Let’s run through these quickly:

  • $txtSize Font size.
  • $txtAngle Leave this as 0, unless you want slanted text.
  • $txtX $txtY Where to write the text on the image.
  • $txtColor Font color.
  • $txtFont Font to use, remember to change this to your own.
  • $txt Text to write.

 

 

PART 2) BREAK TEXT INTO LINES

multi-lines.php
// (C) SPLIT TEXT INTO LINES
$maxChar = 13;
$lines = [];
$temp = "";
foreach (explode(" ", $txt) as $word) {
  if ($temp=="") { $temp .= $word; }
  else if (strlen("$temp $word") <= $maxChar) { $temp = "$temp $word"; }
  else { $lines[] = $temp; $temp = $word; }
}
$lines[] = $temp;

This little section can be a little confusing, so here’s a quick trace:

  • The idea is to break $txt into many lines, into the array $lines.
  • $maxChar is the allowed number of characters per line.
  • for (explode(" ", $txt) as $word) will loop through word by word.
    • if (strlen("$temp $word") <= $maxChar) { $temp = "$temp $word" } We “collect” each word into $temp.
    • When $temp is over $maxChar, we “push” it into the array and start the next line  – $lines[] = $temp; $temp = $word.

P.S. In this example, $txt will break down into $lines = ["TAKE A BREAK.", "DRINK A", "BUBBLE TEA!"]

 

 

PART 3) DRAW LINES ONTO IMAGE

multi-lines.php
// (D) DRAW LINES ONTO IMAGE
$offsetY = 10;
foreach ($lines as $i=>$line) {
  $y = $txtY + ($i * $txtSize) + ($i==0 ? 0 : $i * $offsetY);
  imagettftext ($img, $txtSize, $txtAngle, $txtX, $y, $txtColor, $txtFont, $line);
}

Now that we have broken $txt into $lines, we do the very obvious thing – Loop through $lines and draw it line-by-line.

  • We use the “usual” imagettftext() function to write text onto the image.
  • But take note of how we shift the Y position for each new line – Y POSITION = ORIGINAL Y POSITION + (LINE X FONT SIZE) + (LINE X OFFSET).
  • The OFFSET is optional, but the text will be very compact if you leave it out.

 

PART 4) SAVE PROCESSED IMAGE

multi-lines.php
// (E) SAVE COMPLETE IMAGE
imagepng($img, "written.png");
echo "OK";

Lastly, just save the processed image. The end. Thankfully.

 

 

EXTRAS

That’s all for the tutorial, and here is a small section on some extras and links that may be useful to you.

 

INFOGRAPHIC CHEAT SHEET

Write Multiple Lines Of Text To Image In PHP (click to enlarge)

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

 

THE END

Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end. I hope that it has helped you to better understand, and if you want to share anything with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and happy coding!