PHP Manual
GD and Image Functions
Write text to the image using fonts using FreeType 2

imagefttext

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.7, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

imagefttext — Write text to the image using fonts using FreeType 2

Description

imagefttext(
    GdImage $image,
    float $size,
    float $angle,
    int $x,
    int $y,
    int $color,
    string $font_filename,
    string $text,
    array $options = []
): array|false

Note:
Prior to PHP 8.0.0, imagefttext() was an extended variant of imagettftext() which additionally supported the options. As of PHP 8.0.0, imagettftext() is an alias of imagefttext().

Parameters

image

A GdImage object, returned by one of the image creation functions, such as imagecreatetruecolor().

size

The font size to use in points.

angle

The angle in degrees, with 0 degrees being left-to-right reading text. Higher values represent a counter-clockwise rotation. For example, a value of 90 would result in bottom-to-top reading text.

x

The coordinates given by x and y will define the basepoint of the first character (roughly the lower-left corner of the character). This is different from the imagestring(), where x and y define the upper-left corner of the first character. For example, "top left" is 0, 0.

y

The y-ordinate. This sets the position of the fonts baseline, not the very bottom of the character.

color

The index of the desired color for the text, see imagecolorexact().

font_filename

The path to the TrueType font you wish to use.

Depending on which version of the GD library PHP is using, when font_filename does not begin with a leading / then .ttf will be appended to the filename and the library will attempt to search for that filename along a library-defined font path.

In many cases where a font resides in the same directory as the script using it the following trick will alleviate any include problems.


<?php
// Set the environment variable for GD
putenv('GDFONTPATH=' . realpath('.'));

// Name the font to be used (note the lack of the .ttf extension)
$font = 'SomeFont';
?>

text

Text to be inserted into image.

options

**Possible array indexes for `options`**
Key	Type	Meaning
`linespacing`	float	Defines drawing linespacing

Return Values

This function returns an array defining the four points of the box, starting in the lower left and moving counter-clockwise:

0	lower left x-coordinate
1	lower left y-coordinate
2	lower right x-coordinate
3	lower right y-coordinate
4	upper right x-coordinate
5	upper right y-coordinate
6	upper left x-coordinate
7	upper left y-coordinate

On failure, false is returned.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.0.0	`image` expects a GdImage instance now; previously, a resource was expected.

Examples

Example #1 imagefttext() example


<?php
// Create a 300x100 image
$im = imagecreatetruecolor(300, 100);
$red = imagecolorallocate($im, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00);
$black = imagecolorallocate($im, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00);

// Make the background red
imagefilledrectangle($im, 0, 0, 299, 99, $red);

// Path to our ttf font file
$font_file = './arial.ttf';

// Draw the text 'PHP Manual' using font size 13
imagefttext($im, 13, 0, 105, 55, $black, $font_file, 'PHP Manual');

// Output image to the browser
header('Content-Type: image/png');

imagepng($im);
imagedestroy($im);
?>