Hi all,

I use PHP and ImageMagick to create images from dynamic text (stored in mySql).

Basically I've got a php web page, from which I call a shell command that output a fixed width and height image, filled with text. The text size vary to fill the whole image, so few words -> bigger text, many words -> smaller text. So you have always all your text formatted in the same space, and you don't have to worry about carriage return (it's all auto(image)magick)

The core of the sequence of command is:

[PHP code] $command = "echo "". $text ."" | convert -channel RGBA -background none -font " . $fontfile ." -fill white -size ".$width."x".$height." caption:@- ". $phisicalPathAndFileNameOfTheNewImageFile;

echo exec($command); [/PHP code]

where the words preceded by "$" are variables.

After you run this command you'll find the image file ($phisicalPathAndFileNameOfTheNewImageFile). In the image, the text is white (I use dark background in PD) and the background is transparent.

Then you can take it and use in PD.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you want more details or screenshots - eg: php functions to fix the input text (addslashes etc...)

ciao, dario