PHP imagefttext (imagettftext) not displaying anything

Question

I'm almost positive that there is a stupid reason this is not working, but I just can't figure this one out. I'm just trying to print out some text as a graphic with imagettftext, but I can't get the words to display. This is on a GoDaddy server, so I don't control everything, but here are the specs from phpinfo():

• PHP Version 5.2.14
• --with-gd' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' '--with-png-dir=/usr/bin/libpng-config' '--enable-gd-native-ttf'
• GD Support enabled
• GD Version bundled (2.0.34 compatible)
• FreeType Support enabled
• FreeType Linkage with freetype
• FreeType Version 2.2.1

Here is the code I'm using. Nothing fancy or strange.

$width = 270;
$height = 25;
$image = imageCreate($width, $height);
$white = imageColorAllocate($image, 255, 255, 255);
$black = imageColorAllocate($image, 0, 0, 0);
$font = 'verdana.ttf';
imagefttext($image, 16, 0, 0, 0, $black, $font, 'TESTING TEXT');
header("Content-type:  image/gif");
imageGIF($image);

I've tried changing the font name different ways:

$font = './verdana.ttf';
$font = dirname(__FILE__).'/verdana.ttf';

I've tried using PNG instead of GIF, I've tried using imagefttext() and imagettftext(), I've tried displaying errors, but it doesn't show any errors, just a blank screen. Any ideas? It's gotta be something so stupid...

Robertroberta

To all who come here from the search engines: please pay attention to the answer by @Mark Lalor below, because I regret I didn't. That was my issue exactly: I had to set imagettftext($image, 20, 20, 20, 20, $black, $font, 'TESTING TEXT'); to start seeing a tiny bit of the text and then I took it from there – Bonaventura

Answer 1

I got it (It hurt my head for a while considering I'm an expert on this...)

The mistake was that the Y position has to have an offeset of the font size so it should look like this

<?php
$width = 270;
$height = 25;
$image = imageCreate($width, $height);
$white = imageColorAllocate($image, 255, 255, 255);
$black = imageColorAllocate($image, 0, 0, 0);
$font = 'verdana.ttf';
imagettftext($image, 16, 0, 0, 16, $black, $font, 'TESTING TEXT');
header("Content-type:  image/gif");
imageGIF($image);
?>

Epp

Wow, it was something stupid. The Y position is the bottom of the text, not the top. Ugh. Thanks so much. – Robertroberta

Oops, looks like Jatt's answer came before yours. I'm going to switch the accepted answer to his. Thanks again, though. – Robertroberta

OK, I can't read correctly. Switching the answer back to yours. Sheesh. – Robertroberta

Sincerely you made me laugh and saved me from the same headache haha ! – Klara

This saved me!! Thank you! – Pauiie

Answer 2

Could it be that you spelled imagettftext wrong?

Thaothapa

imagettftext() and imagefttext() are two different functions. Thanks for trying to help, though. – Robertroberta

Answer 3

$font = "verdana.ttf";
$im = @imagecreatetruecolor(270, 25)
      or die('Cannot Initialize new GD image stream');
$backg = imagecolorallocate($im,255,255,255);
imagefill($im, 0, 0, $backg);
$color = ImageColorAllocate($im, 0,0,0);
ImageTTFText($im,16,0,0,16, $color,$font,'hello');
header ('Content-type: image/gif');
ImageGIF($im);
ImageDestroy($im);   

try this ... font in the same folder

Collator

Yep, that was it. Stinking Y coordinate is the bottom of the text, not the top, so I was displaying the text off the top of the graphic. Sheesh. – Robertroberta

I accepted Mark's answer since it came a couple minutes before yours. Thanks a lot though. – Robertroberta