Dynamic Placeholder Image Generator

A PHP-based tool for generating customized text images on-the-fly. Create dynamic social media graphics, placeholders, or text visuals with custom text, font size, colors, and dimensions via URL parameters.

Features

• Dynamic text placement with automatic centering
• Customizable background and font colors
• Adjustable image and font sizes
• Automatic text slugification and capitalization
• SEO-friendly URLs with Apache mod_rewrite

Requirements

• PHP 7.0 or higher
• GD Library
• Apache web server with mod_rewrite enabled
• A TrueType font file (Arial Bold used in this example)

Installation

1. Clone this repository to your web server:

   git clone https://github.com/hlotiim/Dynamic-Placeholder-Image-Generator.git
   

2. Ensure your web server is configured to run PHP scripts.
3. Update the font file path in the script.php script:

   $fontFile = __DIR__ . 'arial.ttf';

4. Create or update your .htaccess file in the root directory of your website with the following rewrite rule:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule ^images/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/([^/]*)\.png$ script.php?size=$1&bg=$2&fontcolor=$3&sizeandname=$4&text=$5 [L]

Usage

Access the script with the following URL format:

/images/{size}/{bg}/{fontcolor}/{sizeandname}/{text}.png

Parameters

1. size: Font size (integer)

   • Example: 120
   • This determines the base font size before scaling

2. bg: Background color (6-digit hex code without #)

   • Example: f67280 for a light pink background
   • You can use any valid hex color code

3. fontcolor: Text color (6-digit hex code without #)

   • Example: ffffff for white text
   • You can use any valid hex color code

4. sizeandname: Image dimensions in format WidthxHeight

   • Example: 1200x900
   • This sets the overall image size in pixels

5. text: The text to display on the image

   • Use hyphens instead of spaces
   • The script will automatically capitalize words and wrap long text

Example URL

https://yourdomain.com/images/120/f67280/ffffff/1200x900/hello-world.png

This will generate a 1200x900 image with a pink background (#f67280), white text (#ffffff), a base font size of 120, and the text "Hello World" centered on the image.

Customization

Editing the Script

You can customize the script.php script to modify various aspects of the image generation:

1. Font: Change the $fontFile variable to use a different TrueType font.
2. Text Wrapping: Modify the wordwrap() function call to change how long text is wrapped.
3. Scaling: Adjust the $scalingFactor calculation to change how the font size scales with image size.

Adding New Features

You can extend the script to add new features, such as:

• Additional text styles (bold, italic, etc.)
• Multiple text lines
• Image overlays or watermarks
• Different text alignments (left, right, etc.)

Troubleshooting

• If you see a 404 error, ensure your Apache mod_rewrite is enabled and your .htaccess file is correctly placed and readable.
• If the image doesn't generate, check your PHP error logs and ensure the GD library is installed and enabled.
• If the font doesn't render correctly, verify the path to your font file is correct and the file is readable by the web server.

Security Considerations

• This script doesn't include input sanitization. In a production environment, you should validate and sanitize all input parameters.
• Consider adding rate limiting to prevent abuse of the image generation service.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.