Thank you all for your replies!

I understand now that what I was missing is how slow it would be to execute such an operation using pure perl. I did understand that it would be a very large undertaking to build something like that, but not why it had not been done.

I have spent some time already on trying to install and configure the modules I mentioned. I guess I'll go back to that and make one of them work.

A specific Unix server? Why not develop on that? And it's either got ImageMagick or GD or whatever, or it hasn't. So, do you know? - Cody Pendant

Cody, I don't have access to it yet, it's for a client site so I don't have all the details yet, but that is a good point. I'll find out and figure out my resources then work on the rest of it until I have access to develop that one chunk on the Unix Server.

Thanks again, your feedback put me back on track ( of 'back to the drawing board' with what I've got ) instead of trying to find the pie in the sky.

Peace