Hi zentara,

Thanks for your reply too :) I was tempted to use Image::Magick - but I was lead to believe that its a bit more of a resource hog in comparison to GD (we're going to be serving about 1 million of the "script calls" a day - so every bit extra CPU isn't desirable :))

Cheers

Andy

   my $size = lc($IN->param('size')) || "m";


    print qq|Content-type: image/png \n\n|;
#   print "FOO";

    use GD;

    my $filename;
   
    if ($size eq "l") {
        $filename = qq|/home/domain/domain.pro/www/images/badges/badge
+XL500.png|;
    } elsif ($size eq "m") {
        $filename = qq|/home/domain/domain.pro/www/images/badges/badge
+MD500.png|;
    } elsif ($size eq "s") {
        $filename = qq|/home/domain/domain.pro/www/images/badges/badge
+SM500.png|;
    }

    # create a new image
#    my $im = new GD::Image(100,100);
    my $im = GD::Image->new( $filename );

    # allocate some colors
    my $black = $im->colorAllocate(0,0,0);       

    if ($size eq "l") {
        $im->string(gdMediumBoldFont,27,44,"Secure " . GT::Date::date_
+get() ,$black);
    } elsif ($size eq "m") {
        $im->string(gdMediumBoldFont,29,26,"Secure " . GT::Date::date_
+get(),$black);
    } elsif ($size eq "s") {
        $im->string(gdTinyFont,15,26,"Safe " . GT::Date::date_get() ,$
+black);
    }

    # make sure we are writing to a binary stream
    binmode STDOUT;

    # Convert the image to PNG and print it on standard output
    print $im->png;
[download]

whats going on with the text color. Could it have something to do with the pallet of the image?

Without having access to the original images I'd guess: probably.

Perhaps the easiest way to avoid the problem would be to ensure that the image files get loaded as 'truecolor' (Ie. full 24-bit colour). You can do that by setting GD::Image->trurColor( 1 ); prior to loading the image. You'd then dump the colorAllocate() call and specify the text color directly using its rgb value. Simply 0 for black:

    ...
    ## Set the default to truecolor images.
    GD::Image->trueColor( 1 );
    
    # create a new image
    my $im = GD::Image->new( $filename );

    if ($size eq "l") {
        $im->string(gdMediumBoldFont,27,44,"Secure ". GT::Date::date_g
+et(), 0 );
    } elsif ($size eq "m") {
        $im->string(gdMediumBoldFont,29,26,"Secure ". GT::Date::date_g
+et(), 0 );
    } elsif ($size eq "s") {
        $im->string(gdTinyFont,15,26,"Safe " . GT::Date::date_get() , 
+0);
    }
    binmode STDOUT;
    print $im->png;
[download]

For colors other than black, I use a simple utility sub to convert rgb triples to their integer representation:

sub rgb2n{ unpack 'N', pack 'CCCC', 0, @_ }

rgb2n( 255, 0, 0 ); ## Red
rgb2n( 0, 255, 0 ); ## Green
rgb2n( 0, 0, 255 ); ## Blue
[download]

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

Hi,

Your a star!

GD::Image->trueColor( 1 );

...works like a charm!"

Thanks for your time :)

Andy