How to convert a text string in a GIF file

[Enrico Venturi]

Hello colleagues,
how can I produce a GIF file containing the image of a text string?

thank you
Enrico

[Steve Steel · Accepted solution]

Hi

try getting ImageMagick from internet

great software


or xv from the hp-ux public domain


Steve Steel

[Enrico Venturi]

1. I got the ImageMagick software: I didn't find any command to produce a GIF file containing the aimed text string; it seems there's a bug because some libraries aren't found.

2. xv allows to produce an image by an editor ... I need something like
$ text2gif "mytext" out.gif

thank you
enrico

[T G Manikandan]

Hello

you can use Macromedia Dreamweaver.

check this link out

http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/productinfo/extend/insta.html

[Gregory Fruth]

The GD package will let you generate simple PNG
and JPEG images programmatically.

http://www.boutell.com/gd/

You can call GD from Perl, C, and some other
languages. Then you can use NetPBM or
whatnot to convert to GIF (if you absolutely
must).

The C code would look something like:

#include "gd.h"
#include "gdfontl.h"
...
gdImgPtr img = gdImageCreate(100, 100);
int black = gdImageColorAllocate(img, 0, 0, 0);
gdImageString(img, gdFontLarge, 10, 10, "foo", black);
gdImagePng(img, stdout);

The text support in GD is good enough for simple
uses. For fancy text, you could use the scripting
facility in the GIMP (http://www.gimp.org).

HTH

[Gregory Fruth]

Okay, here's a working GD example...

Compile with "cc -Ae -I/opt/local/include myprog.c -L/opt/local/lib
-lgd -lpng -lz -lm" (replace /opt/local/* with the appropriate
paths). To run it: "a.out | xv -"

#include "gd.h"
#include "gdfontl.h"

int main() {
gdImagePtr img = gdImageCreate(100, 100);
int white = gdImageColorAllocate(img, 255, 255, 255);
int black = gdImageColorAllocate(img, 0, 0, 0);
gdImageString(img, gdFontLarge, 10, 10,
(unsigned char *) "foo", black);
gdImagePng(img, stdout);
return(0);
}