GD Graphics Library

infobox software
name = GD Graphics Library

developer = Thomas Boutell
latest release version = 2.0.35
latest release date = June 21 2007
programming language = C
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Graphical Library
license = BSD-like license
website = [http://www.libgd.org/ LibGD]

The GD Graphics Library is a library by Thomas Boutell and others for dynamically manipulating images. Its native programming language is ANSI C, but it has interfaces for many other programming languages. It can create GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs, and WBMPs. Support for drawing GIFs was dropped in 1999 when Unisys revoked the royalty-free license granted to non-commercial software projects for the LZW compression method used by GIFs. When the Unisys patent expired worldwide on July 7, 2004, GIF support was subsequently re-enabled.

GD originally stood for "GIF Draw". However, since the revoking of the Unisys license, it has informally stood for "Graphics Draw".

GD can create images composed of lines, arcs, text (using program-selected fonts), other images, and multiple colors. Version 2.0 adds support for truecolor images, alpha channels, resampling (for smooth resizing of truecolor images), and many other features.

GD supports numerous programming languages including C, PHP, Perl, O'Caml, Tcl, Lua, Pascal, GNU Octave, REXX, and Ruby.

GD is extensively used with PHP, where a modified version supporting additional features is included by default as of PHP 4.3 and was an option before that.

Change in development

On January 4, 2007, the project was handed over to and is now headed by Pierre Joye, a well-known PHP developer. The new developer then released several versions. [http://www.boutell.com/gd/ GD] , Boutell.com.] [ [http://www.libgd.org/Main_Page GD News] ]

References

ee also

* GraphicsMagick
* ImageMagick
* Netpbm

External links

* [http://www.libgd.org/ GD Graphics Library] (Current development site)
* [http://www.boutell.com/gd/ GD Graphics Library] (Old development site)
* [http://www.php.net/gd Image Functions (PHP)] , support in PHP

Tutorials

* [http://www.sr-ultimate.com/2005/03/13/create-image-with-php-gd-library/ Creating Images with GD Library] An example of image generation, using a png image on the server and adding .ttf fonts
* [http://www.fireslash.net/index/pages/tutorials Introductory GD tutorials] A small selection of tutorials for creating and altering images in PHP
* [http://www.scratchprojects.com/2006/07/intro_to_image_manipulation_p01.php Introduction to Image Manipulation in PHP + GD]