PHPaint
v.2.1 TUTORIAL July 15, 2002
Copyright 1999-2002 by Erica Andrews. All rights reserved.
If you are looking for general information about PHPaint (system requirements, installation, etc.), read the Manual.
Step 1:
If you haven't done so already, install PHPaint, then start PHPaint by going to the URL 'http://Your.Server.Com/Your_Install_Directory/phpaint.php' (usually: http://Your.Server.Com/phpaint/phpaint.php) using one of the supported web browsers. A Javascript-enabled browser is required, as is a web server running PHP 4.0b1 or better (with GD and FreeType support enabled). See the manual for a full list of system requirements.
This font size affects the font you just selected in Step 3. The font SIZE must be a positive integer, greater than zero. Generally, you will want to select a font SIZE between 10 and 100. Large font sizes create large images. Font sizes which are too small, may make the text on the image unreadable. Keep in mind that any font you have selected (in Step 3) may have limits on how big (or small) of a font SIZE can be used. Some fonts won't scale about a size of 72.
The 'target' is an element of the 'a href' tag in HTML. If you don't know what this is for, or don't want the LINK (from Step 11) to target a specific browser window, leave it blank, and move on to Step 13.
- That you have images ENABLED for your web browser - That you correctly set the font directory for TrueType fonts (see Step 2) - That you have SELECTED a TrueType font (see Step 3) - That you have selected an IMAGE FORMAT supported by your version/build of PHP (see Step 10).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Most regular web browsers are NOT capable of displaying WBMP images. If you selected 'wbmp' as your 'Image Type' in Step 10, and are sure you have WBMP support enabled for your version/build of PHP, your image was most likely created, but unviewable by your web browser. I suggest you do a right-click, then 'Save As...' on the preview image's rectangular "place holder", save it to disk, then attempt to open the image with your own third-party tool capable of viewing 'wbmp' images (such as a Wireless/WAP web browser) just to make sure that your 'wbmp' image was created. Also, not all web browsers can display 'png' images. If you have selected 'png', please make sure you are using one of the supported browsers known to be capable of displaying 'png' images. If you selected the 'gif' image format, please be aware that most newer versions GD, the library used by PHP to create images, do not support the creation of Gif images. If your version of GD was created within the past 2 years, it probably does not support Gif images (unless you have a special 'hacked' version).
If your image was created, but the TEXT drawn on the image appears as scrambled "junk", try selecting a different TrueType font, since some "shareware" or special fonts will refuse to print normal alpha-numeric characters. You should especially select a different font if you see a series of "squares" instead of regular text. In addition, you may want to try increasing the font size, as using a very small font size can create scrambled "junk" rather than legible text.
If your image was created, but you see NO text at all, please make sure that you did not set your Main Image Color to the same color as your Text Color or your Text Shading Color.
That's it! If you followed these instructions, your web page should be loading an image that looks identical to the 'preview' image created by PHPaint. You do NOT need to save the 'preview' image to disk unless you want to. The text you copied from the 'IMG Tag For This Image' box will 'remember' your image, allowing you to save disk space by not having to save hard copies of images to disk. The phpimagebank.php script is only about 2.9 kb and is a much better alternative to saving numerous web page "buttons" to disk and wasting server resources.
If you ever need to change the image in your web page, just start PHPaint again, create a new image, and replace the 'IMG' tag with the new 'IMG Tag For This Image'. It's that easy: No memory-intensive image editors, no wasted space, no wasted time. Let PHP do the job it was hired to do. Enjoy!