Preface
Pterodactyl
Table of Contents
Audience for This Book
Requirements
Structure of This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
Programming Conventions
Typographical Conventions
Getting This Book
Feedback
Credits and Acknowledgments
Audience for This Book
This book is for those PHP programmers and web designers who wish to
learn about creating dynamic graphics with PHP 5 to make their web
sites more interactive and attractive.
When you have finished this book you will have an advanced
understanding of image related features supported by PHP 5 and core
skills of implementing these features in your applications.
Requirements
Software
* Web (HTTP) server (local and/or remote), preferably Apache.
* PHP 5, preferably Version 5.2.0 or higher.
[Note][http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/images/docbook/note.png] Note
Object-oriented code in this book generally requires PHP 5 (it
was tested with PHP 5.2.0). The rest of code, however, should work
with PHP 4 as well.
* The Exif extension enabled.
* The GD extension enabled.
* The Ming extension enabled.
Skills
* Some experience as a computer and Internet user.
* Very basic knowledge of (X)HTML.
* Some basic knowledge of PHP, including the new PHP 5 object
model.
Structure of This Book
This book is divided into eight parts. You can read the material in
the book from start to finish as well as just jump around. Each part
is prepended with a detailed overview of its contents.
Part I, "Introduction" [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/page/
pt01.html] covers some important tech aspects such as bitmap and
vector graphics, coordinate system, image formats, and so on.
Part II, "Exif" [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/page/
pt02.html] discusses the Exif extension.
Part III, "GD" [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/page/
pt03.html] is probably the main part of the book. The GD library is
the first thing usually associated with PHP images.
Part IV, "Ming" [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/page/
pt04.html] talks about the experimental Ming extension for Flash.
Part V, "PEAR" [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/page/
pt05.html] describes existing PEAR Image packages.
Part VI, "Third-Party Applications" [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/
php5image/page/pt06.html] introduces some popular third-party
applications useful for creating dynamic web graphics.
Part VII, "Examples" [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/page/
pt07.html] provides lots of well explained practical examples.
Part VIII, " Appendixes " contains several appendixes.
Conventions Used in This Book
Programming Conventions
Code in this book tends to follow the PEAR Coding Standards [3][http://
pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/page/bi01.html#pear_manual].
Opening (<?php) and closing (?>) PHP tags are usually omitted from
code samples.
Typographical Conventions
The following styles are used in this book to differentiate between
various kinds of information.
CONST - this is a constant.
$var - this is a variable.
filename.ext - this is a file.
2 * 2 - this is an inline code.
function() - this is a function.
Foo - this is a class.
FooInterface - this is an interface.
bar() - this is a method.
Some text can be emphased.
[Important][http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/images/docbook/important.png]
Important
Some info can be important.
[Note][http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/images/docbook/note.png] Note
This is a note.
[Warning][http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/images/docbook/warning.png]
Warning
This is a warning.
This is a quote.
Example 1. An Example
This is some program listing.
This is some screen output.
Procedure 1. A Procedure
1. Step 1.
2. Step 2.
3. ...
And even more styles can be found through the book.
Getting This Book
A transparent copy of a document is a machine-readable one. In other
words, it is the document source. Opaque copies are rather end-user
product. Those who going to edit the document or make theirs own
opaque copies need just transparent copies. Opaque copies are more
suitable for others.
You can get both transparent and opaque copies of this book.
Download the source of the book in the transparent Docbook XML format
from here [http://pterodactyl.l2p.net/download/].
The rest are opaque.
Read the book online in the XHTML format there [http://
pterodactyl.l2p.net/book/php5image/].
To get the book in the PDF format, follow this link [http://
pterodactyl.l2p.net/download/].
Feedback
Feedback from readers is a very important thing for authors.
Feel free to contact the author. You have the following options.
* Join the Dive Into PHP 5: The Graphics [http://
groups.google.com/group/php5dive-graphics-en] Google Group.
* Send email to aut...@pterodactyl.l2p.net
[mailto:aut...@pterodactyl.l2p.net?subject=[PHP5IMAGE]].
Any questions, comments, suggestions, opinions, or criticism you might
have are welcomed.
Credits and Acknowledgments
Most importantly, great thanks to PHP creators and the worldwide PHP
community without which there would be no reason to write this book.
Finally, many special thanks and much love to author's family for
their support and patience.