Overlay text on images without Image::Magick

[reaper9187]

Hello Monks,
I have a small query regarding overlaying text on images. I know Image::Magick is a popular module to modify the images. But I was wondering if it is possible using any other module ?? I tried using GD but the tests failed similar to what is described here. Any ideas how to overcome this or use any other modules ?? I am even willing to consider doing this without modules but I know it will be very complex.

[Anonymous Monk]

I know Image::Magick is a popular module to modify the images.

It is, and in the past I've used it to do what you're asking (code not at hand, sorry). Why not use it? Are there issues with it that we can try to help resolve?

Did you try installing GD anyway, like the StackOverflow post you linked to suggests, and did it work or not?

A similar recent thread with some GD sample code: Adding text to an image for printing (not quite the same because there the asker prefers to generate PDFs)

[Anonymous Monk]

Found it! From the archives (and tested):

use Image::Magick;

my $image = Image::Magick->new;
$image->Read("/tmp/test_in.jpg");
$image->Annotate(
        text=>"Hello, World!",
        font=>'sans-serif',
        fill=>'black',
        antialias=>'true',
        pointsize=>16,
        x=>10, y=>30,
    );
$image->Write("/tmp/test_out.png");

[reaper9187]

Hi anonymous, Thanks for your quick reply. I am just trying to find a way around this because I am not able to install it on my server .I'd like to save this for a later time. For now, I'm just looking for quick solution around this. I tried installing GD but it throws the following error:

GD object version 2.46 does not match $GD::VERSION 2.56 at C:/Dwimperl
+/perl/lib/
DynaLoader.pm line 213.
Compilation failed in require at ab.pl line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ab.pl line 1.

What do you think ?

[silent11]

I recall fighting something very similar a couple years back. I just installed Citrus Perl along side my standard install and use it any time I need GD.

[Anonymous Monk]

GD object version 2.46 does not match $GD::VERSION 2.56 at C:/Dwimperl

You need to match up your GD c-library version with the Perl module. Either install the latest GD c lib from boutell.com OR try and find an older Perl module that was built against GD 2.46.

There is also Imager, which is a great Imaging module.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Imager;

my $img = Imager->new(xsize=>400,ysize=>300);
$img->box(filled=>1, color=>"ffffff"); #fill the background color

my $blue = Imager::Color->new("#0000FF");

my $font = Imager::Font->new(
   file  => 'Generic.ttf',
   index => 0,
   color => $blue,
   size  => 30,
   aa    => 1);

$img->string(
   font=>$font,
   text=>'This is a test string',
   x=>20,
   y=>70);

 $img->write(file=>"$0.jpg", type=>"jpeg") or die "Cannot write file: 
+", Imager->errstr;