Merging two images with PHP

Use the GD library or ImageMagick. I googled 'PHP GD merge images' and got several articles on doing this. In the past what I've done is create a large blank image, and then used imagecopymerge() to paste those images into my original blank one. Check out the articles on google you'll find some source code you can start using right away.

You can do this with the ImageMagick extension. I'm guessing that the combineImages() method will do what you want.

The GD Image Manipulation Library in PHP is probably the best for working with images in PHP. Try one of the imagecopy functions (imagecopy, imagecopymerge, ...). Each of them combine 2 images in different ways. See the php documentation on imagecopy for more information.

I got it working from one I made.

<?php
$dest = imagecreatefrompng('vinyl.png');
$src = imagecreatefromjpeg('cover2.jpg');


imagealphablending($dest, false);
imagesavealpha($dest, true);


imagecopymerge($dest, $src, 10, 9, 0, 0, 181, 180, 100); //have to play with these numbers for it to work for you, etc.


header('Content-Type: image/png');
imagepng($dest);


imagedestroy($dest);
imagedestroy($src);
?>

Question is about merging two images, however in this specified case you shouldn't do that. You should put Content Image (ie. cover) into <img /> tag, and Style Image into CSS, why?

1. As I said the cover belongs to the content of the document, while that vinyl record and shadow are just a part of the page styles.
2. Such separation is much more convenient to use. User can easily copy that image. It's easier to index by web-spiders.
3. Finally, it's much easier to maintain.

So use a very simple code:

<div class="cover">
<img src="/content/images/covers/movin-mountains.png" alt="Moving mountains by Pneuma" width="100" height="100" />
</div>


.cover {
padding: 10px;
padding-right: 100px;


background: url(/style/images/cover-background.png) no-repeat;
}

ImageArtist is a pure gd wrapper authored by me, this enables you to do complex image manipulations insanely easy, for your question solution can be done using very few steps using this powerful library.

here is a sample code.

$img1 = new Image("./cover.jpg");
$img2 = new Image("./box.png");
$img2->merge($img1,9,9);
$img2->save("./merged.png",IMAGETYPE_PNG);

This is how my result looks like.

You can try my function for merging images horizontally or vertically without changing image ratio. just copy paste will work.

function merge($filename_x, $filename_y, $filename_result, $mergeType = 0) {


//$mergeType 0 for horizandal merge 1 for vertical merge


// Get dimensions for specified images
list($width_x, $height_x) = getimagesize($filename_x);
list($width_y, $height_y) = getimagesize($filename_y);




$lowerFileName = strtolower($filename_x);
if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.jpg')>0 || substr_count($lowerFileName, '.jpeg')>0){
$image_x = imagecreatefromjpeg($filename_x);
}else if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.png')>0){
$image_x = imagecreatefrompng($filename_x);
}else if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.gif')>0){
$image_x = imagecreatefromgif($filename_x);
}




$lowerFileName = strtolower($filename_y);
if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.jpg')>0 || substr_count($lowerFileName, '.jpeg')>0){
$image_y = imagecreatefromjpeg($filename_y);
}else if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.png')>0){
$image_y = imagecreatefrompng($filename_y);
}else if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.gif')>0){
$image_y = imagecreatefromgif($filename_y);
}




if($mergeType==0){
//for horizandal merge
if($height_y<$height_x){
$new_height = $height_y;


$new_x_height = $new_height;
$precentageReduced = ($height_x - $new_height)/($height_x/100);
$new_x_width = ceil($width_x - (($width_x/100) * $precentageReduced));


$tmp = imagecreatetruecolor($new_x_width, $new_x_height);
imagecopyresampled($tmp, $image_x, 0, 0, 0, 0, $new_x_width, $new_x_height, $width_x, $height_x);
$image_x = $tmp;


$height_x = $new_x_height;
$width_x = $new_x_width;


}else{
$new_height = $height_x;


$new_y_height = $new_height;
$precentageReduced = ($height_y - $new_height)/($height_y/100);
$new_y_width = ceil($width_y - (($width_y/100) * $precentageReduced));


$tmp = imagecreatetruecolor($new_y_width, $new_y_height);
imagecopyresampled($tmp, $image_y, 0, 0, 0, 0, $new_y_width, $new_y_height, $width_y, $height_y);
$image_y = $tmp;


$height_y = $new_y_height;
$width_y = $new_y_width;


}


$new_width = $width_x + $width_y;


$image = imagecreatetruecolor($new_width, $new_height);


imagecopy($image, $image_x, 0, 0, 0, 0, $width_x, $height_x);
imagecopy($image, $image_y, $width_x, 0, 0, 0, $width_y, $height_y);


}else{




//for verical merge
if($width_y<$width_x){
$new_width = $width_y;


$new_x_width = $new_width;
$precentageReduced = ($width_x - $new_width)/($width_x/100);
$new_x_height = ceil($height_x - (($height_x/100) * $precentageReduced));


$tmp = imagecreatetruecolor($new_x_width, $new_x_height);
imagecopyresampled($tmp, $image_x, 0, 0, 0, 0, $new_x_width, $new_x_height, $width_x, $height_x);
$image_x = $tmp;


$width_x = $new_x_width;
$height_x = $new_x_height;


}else{
$new_width = $width_x;


$new_y_width = $new_width;
$precentageReduced = ($width_y - $new_width)/($width_y/100);
$new_y_height = ceil($height_y - (($height_y/100) * $precentageReduced));


$tmp = imagecreatetruecolor($new_y_width, $new_y_height);
imagecopyresampled($tmp, $image_y, 0, 0, 0, 0, $new_y_width, $new_y_height, $width_y, $height_y);
$image_y = $tmp;


$width_y = $new_y_width;
$height_y = $new_y_height;


}


$new_height = $height_x + $height_y;


$image = imagecreatetruecolor($new_width, $new_height);


imagecopy($image, $image_x, 0, 0, 0, 0, $width_x, $height_x);
imagecopy($image, $image_y, 0, $height_x, 0, 0, $width_y, $height_y);


}










$lowerFileName = strtolower($filename_result);
if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.jpg')>0 || substr_count($lowerFileName, '.jpeg')>0){
imagejpeg($image, $filename_result);
}else if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.png')>0){
imagepng($image, $filename_result);
}else if(substr_count($lowerFileName, '.gif')>0){
imagegif($image, $filename_result);
}




// Clean up
imagedestroy($image);
imagedestroy($image_x);
imagedestroy($image_y);


}




merge('images/h_large.jpg', 'images/v_large.jpg', 'images/merged_har.jpg',0); //merge horizontally
merge('images/h_large.jpg', 'images/v_large.jpg', 'images/merged.jpg',1); //merge vertically

Merger two image png and jpg/png [Image Masking]

//URL or Local path
$src_url = '1.png';
$dest_url = '2.jpg';
$src = imagecreatefrompng($src_url);
$dest1 = imagecreatefromjpeg($dest_url);


//if you want to make same size
list($width, $height) = getimagesize($dest_url);
list($newWidth, $newHeight) = getimagesize($src_url);
$dest = imagecreatetruecolor($newWidth, $newHeight);


imagecopyresampled($dest, $dest1, 0, 0, 0, 0, $newWidth, $newHeight, $width, $height);


list($src_w, $src_h) = getimagesize($src_url);


//merger with same size
$this->imagecopymerge_alpha($dest, $src, 0, 0, 0, 0, $src_w, $src_h, 100);


//show output on browser
header('Content-Type: image/png');
imagejpeg($dest);

imagecopymerge_alpha

function imagecopymerge_alpha($dst_im, $src_im, $dst_x, $dst_y, $src_x, $src_y, $src_w, $src_h, $pct)
{
$cut = imagecreatetruecolor($src_w, $src_h);
imagecopy($cut, $dst_im, 0, 0, $dst_x, $dst_y, $src_w, $src_h);
imagecopy($cut, $src_im, 0, 0, $src_x, $src_y, $src_w, $src_h);
imagecopymerge($dst_im, $cut, $dst_x, $dst_y, 0, 0, $src_w, $src_h, $pct);
}