GD::Simple - Simplified interface to GD library

    use GD::Simple;

    # create a new image
    $img = GD::Simple->new(400,250);

    # draw a red rectangle with blue borders
    $img->bgcolor('red');
    $img->fgcolor('blue');
    $img->rectangle(10,10,50,50);

    # draw an empty rectangle with green borders
    $img->bgcolor(undef);
    $img->fgcolor('green');
    $img->rectangle(30,30,100,100);

    # move to (80,80) and draw a green line to (100,190)
    $img->moveTo(80,80);
    $img->lineTo(100,190);

    # draw a solid orange ellipse
    $img->moveTo(110,100);
    $img->bgcolor('orange');
    $img->fgcolor('orange');
    $img->ellipse(40,40);

    # draw a black filled arc
    $img->moveTo(150,150);
    $img->fgcolor('black');
    $img->arc(50,50,0,100,gdNoFill|gdEdged);

    # draw a string at (10,180) using the default
    # built-in font
    $img->moveTo(10,180);
    $img->string('This is very simple');

    # draw a string at (280,210) using 20 point
    # times italic, angled upward 90 degrees
    $img->moveTo(280,210);
    $img->font('Times:italic');
    $img->fontsize(2);
    $img->angle(-90);
    $img->string('This is very fancy');

    # some turtle graphics
    $img->moveTo(300,100);
    $img->penSize(3,3);
    $img->angle(0);
    $img->line(2);   # 20 pixels going to the right
    $img->turn(3);   # set turning angle to 30 degrees
    $img->line(2);   # 20 pixel line
    $img->line(2);
    $img->line(2);
    $img->turn(-90); # set turning angle to -90 degrees
    $img->line(5);  # 50 pixel line

    # draw a cyan polygon edged in blue
    my $poly = new GD::Polygon;
    $poly->addPt(150,100);
    $poly->addPt(199,199);
    $poly->addPt(100,199);
    $img->bgcolor('cyan');
    $img->fgcolor('blue');
    $img->penSize(1,1);
    $img->polygon($poly);

   # convert into png data
   print $img->png;

GD::Simple is a subclass of the GD library that shortens many of the long GD method calls by storing information about the pen color, size and position in the GD object itself. It also adds a small number of turtle graphics style calls for those who prefer to work in polar coordinates. In addition, the library allows you to use symbolic names for colors, such as chartreuse, and will manage the colors for you.

GD::Simple maintains a pen whose settings are used for line- and shape-drawing operations. The pen has the following properties:

fgcolor

The pen foreground color is the color of lines and the borders of filled and unfilled shapes.

bgcolor

The pen background color is the color of the contents of filled shapes.

pensize

The pen size is the width of the pen. Larger sizes draw thicker lines.

position

The pen position is its current position on the canvas in (X,Y) coordinates.

angle

When drawing in turtle mode, the pen angle determines the current direction of lines of relative length.

turn

When drawing in turtle mode, the turn determines the clockwise or counterclockwise angle that the pen will turn before drawing the next line.

font

The font to use when drawing text. Both built-in bitmapped fonts and TrueType fonts are supported.

fontsize

The size of the font to use when drawing with TrueType fonts.

One sets the position and properties of the pen and then draws. As the drawing progresses, the position of the pen is updated.

GD::Simple introduces a number of new methods, a few of which have the same name as GD::Image methods, and hence change their behavior. In addition to these new methods, GD::Simple objects support all of the GD::Image methods. If you make a method call that isn't directly supported by GD::Simple, it refers the request to the underlying GD::Image object. Hence one can load a JPEG image into GD::Simple and declare it to be TrueColor by using this call, which is effectively inherited from GD::Image:

  my $img = GD::Simple->newFromJpeg('./myimage.jpg',1);

The rest of this section describes GD::Simple-specific methods.

$img->moveTo($x,$y)

This call changes the position of the pen without drawing. It moves the pen to position ($x,$y) on the drawing canvas.

$img->move($dx,$dy)

$img->move($dr)

This call changes the position of the pen without drawing. When called with two arguments it moves the pen CW$dx pixels to the right and CW$dy pixels downward. When called with one argument it moves the pen CW$dr pixels along the vector described by the current pen angle.

$img->lineTo($x,$y)

The lineTo() call simultaneously draws and moves the pen. It draws a line from the current pen position to the position defined by ($x,$y) using the current pen size and color. After drawing, the position of the pen is updated to the new position.

$img->line($dx,$dy)

$img->line($dr)

The line() call simultaneously draws and moves the pen. When called with two arguments it draws a line from the current position of the pen to the position CW$dx pixels to the right and CW$dy pixels down. When called with one argument, it draws a line CW$dr pixels long along the angle defined by the current pen angle.

$img->clear

This method clears the canvas by painting over it with the current background color.

$img->rectangle($x1,$y1,$x2,$y2)

This method draws the rectangle defined by corners ($x1,$y1), ($x2,$y2). The rectangle's edges are drawn in the foreground color and its contents are filled with the background color. To draw a solid rectangle set bgcolor equal to fgcolor. To draw an unfilled rectangle (transparent inside), set bgcolor to undef.

$img->ellipse($cx,$cy,$width,$height)

This method draws the ellipse defined by center ($cx,$cy), width CW$width and height CW$height. The ellipse's border is drawn in the foreground color and its contents are filled with the background color. To draw a solid ellipse set bgcolor equal to fgcolor. To draw an unfilled ellipse (transparent inside), set bgcolor to undef.

$img->arc($cx,$cy,$width,$height,$start,$end [,$style])

This method draws filled and unfilled arcs. See GD for a description of the arguments. To draw a solid arc (such as a pie wedge) set bgcolor equal to fgcolor. To draw an unfilled arc, set bgcolor to undef.

$img->polygon($poly)

This method draws filled and unfilled polygon using the current settings of fgcolor for the polygon border and bgcolor for the polygon fill color. See GD for a description of creating polygons. To draw a solid polygon set bgcolor equal to fgcolor. To draw an unfilled polygon, set bgcolor to undef.

$img->polyline($poly)

This method draws polygons without closing the first and last vertices (similar to GD::Image->unclosedPolygon()). It uses the fgcolor to draw the line.

$img->string($string)

This method draws the indicated string starting at the current position of the pen. The pen is not moved. Depending on the font selected with the font() method, this will use either a bitmapped GD font or a TrueType font. The angle of the pen will be consulted when drawing the text. For TrueType fonts, any angle is accepted. For GD bitmapped fonts, the angle can be either 0 (draw horizontal) or -90 (draw upwards). For consistency between the TrueType and GD font behavior, the string is always drawn so that the current position of the pen corresponds to the bottom left of the first character of the text. This is different from the GD behavior, in which the first character of bitmapped fonts hangs down from the pen point. This method returns a polygon indicating the bounding bod of the rendered text. If an error occurred (such as invalid font specification) it returns undef and an error message in $@. This method indicates the X and Y offsets (which may be negative) that will occur when the given string is drawn using the current font, fontsize and angle. Return the current position of the pen. Set the current position using moveTo(). Get or set the current font. Fonts can be GD::Font objects, TrueType font file paths, or fontconfig font patterns like Times:italic (see fontconfig). The latter feature requires that you have the fontconfig library installed and are using libgd version 2.0.33 or higher. Get or set the current font size. This is only valid for TrueType fonts. Get or set the current pen width for use during line drawing operations. Set the current angle for use when calling line() or move() with a single argument. Here is an example of using turn() and angle() together to draw an octagon. The first line drawn is the downward-slanting top right edge. The last line drawn is the horizontal top of the octagon.

  $img->moveTo(200,50);
  $img->angle(0);
  $img->turn(360/8);
  for (1..8) { $img->line(5) }

Get or set the current angle to turn prior to drawing lines. This value is only used when calling line() or move() with a single argument. The turning angle will be applied to each call to line() or move() just before the actual drawing occurs. Angles are in degrees. Positive values turn the angle clockwise. Get or set the pen's foreground color. The current pen color can be set by (1) using an (r,g,b) triple; (2) using a previously-allocated color from the GD palette; or (3) by using a symbolic color name such as chartreuse. The list of color names can be obtained using color_names(). Get or set the pen's background color. The current pen color can be set by (1) using an (r,g,b) triple; (2) using a previously-allocated color from the GD palette; or (3) by using a symbolic color name such as chartreuse. The list of color names can be obtained using color_names(). Translates a color into a GD palette or TrueColor index. You may pass either an (r,g,b) triple or a symbolic color name. If you pass a previously-allocated index, the method will return it unchanged. Creates an alpha color. You may pass either an (r,g,b) triple or a symbolic color name, followed by an integer indicating its opacity. The opacity value ranges from 0 (fully opaque) to 127 (fully transparent).

@names = GD::Simple->color_names

$translate_table = GD::Simple->color_names

Called in a list context, color_names() returns the list of symbolic color names recognized by this module. Called in a scalar context, the method returns a hash reference in which the keys are the color names and the values are array references containing [r,g,b] triples. Return the internal GD::Image object. Usually you will not need to call this since all GD methods are automatically referred to this object.

This script will create an image showing all the symbolic colors.

 #!/usr/bin/perl

 use strict;
 use GD::Simple;

 my @color_names = GD::Simple->color_names;
 my $cols = int(sqrt(@color_names));
 my $rows = int(@color_names/$cols)+1;

 my $cell_width    = 100;
 my $cell_height   = 50;
 my $legend_height = 16;
 my $width       = $cols * $cell_width;
 my $height      = $rows * $cell_height;

 my $img = GD::Simple->new($width,$height);
 $img->font(gdSmallFont);

 for (my $c=0; $c<$cols; $c++) {
   for (my $r=0; $r<$rows; $r++) {
     my $color = $color_names[$c*$rows + $r] or next;
     my @topleft  = ($c*$cell_width,$r*$cell_height);
     my @botright = ($topleft[0]+$cell_width,$topleft[1]+$cell_height-$legend_height);
     $img->bgcolor($color);
     $img->fgcolor($color);
     $img->rectangle(@topleft,@botright);
     $img->moveTo($topleft[0]+2,$botright[1]+$legend_height-2);
     $img->fgcolor('black');
     $img->string($color);
   }
 }

 print $img->png;

The GD::Simple module is copyright 2004, Lincoln D. Stein. It is distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. See the Artistic License in the Perl source code distribution for licensing terms.

The latest versions of GD.pm are available at

  http://stein.cshl.org/WWW/software/GD

GD, GD::Polyline, GD::SVG, Image::Magick