Php – Can PNG image transparency be preserved when using PHP’s GDlib imagecopyresampled

alphagdPHPpngtransparency

The following PHP code snippet uses GD to resize a browser-uploaded PNG to 128×128. It works great, except that the transparent areas in the original image are being replaced with a solid color- black in my case.

Even though imagesavealpha is set, something isn't quite right.

What's the best way to preserve the transparency in the resampled image?

$uploadTempFile = $myField[ 'tmp_name' ]
list( $uploadWidth, $uploadHeight, $uploadType ) 
  = getimagesize( $uploadTempFile );

$srcImage = imagecreatefrompng( $uploadTempFile );    
imagesavealpha( $targetImage, true );

$targetImage = imagecreatetruecolor( 128, 128 );
imagecopyresampled( $targetImage, $srcImage, 
                    0, 0, 
                    0, 0, 
                    128, 128, 
                    $uploadWidth, $uploadHeight );

imagepng(  $targetImage, 'out.png', 9 );

Best Answer

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

did it for me. Thanks ceejayoz.

note, the target image needs the alpha settings, not the source image.

Edit: full replacement code. See also answers below and their comments. This is not guaranteed to be be perfect in any way, but did achieve my needs at the time.

$uploadTempFile = $myField[ 'tmp_name' ]
list( $uploadWidth, $uploadHeight, $uploadType ) 
  = getimagesize( $uploadTempFile );

$srcImage = imagecreatefrompng( $uploadTempFile ); 

$targetImage = imagecreatetruecolor( 128, 128 );   
imagealphablending( $targetImage, false );
imagesavealpha( $targetImage, true );

imagecopyresampled( $targetImage, $srcImage, 
                    0, 0, 
                    0, 0, 
                    128, 128, 
                    $uploadWidth, $uploadHeight );

imagepng(  $targetImage, 'out.png', 9 );

Related Solutions

PHP/GD ImageSaveAlpha and ImageAlphaBlending

It probably depends on your PNG. A PNG file can contain a background color, which can be used when transparency doesn't work. Your PNG probably has a white background. When you set imageaplhablending to true it picks up the background color from your PNG and uses that when writing the JPEG. When you set it to false it picks the default for GD which is black.

You can try it for yourself. Create a transparent PNG and save it with an orange or pink background color. Your second example should show that color.

By the way, the PNG background color trick is a nice one for IE6 images. IE6 does not support transparent PNGs so it will display them with whatever background color you saved them with. When saving transparent PNGs, save them with the same background color as your website. It will look better than white or black boxes around your PNG images in IE6.

Php – Rounded transparent _smooth_ corners using imagecopyresampled() PHP GD

After couple of hours of testing and kicking my head against the wall, I think I've found solution. Problem was about allocating transparent color using imagecolorallocate(). I did not get it at first sight. It was totally wrong approach. However, imagecolorallocatealpha() has helped me alot.

Also, alpha blending must be off before saving alpha channel on working layer. However, it must be done right after creating blank true-color image, like

  $im = imagecreatetruecolor($w, $h);
  $alphacolor = imagecolorallocatealpha($img, $r, $g, $b, 127);
  imagealphablending($im, false);
  imagesavealpha($im, true);

This code is a key for getting smooth corners in transparent area after resize-down.

After all, I've wrote this function

  function imageCreateCorners($sourceImageFile, $radius) {
  # function body
  }

I've tested it with couple of images and it returned image with smooth corners for every bg color.

  imagepng(imageCreateCorners('jan_vesely_and_james_gist.jpg', 9), 'test.png');

Output

Original image

enter image description here

IN BROWSER (Same png file 'test.png')

enter image description here

It finally returns fully transparent alpha channel so you can use that image on every background you want.

I almost forgot to post function code :)

function imageCreateCorners($sourceImageFile, $radius)

  function imageCreateCorners($sourceImageFile, $radius) {
    # test source image
    if (file_exists($sourceImageFile)) {
      $res = is_array($info = getimagesize($sourceImageFile));
      } 
    else $res = false;

    # open image
    if ($res) {
      $w = $info[0];
      $h = $info[1];
      switch ($info['mime']) {
        case 'image/jpeg': $src = imagecreatefromjpeg($sourceImageFile);
          break;
        case 'image/gif': $src = imagecreatefromgif($sourceImageFile);
          break;
        case 'image/png': $src = imagecreatefrompng($sourceImageFile);
          break;
        default: 
          $res = false;
        }
      }

    # create corners
    if ($res) {

      $q = 10; # change this if you want
      $radius *= $q;

      # find unique color
      do {
        $r = rand(0, 255);
        $g = rand(0, 255);
        $b = rand(0, 255);
        }
      while (imagecolorexact($src, $r, $g, $b) < 0);

      $nw = $w*$q;
      $nh = $h*$q;

      $img = imagecreatetruecolor($nw, $nh);
      $alphacolor = imagecolorallocatealpha($img, $r, $g, $b, 127);
      imagealphablending($img, false);
      imagesavealpha($img, true);
      imagefilledrectangle($img, 0, 0, $nw, $nh, $alphacolor);

      imagefill($img, 0, 0, $alphacolor);
      imagecopyresampled($img, $src, 0, 0, 0, 0, $nw, $nh, $w, $h);

      imagearc($img, $radius-1, $radius-1, $radius*2, $radius*2, 180, 270, $alphacolor);
      imagefilltoborder($img, 0, 0, $alphacolor, $alphacolor);
      imagearc($img, $nw-$radius, $radius-1, $radius*2, $radius*2, 270, 0, $alphacolor);
      imagefilltoborder($img, $nw-1, 0, $alphacolor, $alphacolor);
      imagearc($img, $radius-1, $nh-$radius, $radius*2, $radius*2, 90, 180, $alphacolor);
      imagefilltoborder($img, 0, $nh-1, $alphacolor, $alphacolor);
      imagearc($img, $nw-$radius, $nh-$radius, $radius*2, $radius*2, 0, 90, $alphacolor);
      imagefilltoborder($img, $nw-1, $nh-1, $alphacolor, $alphacolor);
      imagealphablending($img, true);
      imagecolortransparent($img, $alphacolor);

      # resize image down
      $dest = imagecreatetruecolor($w, $h);
      imagealphablending($dest, false);
      imagesavealpha($dest, true);
      imagefilledrectangle($dest, 0, 0, $w, $h, $alphacolor);
      imagecopyresampled($dest, $img, 0, 0, 0, 0, $w, $h, $nw, $nh);

      # output image
      $res = $dest;
      imagedestroy($src);
      imagedestroy($img);
      }

    return $res;
    }

Function returns GD object or false.

Function works with solid JPEG, GIF and PNG images. Also, it works great with transparent PNGs and GIFs.