Text to GIF

http://chimpen.com/things/archives/001139.php

http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/4/lev3/29/pid/137/qid/560762

http://saloon.javaranch.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=38&t=000402

Probably too slow :-(

--------------------------------------------

import java.awt.* ;
import java.awt.image.* ;
import java.io.* ;
import com.sun.image.codec.jpeg.* ;

public class ImageMaker
{
  public ImageMaker()
  {
  }
 
  public static void saveBufferedImage( String filename, BufferedImage image )
  {
    try
    {
      File f = new File( filename ) ;
      FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream( f ) ;
      JPEGImageEncoder encoder = JPEGCodec.createJPEGEncoder( out ) ;
      JPEGEncodeParam param = encoder.getDefaultJPEGEncodeParam( image ) ;
      param.setQuality( 1.0f, false ) ;
      encoder.setJPEGEncodeParam( param ) ;
      encoder.encode( image ) ;
      out.close() ;
    }
    catch( IOException e )
    {
      e.printStackTrace() ;
    }
  }
 
  public static BufferedImage makeImage( Color bgColor,
                                         Color txtColor,
                                         String text,
                                         Font font )
  {
    BufferedImage bi = new BufferedImage( 1, 1, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB ) ;
    Graphics g = bi.getGraphics() ;
    g.setFont( font ) ;
    FontMetrics fm = g.getFontMetrics() ;
    int width = fm.stringWidth( text ) + 10 ;
    int height = fm.getAscent() + 10 ;
    bi = new BufferedImage( width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB ) ;
    g = bi.getGraphics() ;
    fm = g.getFontMetrics() ;
    g.setFont( font );
    g.setColor( bgColor );
    g.fillRect( 0, 0, width, height ) ;
    g.setColor( txtColor ) ;
    g.drawString( text, 5, fm.getAscent() + 5 ) ;
    return bi ;
  }
 
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    BufferedImage bi = ImageMaker.makeImage( Color.red, Color.white, "TimYates", new Font( "Courier", Font.BOLD, 20 ) ) ;
    ImageMaker.saveBufferedImage( "/users/tyates/woo.jpg", bi );
  }
}

To make a GIF, you will need a GIF encoder, and use that (I use the JPEG encode which comes with java in the obscure com.sun.image.codec.jpeg package)

Tim

Thanks Tim, That was exactly what I was after (and the speed is acceptable as it's being written to a PDF anyway)
Cheers, Simon

:-)  Glad I could help :-)

Is it possible to use said image in memory rather than save it to disk?  The reason for this is that it will be created everytime a report is requested and then is no longer required.  Because it is an enterprise system I would rather not be creating and deleting small files on the server.

Thanks

it depends on whether the PDF generator you use allows you to embed images...

Which one are you using?

iText (http://www.lowagie.com/iText/) for creating reports in PDF format on a J2EE system