PHP | imagecreate() Function

Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025

The imagecreate() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which is used to create a new image. This function returns the blank image of given size. In general imagecreatetruecolor() function is used instead of imagecreate() function because imagecreatetruecolor() function creates high quality images. Syntax:

imagecreate( $width, $height )

Parameters: This function accepts two parameters as mentioned above and described below:

$width: It is mandatory parameter which is used to specify the image width.
$height: It is mandatory parameter which is used to specify the image height.

Return Value: This function returns an image resource identifier on success, FALSE on errors. Below programs illustrate the imagecreate() function in PHP: Program 1:

php

<?php

// Create the size of image or blank image
$image = imagecreate(500, 300);

// Set the background color of image
$background_color = imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 153, 0);

// Set the text color of image
$text_color = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);

// Function to create image which contains string.
imagestring($image, 5, 180, 100,  "GeeksforGeeks", $text_color);
imagestring($image, 3, 160, 120,  "A computer science portal", $text_color);

header("Content-Type: image/png");

imagepng($image);
imagedestroy($image);

?>

Output: create image function

Program 2:

php

<?php

// Create the size of image or blank image
$image = imagecreate(500, 300);

// Set the vertices of polygon
$values = array(
            50,  50,  // Point 1 (x, y)
            50, 250,  // Point 2 (x, y)
            250, 50,  // Point 3 (x, y)
            250,  250 // Point 3 (x, y)
        );
// Set the background color of image
$background_color = imagecolorallocate($image,  0, 153, 0);
   
// Fill background with above selected color
imagefill($image, 0, 0, $background_color);
 
// Allocate a color for the polygon
$image_color = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);
   
// Draw the polygon
imagepolygon($image, $values, 4, $image_color);
   
// Output the picture to the browser
header('Content-type: image/png');
   
imagepng($image);
?>