GD Image Library merge 2 images with "Collision Detection" - php

Question

I have two images, large text on white background. The length varies but the text is always aligned to the left, so there is basically free space on the right side of each image. I now want to merge these two images into one and move them as closely together as possible without having the texts "collide".
I thought of somehow checking on a per pixel column base if there's another color than white (starting from the right side), so I know after how many pixels the text starts.

Answer 1

Found the solution, neat function to strip all the whitespace from an image:
function stripWhitespace($img) {
//find the size of the borders
$b_top = 0;
$b_btm = 0;
$b_lft = 0;
$b_rt = 0;
//top
for(; $b_top < imagesy($img); ++$b_top) {
for($x = 0; $x < imagesx($img); ++$x) {
if(imagecolorat($img, $x, $b_top) != 0xFFFFFF) {
break 2; //out of the 'top' loop
}
}
}
//bottom
for(; $b_btm < imagesy($img); ++$b_btm) {
for($x = 0; $x < imagesx($img); ++$x) {
if(imagecolorat($img, $x, imagesy($img) - $b_btm-1) != 0xFFFFFF) {
break 2; //out of the 'bottom' loop
}
}
}
//left
for(; $b_lft < imagesx($img); ++$b_lft) {
for($y = 0; $y < imagesy($img); ++$y) {
if(imagecolorat($img, $b_lft, $y) != 0xFFFFFF) {
break 2; //out of the 'left' loop
}
}
}
//right
for(; $b_rt < imagesx($img); ++$b_rt) {
for($y = 0; $y < imagesy($img); ++$y) {
if(imagecolorat($img, imagesx($img) - $b_rt-1, $y) != 0xFFFFFF) {
break 2; //out of the 'right' loop
}
}
}
//copy the contents, excluding the border
$newimg = imagecreatetruecolor(
imagesx($img)-($b_lft+$b_rt), imagesy($img)-($b_top+$b_btm));
imagecopy($newimg, $img, 0, 0, $b_lft, $b_top, imagesx($newimg), imagesy($newimg));
return $newimg;
}
From here: Crop whitespace from image in PHP