Display a newly created thumbnail without saving first? - php

Question

I am testing a thumbnail image creator script which creates a thumbnail that can be displayed in the web browser without saving it first.
Currently I have to use the following code to display the image:
include('image.inc.php');
header('Content-Type: image/png');
create_thumbnail('me.jpg', false, 200, 200);
But how can I display the dynamically generated thumbnail image on a standard webpage along side html mark-up?
create_thumbnail function:
function create_thumbnail($path, $save, $width, $height){
// Get the width[0] and height[1] of image in an array
$info = getimagesize($path);
// Create a new array that just contains the width and height
$size = array($info[0], $info[1]);
// Check what file type the image is
if($info['mime'] == 'image/png'){
$src = imagecreatefrompng($path);
}else if($info['mime'] == 'image/jpeg'){
$src = imagecreatefromjpeg($path);
}else if($info['mime'] == 'image/gif'){
$src = imagecreatefromgif($path);
}else{
// If it isn't a good file type don't do anything
return false;
}
// Create a thumbnail with the passed dimensions
$thumb = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);
$src_aspect = $size[0] / $size[1];
$thumb_aspect = $width / $height;
if($src_aspect < $thumb_aspect){
// Image is tall
$scale = $width / $size[0];
$new_size = array($width, $width / $src_aspect);
$src_pos = array(0, ($size[1] * $scale - $height) / $scale / 2);
}else if($src_aspect > $thumb_aspect){
// Image is wide
$scale = $height / $size[1];
$new_size = array($height * $src_aspect, $height);
$src_pos = array(($size[0] * $scale - $width) / $scale /2, 0);
}else{
// Image is square
$new_size = array($width, $height);
$src_pos = array(0, 0);
}
// Stop the new dimensions being less than 1 (this stops it breaking the code). Takes which ever value is higher.
$new_size[0] = max($new_size[0], 1);
$new_size[1] = max($new_size[1], 1);
// Copy the image into the new thumbnail
// Newly created thumbnail, image copying from, starting x-coord of thumbnail, starting y-coord of thumbnail(0,0 will fill up entire thumbnail), x-coord of original image, y-coord of original image, width of new thumbnail, height of new thumbnail, width of original image, height of original image
imagecopyresampled($thumb, $src, 0, 0, $src_pos[0], $src_pos[1], $new_size[0], $new_size[1], $size[0], $size[1]);
if($save === false){
return imagepng($thumb);
}else{
// Create the png image and save it to passed location
return imagepng($thumb, $save);
}

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, you just need to insert an img tag and set its src attribute to your php script.
Something like:
<img src="thumbnailgenerator.php?image_path=me.jpg">

Answer 2

Convert it to base64 (using base64_encode) and then display it with:
<img src="data:image/jpg;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANS==" />