International PHP Conference Berlin 2025

imagecopymergegray

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.6, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

imagecopymergegrayCopy and merge part of an image with gray scale

Description

imagecopymergegray(
    GdImage $dst_image,
    GdImage $src_image,
    int $dst_x,
    int $dst_y,
    int $src_x,
    int $src_y,
    int $src_width,
    int $src_height,
    int $pct
): bool

imagecopymergegray() copy a part of src_image onto dst_image starting at the x,y coordinates src_x, src_y with a width of src_width and a height of src_height. The portion defined will be copied onto the x,y coordinates, dst_x and dst_y.

This function is identical to imagecopymerge() except that when merging it preserves the hue of the source by converting the destination pixels to gray scale before the copy operation.

Parameters

dst_image

Destination image resource.

src_image

Source image resource.

dst_x

x-coordinate of destination point.

dst_y

y-coordinate of destination point.

src_x

x-coordinate of source point.

src_y

y-coordinate of source point.

src_width

Source width.

src_height

Source height.

pct

The src_image will be changed to grayscale according to pct where 0 is fully grayscale and 100 is unchanged. When pct = 100 this function behaves identically to imagecopy() for pallete images, except for ignoring alpha components, while it implements alpha transparency for true colour images.

Return Values

Returns true on success or false on failure.

Changelog

Version Description
8.0.0 dst_image and src_image expect GdImage instances now; previously, resources were expected.

Examples

Example #1 imagecopymergegray() usage

<?php
// Create image instances
$dest = imagecreatefromgif('php.gif');
$src = imagecreatefromgif('php.gif');

// Copy and merge - Gray = 20%
imagecopymergegray($dest, $src, 10, 10, 0, 0, 100, 47, 20);

// Output and free from memory
header('Content-Type: image/gif');
imagegif($dest);

imagedestroy($dest);
imagedestroy($src);
?>

add a note

User Contributed Notes 8 notes

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1
amezghal at msn dot com
16 years ago
gray effect :)
<?php
header
('content-type:image/png');
$url_img = 'my_image.png';
$img = imagecreatefrompng($url_img);
$x = imagesx($img);
$y = imagesy($img);
$gray_img = imagecreatetruecolor($x, $y);
imagecolorallocate($gray_img, 0, 0, 0);
for (
$i = 0; $i < $x; $i++) {
for (
$j = 0; $j < $y; $j++) {
$rgb = imagecolorat($img, $i, $j);
$r = ($rgb >> 16) & 0xFF;
$g = ($rgb >> 8) & 0xFF;
$b = $rgb & 0xFF;
//for gray mode $r = $g = $b
$color = max(array($r, $g, $b));
$gray_color = imagecolorexact($new_img, $color, $color, $color);
imagesetpixel($gray_img, $i, $j, $gray_color);
}
}
?>
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1
Mark Barba
19 years ago
// Using the same code I found here on php.net,
// I was able to figure out how to convert GIF (or any other
// format GD supports) to CIP format. CIP is the image
// format for Cisco IP Phones... 7905/7940 and 7960
// models... Hope someone finds this useful and make it
// better...

/////// GIF2CIP PHP code ///////

// Convert image in memory to grayscale
$img_width = imageSX($im2);
$img_height = imageSY($im2);

// convert to grayscale
// note: this will NOT affect your original image, unless
// originalFileName and destinationFileName are the same
for ($y = 0; $y <$img_height; $y++) {
for ($x = 0; $x <$img_width; $x++) {
$rgb = imagecolorat($im2, $x, $y);
$red = ($rgb >> 16) & 0xFF;
$green = ($rgb >> 8) & 0xFF;
$blue = $rgb & 0xFF;

$gray = round(.299*$red + .587*$green + .114*$blue);

// shift gray level to the left
$grayR = $gray << 16; // R: red
$grayG = $gray << 8; // G: green
$grayB = $gray; // B: blue

// OR operation to compute gray value
$grayColor = $grayR | $grayG | $grayB;

// set the pixel color
imagesetpixel ($im2, $x, $y, $grayColor);
imagecolorallocate ($im2, $gray, $gray, $gray);
}
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// Modifies palette to only 4-colors (CIP Images on 7905/7940 & 7960 is 2-bit color)
ImageTrueColorToPalette2($im2,FALSE,4);

// Basic header for CIP Image files...
header ("Content-type: text/xml");
echo "<CiscoIPPhoneImage> ";
echo "<LocationX>-1</LocationX> ";
echo "<LocationY>-1</LocationY> ";
echo "<Width>132</Width> ";
echo "<Height>65</Height> ";
echo "<Depth>2</Depth> ";
echo "<Data>";

// get image dimensions (almost same code as above)
$img_width = imageSX($im2);
$img_height = imageSY($im2);

// convert to grayscale
// note: this will NOT affect your original image, unless
// originalFileName and destinationFileName are the same
for ($y = 0; $y <$img_height; $y++) {
for ($x = 0; $x+4 <$img_width; $x = $x+4)
{
for ($ix = 0; $ix < 4; $ix++)
{
$rgb = imagecolorat($im2, $x + $ix, $y);

// I came up with this translation on my own
// Some smart person is bound to perfect it
if ($rgb=="2") {$rgb=0;$Gray1[$ix] = $rgb;continue;}
if ($rgb=="0") {$rgb=2;$Gray1[$ix] = $rgb;continue;}
if ($rgb=="1") {$rgb=1;$Gray1[$ix] = $rgb;continue;}
if ($rgb=="3") {$rgb=3;$Gray1[$ix] = $rgb;continue;}
}
$gray1 = $Gray1[0];
$gray2 = $Gray1[1] << 2;
$gray3 = $Gray1[2] << 4;
$gray4 = $Gray1[3] << 6;

// Pack 4 pixels into a single byte for CIP images
$grey = $gray1 | $gray2 | $gray3 | $gray4;

// CIP image data is sent in HEX, strtoupper is not really needed.
$code = strtoupper(dechex($grey));

// My quick fix to padding single HEX values
if (strlen($code)==1) $code = "0".$code;
echo $code;

}

}
echo "</Data>";
echo "<Title>$myvar</Title> ";
echo "<Prompt>$city</Prompt> ";
echo "</CiscoIPPhoneImage>";
exit;
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1
switch251 at netcourrier dot com
20 years ago
In addition to code_couturier too: his code will produce blue pictures, because the value he uses to set the pixel color (the code is incomplete: I first thought it should be $gray) is between 0 and 255, which corresponds to blue levels.

To convert the picture to grayscale, use the following code:

<?php
// replace with your files
$originalFileName = "colorPicture.jpg";
$destinationFileName = "bwPicture.jpg";

// create a copy of the original image
// works with jpg images
// fell free to adapt to other formats ;)
$fullPath = explode(".",$originalFileName);
$lastIndex = sizeof($fullPath) - 1;
$extension = $fullPath[$lastIndex];
if (
preg_match("/jpg|jpeg|JPG|JPEG/", $extension)){
$sourceImage = imagecreatefromjpeg($originalFileName);
}

// get image dimensions
$img_width = imageSX($sourceImage);
$img_height = imageSY($sourceImage);

// convert to grayscale
// note: this will NOT affect your original image, unless
// originalFileName and destinationFileName are the same
for ($y = 0; $y <$img_height; $y++) {
for (
$x = 0; $x <$img_width; $x++) {
$rgb = imagecolorat($sourceImage, $x, $y);
$red = ($rgb >> 16) & 0xFF;
$green = ($rgb >> 8) & 0xFF;
$blue = $rgb & 0xFF;

$gray = round(.299*$red + .587*$green + .114*$blue);

// shift gray level to the left
$grayR = $gray << 16; // R: red
$grayG = $gray << 8; // G: green
$grayB = $gray; // B: blue

// OR operation to compute gray value
$grayColor = $grayR | $grayG | $grayB;

// set the pixel color
imagesetpixel ($sourceImage, $x, $y, $grayColor);
imagecolorallocate ($sourceImage, $gray, $gray, $gray);
}
}

// copy pixel values to new file buffer
$destinationImage = ImageCreateTrueColor($img_width, $img_height);
imagecopy($destinationImage, $sourceImage, 0, 0, 0, 0, $img_width, $img_height);

// create file on disk
imagejpeg($destinationImage, $destinationFileName);

// destroy temp image buffers
imagedestroy($destinationImage);
imagedestroy($sourceImage);
?>

Copy-paste, replace the file names on the top and there you go (picture files must be in same folder as this script. If not, you will have to do your own file management).
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1
mail at laeubi dot de
21 years ago
This function don't work properly for me on trucolerimages (have not tried yet for other types) it jsut produce a part-grayscale image, and some color get mesed up.
I found a workaround here:
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/cash20030526.php3?page=2

[quote]
Advanced Image Editing Under the GD Library
Colorizing
Colorizing images is fairly easy to do. The easiest way to colorize an image is fairly simple to grasp. Create an image of the same dimensions and fill that image with the color you want to change it to. This new image is then placed on top of the older image, giving it a colorized look.

<?php
function imagecolorize(&$im,&$col,$pct) {
// Get the image's width
$im_w = imagesx($im);
// Get the image's height
$im_h = imagesy($im);
// Set a pixel with the color, so we can get it easily
$setpixel = imagesetpixel($im,$im_w,0,$col);
// Get the color
$index = imagecolorat($im,$im_w,0);
// Find the color in the index
$rgb = imagecolorsforindex($im,$index);
// Get the red value
$r = $rgb["red"];
// Get the green value
$g = $rgb["green"];
// Get the blue value
$b = $rgb["blue"];
// Create the layover
$layover = imagecreate($im_w,$im_h);
// Allocate the color on this image
$color = imagecolorallocate($layover,$r,$g,$b);
// Fill the image with the new color (this really isn't needed)
$fill = imagefill($layover,0,0,$color);
// Merge the layover on top of the older image
$merge = imagecopymerge($im,$layover,0,0,0,0,$im_w,$im_h,$pct);
imagedestroy($layover); // Destroy the layover
}
?>

If we use a blue layover RGB(0,0,255), we get this result:
[/quote]

if you use black or gray, its not perfekt, but better than nothing ;)
up
0
szamil at ginf dot pl
17 years ago
I've changed a little switch251's code and here we have sephia effect
<?php
// replace with your files
$originalFileName = $filename;
$destinationFileName = "2".$filename;

// create a copy of the original image
// works with jpg images
// fell free to adapt to other formats ;)
$fullPath = explode(".",$originalFileName);
$lastIndex = sizeof($fullPath) - 1;
$extension = $fullPath[$lastIndex];
if (
preg_match("/jpg|jpeg|JPG|JPEG/", $extension))
{
$sourceImage = imagecreatefromjpeg($originalFileName);
}

// get image dimensions
$img_width = imageSX($sourceImage);
$img_height = imageSY($sourceImage);

// convert to grayscale
// note: this will NOT affect your original image, unless
// originalFileName and destinationFileName are the same
for ($y = 0; $y <$img_height; $y++)
{
for (
$x = 0; $x <$img_width; $x++)
{
$rgb = imagecolorat($sourceImage, $x, $y);
$red = ($rgb >> 16) & 0xFF;
$green = ($rgb >> 8) & 0xFF;
$blue = $rgb & 0xFF;

//sephia
$red2 = min($red*.393 + $green*.769 + $blue*.189,255);
$green2 = min($red*.349 + $green*.686 + $blue*.168,255);
$blue2 = min($red*.272 + $green*.534 + $blue*.131,255);
// shift gray level to the left

$grayR = $red2 << 16; // R: red
$grayG = $green2 << 8 ; // G: green
$grayB = $blue2; // B: blue

// OR operation to compute gray value
$grayColor = $grayR | $grayG | $grayB;


// set the pixel color
imagesetpixel ($sourceImage, $x, $y, $grayColor);
imagecolorallocate ($sourceImage, $gray, $gray, $gray);
}
}

// copy pixel values to new file buffer
$destinationImage = ImageCreateTrueColor($img_width, $img_height);
imagecopy($destinationImage, $sourceImage, 0, 0, 0, 0, $img_width, $img_height);

// create file on disk
imagejpeg($destinationImage, $destinationFileName);

// destroy temp image buffers
imagedestroy($destinationImage);
imagedestroy($sourceImage);
?>
up
0
annonymous at example dot com
20 years ago
in addition to code_couturier - try this formula to calculate gray-value (luminance) in his "more exact" way:

$gray = round(.299*$red + .587*$green + .114*$blue);
up
0
code_couturier at graffiti dot net
21 years ago
# very fast way to generate a grayscal-
# image from a true color image

#...

# --- quick grayscale image
for ($y = 0; $y <$img_height; $y++) {
for ($x = 0; $x <$img_width; $x++) {

# here we extract the green from
# the pixel at x,y , to use it as gray value
$gray = (ImageColorAt($image, $x, $y) >> 8) & 0xFF;

# a more exact way would be this:
# $rgb = ImageColorAt($image, $x, $y);
# $red = ($rgb >> 16) & 0xFF;
# $green = (trgb >> 8) & 0xFF;
# $blue = $rgb & 0xFF;
# $gray = (int)(($red+$green+$blue)/4);

# and here we set the new pixel/color
imagesetpixel ($image, $x, $y,
ImageColorAllocate ($image, $gray,$gray,$gray));
}
}

# ...
up
-1
anonymous at domain dot com
15 years ago
grayscale conversion is built-in with imagefilter().

<?php
/* other code */

$image = imagecreatefromjpeg('some.jpg');
imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GRAYSCALE);

/* other code (ie save) */

imagedestroy($image);

/* other code */
?>

you could create the sepia effect by the following:

<?php
/* other code */

$image = imagecreatefromjpeg('some.jpg');
imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GRAYSCALE);
imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_COLORIZE, 112, 66, 20);
//Wikipedia RGB definition of sepia

/* other code (ie save) */

imagedestroy($image);

/* other code */
?>
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