How can I generate GIFs on the fly from my CGI scripts?

If you want to generate GIF images on the fly as part of your application, examine the gd library (URL is: http://siva.cshl.org/gd/gd.html ). Hint: your HTML page and your inline images are separate documents with separate URLs. Generate them in response to separate requests! (Yes, there are tricks to speed this up, but be careful not to break inline images on HTML pages you didn't write that refer to your gd-generated image.)

It's also possible to use gnuplot and the pbmplus utilities. This is slower, but can require less programming if gnuplot is sufficient for your purposes. (See archie for both tools.)


World Wide Web FAQ