Editing GD Graphics Library

{{Infobox software
| name                   = GD Graphics Library
| logo                   = gdlogo small.png
| developer              = Thomas Boutell
| released               = {{Start date and age|1994}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|edit|P348}}
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/libgd/libgd/releases|title=LibGD releases|website=[[GitHub]] }}</ref>
| repo = https://github.com/libgd/libgd
| programming language   = [[C (programming language)|C]]
| operating system       = [[Cross-platform]]
| genre                  = [[Graphics library]]
| license                = [[BSD licenses|BSD-like license]]
| website                = {{URL|//libgd.github.io}}
}}

The '''GD Graphics Library''' is a graphics [[software]] library for dynamically manipulating [[image]]s. It can create [[AVIF]]s, [[GIF]]s, [[JPEG]]s, [[PNG]]s, [[WebP]]s and [[Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format|WBMP]]s. The images can be composed of lines, arcs, text (using program-selected fonts), other images, and multiple colors, supporting [[24-bit color|truecolor]] images, [[alpha channel]]s, [[resampling (bitmap)|resampling]], and many other features.

== History ==

The software was developed in 1994 by Thomas Boutell and others.

GD originally stood for "GIF Draw". However, since the revoking of the Unisys license, it has informally stood for "Graphics Draw".

Support for drawing GIFs was dropped in 1999 when [[Unisys]] revoked the royalty-free [[license]] granted to non-commercial software projects for the [[LZW]] compression method used by GIFs. When the Unisys [[patent]] expired worldwide on July 7, 2004, GIF support was subsequently re-enabled.

Version 2.0 added support for [[24-bit color|truecolor]] images, [[alpha channel]]s, [[resampling (bitmap)|resampling]] (for smooth resizing of truecolor images), and many other features.

== Features ==

The "Fly" command line interpreter allows for image creation ("on the fly") using GD. GD scripts can thus be written in potentially any language and run using this tool.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://martin.gleeson.com/fly/|title=fly: create images on the fly|last=Gleeson|first=Martin|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20000903162730/http://martin.gleeson.com/fly/ |archivedate=2000-09-03 |date=1999-01-15}}</ref>

Its native [[programming language]] is [[American National Standards Institute|ANSI]] [[C (programming language)|C]], but it has interfaces for many other programming languages. GD supports numerous programming languages including [[C (programming language)|C]], [[PHP]], [[Perl]], [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[OCaml]], [[Tcl]], [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]], [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]], [[GNU Octave]], [[Rexx]], [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]] and [[Go (programming language)|Go]]. GD is extensively used with PHP, where a modified version supporting additional features is included by default as of PHP 4.3 and was an option before that. As of PHP 5.3, a system version of GD may be used as well, to get the additional features that were previously available only to the bundled version of GD.

== See also ==

* {{anl|GDAL}}
* {{anl|GraphicsMagick}}
* {{anl|ImageMagick}}
* {{anl|Netpbm}}
* {{anl|Python Imaging Library}}

== References ==

{{refs}}

== External links ==

* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181018002538/http://www.w3lessons.com/2011/08/create-dynamic-bar-chart-in-php.html |date=2018-10-18 |title=PHP GD Bar Chart |nolink=y}}
* [https://www.php.net/gd Image Functions (PHP)], support in [[PHP]]

[[Category:Free software programmed in C]]
[[Category:Graphics libraries]]
[[Category:Software using the BSD license]]