Generating dynamic image from a template by collecting data from MySQL database using Php GD ImageString() function

Current pattern: fetch records safely, then generate one image per row

Use PDO or MySQLi, fetch associative rows, validate values before drawing them, and build output file names from validated IDs rather than raw user input.

<?php
$stmt = $pdo->query('SELECT id, name, class, mark, gender FROM student ORDER BY id');
foreach ($stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) as $row) {
    $id = filter_var($row['id'], FILTER_VALIDATE_INT);
    if ($id === false) {
        continue;
    }

    $image = imagecreatefromjpeg(__DIR__ . '/gd-template.jpg');
    $color = imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 255);
    imagestring($image, 5, 200, 200, (string) $row['name'], $color);
    imagejpeg($image, __DIR__ . '/outputs/' . $id . '.jpg');
    imagedestroy($image);
}
?>

The original certificate-generation example is retained below for comparison and learning.

Here is a blank template ( certificate ).
certificate template

By using this template we will generate certificate for each student by using their data from MySQL student table. Here is one sample output
certificate with MySQL table student data

certificate with MySQL table student data

Part 1 : How certificate is prepared by using user input through a HTML form

Download Zip file with script and SQL dump of student table at the end of this tutorial.

Generating certificates using standard templates by adding data from MySQL table using PHP GD

Getting records from MySQL database

We are using Php Data Object ( PDO ) to connect to database and getting the records by using looping. We can use MySQLi also.

There are 35 records in our student table. We will loop through the records by using foreach() and inside the loop we will create the certificates by using the data of each student.

require 'config-pdo.php'; // Database connection object
/// collect data from student table ///
$sql="SELECT * FROM student";

foreach($dbo->query($sql) as $row){
	// generating certificates using each student record.
}

The full code is here.

<?php
header("content-type: image/jpg");
$file_name='gd-template.jpg'; // file using standard template
require 'config-pdo.php'; // database connection details 
/// collect data from student table ///
$sql="SELECT * FROM student LIMIT 0,5 ";

foreach($dbo->query($sql) as $row){
$x=200; // Horizontal position to add name
$y=200; // vertical position to add name

$img_source=imagecreatefromjpeg($file_name);
/// adding name ////
$text_color=imagecolorallocate($img_source,0,0,255);
ImageString($img_source,5,$x,$y,$row['name'],$text_color);

$y=230; // vertical position to add class 
ImageString($img_source,5,$x,$y,$row['class'],$text_color);

$y=260; // vertical position to add mark 
ImageString($img_source,5,$x,$y,$row['mark'],$text_color);

$y=290; // vertical position to add gender 
ImageString($img_source,5,$x,$y,$row['gender'],$text_color);

$x=60; // Horizontal position to add unique id
$y=399; // vertical position to add unique id
ImageString($img_source,5,$x,$y,"ID:".$row['id'],$text_color);

// adding date and time ///
$x=421; // Horizontal position 
$y=399; // vertical   position 
$today=new DateTime; // date object 
$str_date=$today->format('d-m-Y H:i:s');
$text_color=imagecolorallocate($img_source,255,0,0);
ImageString($img_source,4,$x,$y,$str_date,$text_color);
// end ///
imagejpeg($img_source,"outputs/$row['id'].jpg");
imagedestroy($img_source);
}
?>

Download the script and sample template ( image ).

File Name	Details
config-pdo.php	PDO Database connection details are stored here.
gd-certificate.php	Php script to Generate the image with data from MySQL student table.
gd-template.jpg	The sample template image used to generate the final certificates.
sql_dump.txt	SQL Dump to create student table with sample data.
readme.txt	Instructions on how to run the script

Adding QR code to certificate

Each student is identified by its unique ID column. Using this unique ID we can create one unique QR code and add the same to each certificate. We can display the certificate with QR code or provide a link to download the certificate as JPG file.
How QR code is embedded in Certificate ( image ) using MySQL table data

Adding Logo, QR code and profile photo to image
GD functions

Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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	31-10-2023
I'm using windows 11, mysql, php, html. Graphs format and are drawn ok full screen. However, when I minimze my window the graph remains fullscreen size???? Is there a way to fix this so my graphs will display correctly for all devices.

	05-11-2023
This script is generating image only, using the same we can add our CSS ( style ) to make it responsive. The style code required to make it rsponsive can be added while displaying if you are dynamically showing the image. One sample is here <img scr=our_image.jpg class='my_rosponsive_style'> You can also update the width and height of the template used to generate different size image.

Using Data from MySQL with ImageString() to create Image

Current pattern: fetch records safely, then generate one image per row

Getting records from MySQL database

Adding QR code to certificate

Subhendu Mohapatra