From access counters and log-report graphs to scientific plots and on-the-fly animated GIFs, graphics scripting is within the grasp of most Web authors. It is a little documented field, however, and the many valuable free libraries and tools available on the Internet remain under-utilized. Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNU Software is aimed at intermediate and advanced Web users who want to use CGI scripts to generate dynamic graphic content. It will also help to demystify the manipulation of graphics formats for newcomers to the Web. Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNU Software takes a practical, resource-like approach to the content. It is not a book about design or aesthetics of Web graphics; its focus is on programming or, more accurately, scripting programs that manipulate graphics file to be published on the Web. Most of the examples in the book use Perl as a scripting language, though the concepts are applicable to any programming language. However, several powerful Perl modules for generating graphics (GD, PerlMagick, GIFgraph) should help position Perl as a major contender for your Web graphics applications. Most of the topics covered in the book are applicable to any platform (NT, Linux, Un*x, MaxOS), with the exception of the chapter detailing the Gnu Image Manipulation Program (a free Adobe Photoshop-like application), which requires a connection to an X server. The focus is always on free software, when it is available. This book covers the following:

• a tour through the most popular Web graphics file formats by implementing parsers for GIF, JPEG, and PNG files

• descriptions of the PNG, JPEG, and giflib libraries, as well as many other free and proprietary libraries and SDKs

• extensive documentation and examples using the Perl graphics modules GD and GIFgraph, and the Perl interface to the powerful ImageMagick libraries

• documentation on the Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) and the Perl interface that lets you easily script plug-ins or interface to the GIMP via the Web

• the creation of image maps from data extracted from a database

• the implementation of several new Perl modules for the creation of neatly formatted PostScript files

• details on interfacing to a fax gateway

• reusable recipes for many popular applications such as Web counters and Web cams

• the creation of animated GIFs on-the-fly

One of the key ingredients to the success of the Web is that anyone who wanted to could participate in publishing to the world. This book will take its readers to the next level of publishing to the world: learning to use scripting programs to create dynamic graphics for their Web sited. The information in this book is written in a practical, easy manner with high-quality documentation and useful examples throughout. It is a detailed reference that provides Web designers and programmers and with the information they need to program.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 15 Ratings

Save your money - 2002-05-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book offers nothing but the documentation found at the CPAN website. They dont even go as far as to suggest any use (other than the obvious) for any function. So, I will give you one: When printing a string in an image, do @bounds=GD::Image->stringTTF(...) first. It will give you the string dimensions without actually graphing the string. You can then use the bounds array to see what the width and size of the string is so that you can center it. Want to know what the bounds array holds? Spend the money for the book, or go look it up at CPAN.org for free. Oh, by the way, this book does not even tell you that you can call stringTTF as a package subroutine, let alone the numerous reasons why you would want to use it as such.... Like I said - save your money.

Not an "O Really!" reaction by O'Reilly - 2002-11-01
Reviewer Rating:
I have no other option but accepting most of the negative reviews submitted to this book ( Graphics Programming with Perl and GNU software ). The book is definitely one of the horrible books that O'reilly was ever unfortunate enough to publish. I believe a similar title by "Manning" publication does a better job than this one. If you need the facts, read on.

If you want to purchase this book to learn how to program web graphics with Perl, stop right here and go to CPAN.org. Search for GD, GD::Graph and ImageMagick and read their manuals. That's all this book does any ways.

The only chapter I enjoyed was chapter one, "Image File Formats", which at least taught me something I hadn't known before.

Outlines of the chapters follow.

Chapter one - "Image File Formats" covers most of the basics you need to know to understand the anatomy of graphics, their compression algorithms and different formats available for the web, as well as their pros and cons. This is the chapter I enjoyed most. The chapter lasts over 30 pages.

Chapter two - "Serving graphics on the Web" talks a bit about serving images from within Perl. Talks how the browser loads the images, image load time and image caching. Shows the tag, and its attributes. Lasts another 30 pages.

Chapter 3 - "A Litany of Libraries" lists references to some of the graphics libraries available on the web. I would expect to see this chapter as an appendix.

Starting chapter 4 - "On-the-Fly graphics with GD" is the start of all the disappointment, and to some extent, annoyance. After a clumsy introduction to GD and some of its classes and methods, starts coding a chess board. The application itself is not so useful, but the code is worth consideration. The chapter also lists all the methods available through GD classes with some description of each.

Chapter 5, 6 and 7 are written in the same style as the above sibling. They concentrate on Image::Magic (also known as PerlMagick), GD::Graph (previously known as GIFgraph ) and Gimp respectively. Chapter 7 teaches how to write Gimp Plug-ins. You might consider this chapter if you're a Gimp user/fan.

Disappointing - 2001-09-26
Reviewer Rating:
Although the subject matter is great, it lacks a lot when it comes to substance. It is very sad when you have to trouble shoot the example source code from a book that was written to teach you. I am only halfway through the book and the two of example scripts failed do to coding problems with the modules.
The Biorhythm example fails even when you copy it from the author's web site. If you are going to write a book proof your code.

A great introduction - readable and not overwhelming - 2003-06-10
Reviewer Rating:
Freeware graphics tools for web development are abundant, if you know where to look. This book provides detailed examples of thier use with perl - and excellent text parsing language and defacto standard for cgi programming. With the proper extensions (all available free via GNU Software download) perl can provide "on the fly" rendering of web graphics.

Beginning with a proper understanding of graphics formats (gif, png, jpeg) commonly used on the web and detailing the differences between them, the reader quickly becomes an expert in thier differences and the advantages of each.

The meat of this book includes chapters on popular extensions to perl for graphics, GD, PerlMagick, GIFgraph, and the GIMP. I have always been amazed at the features in GIMP, but until this book did not realize that such features could be scripted in perl. The book list all the methods available through GD with a discussion of each.

Although the included web graphics cookbook is a bit short on recipes, the section on postscript makes up for the loss. If you have ever wanted to generate publisher quality postscript files from your web data the "Everything I Needed to Know About PostScript I learned Here" section is for you.

O'Reilly has a knack for generating 'must have' perl books that stand the test of time. This one is a must for the bookshelf of anyone who parses text with perl. Although a full treatise on this subject would encompasse thousands of pages, this book provides the essentials in an easy to use format. It should be considered an introductory text that will serve as an excellent starting point for the advanced web graphics user.

Wallace does it again - 2001-06-25
Reviewer Rating:
Mr. Shawn Wallace has once again transformed the graphics programming genre. With this tour-de-force, Wallace sews up perl in a neat little package. His deft use of the English language combined with an a priori understanding of computing graphicae has made this a must-have for all with the need-to-know. By far this is Mr. Wallace's most accessable work to date. Buy this book, if it's the only thing you do for the next ten years

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