The NETTUTS.com blog has a new screencast posted showing how to create a simple thumbnailing script you can use in any application (like an image gallery).

In this week's screencast, I'll show you how to upload files and then have PHP dynamically create a thumbnail. Whether you're building an ecommerce site, or just a simple gallery, these techniques will absolutely prove to be useful. If you're ready for your "spoonfed" screencast of the week, let's get going!

The post also includes all of the code and HTML that you'll need to get it up and running (very cut and paste-able).

Cory Borrow has posted a tutorial he's created to show how to harness the power of PHP and GD to create thumbnail images out of the contents of a text file.

Today, I'll give a little info on how to achieve the process of creating a thumbnail using PHP, GD and the text from a text file. It is really pretty simple, so lets get started.

The trick behind the translation is in reading in the contents of the (plain) text file and pushing it into a string value of a newly created GD-generated image. He includes the code to make using it in your own app simple (a cut and paste version) - his method FileToThumb.

Mikko Koppanen has another image tutorial posted to his blog today - this time the focus is on padding a thumbnail with the color of your choice automatically.

Today's example originates from a question asked by a user. How do I thumbnail the image inside given dimensions proportionally and fill the "blank" areas with a color? Well, the answer is here.

His code pulls in the source image, generates a thumbnail from it and makes a new image (the background) that's a bit bigger than the thumbnail. From there, the thumbnail is laid on top and the whole thing is output as another PNG. An example of the input and output image is included.

Mikko Koppanen has another example of image manipulation in PHP through Imagick to create dynamic thumbnails of your images.

Today's example is about making pretty thumbnails by combining a drop-in shadow with round corners. The image is first scaled down to create a thumbnail. [...] The next step is to round the corners of the image. [...] The final step is to create the drop-in shadow and composite the thumbnail over it.

Both the code block to create the thumbnail and a before and after image to show how it translates in the post.

The Bakery has four new items posted today including articles looking at load balancing, the Request component and UUID behavior in your CakePHP application.

• Load Balancing and MySQL Master and Slaves - If you are currently using MySql master/slave replication for load balancing and wish to transport to cakePHP, it really couldn't be easier.
• Request Information Component - Need more insight into how a controller structures a CakePHP request? This little component will log important information and variables for each request to your application's debug log.
• Uuid Behavior - I have a requirement to use UUID's as primary keys. I was initially using MySQL triggers to call uuid() on insert but in the end decided a behavior makes more sense. This behavior adds a UUID to the field specified in your models.
• Improved Upload Behaviour with Thumbnails and Name Correction - This is an improved version of Chris Partridge's upload behaviour (http://bin.cakephp.org/saved/17539). The behaviour is able to generate thumbnails if used for images (JPEG/PNG only).

CakePHP users can check out these and more great articles, tutorials and more on The Bakery.

The AnyExamples site has a new tutorial posted that looks the creation of a "multiple photo thumnail generator".

Built-in PHP library gd does not have ready-to-use function for photo(jpeg) thumbnail generation. Although there are many such examples on the net, they are usually not suitable for effective generating series of thumbnails (240x240, 140x140, 80x80). This article provides php function thumbnail_generator and trivial image uploading script, which generates series of thumbnails.

They start with the creation of two functions, one to calculate the new thumbnail's size and the other to work to create it. They explain it briefly then move on to a useful application - a file upload that automatically creates a thumbnail for an uploaded image.

The Web Development Blog has a quick new tutorial on using the Girafa.com web service to create a thumbnail of your website.

Since Alexa stopped offering their free thumbnail service last year a lot of thumbnail services are available now. Some of them offering limited free services and others only a paid premium version. On of the bigger and better services is Girafa, a thumbnail service with a free service and also premium services for users with more then 2000 image requests a month.

He includes the simple code needed to make the request (inside of a thumbnail() function) and shows an example of how to fetch and store the resulting image.

Joshua Eichorn has a reminder about the WebThumb (a PHP-based website thumbnailing service) contest that he's having.

The WebThumb contest ends on the 15th. I know there are couple projects out there that haven't officially entered. If you want to have a chance to win an upgraded Webthumb account make sure to get your entries in, the contest website has all the details.

The WebThumb service is a web service that allows remote users to request a thumbnail of a site and, when it's ready, automatically fetch it to be used however they want. You can even defined custom heights and widths for the browser to use.

Joshua Eichorn has posted an update on his blog today about a change to the PHP-powered WebThumb API service - the addition of "EasyThumb".

Like the rest of webthumb its still in beta but it makes adding thumbnails too a site much easier. Easythumb gives you a simple interface to WebThumb letting people with minimal PHP skills integrate WebThumb into there site.

He includes a basic example script to get you started with the new feature as well as a bare-bones code example for the same kind of thing.

On the Zend Developer Zone today, there's a tutorial put together by Cal Evans showing how to use the WebThumb API via a PHP 5 script.

It's a simple service on the surface. You hand it a URL, it gives you back a thumbnail of that web site. At first glance you may think..."ok, why?" The answer to that is of course, "it depends".

He gives examples of reasons it would be needed (designers wanting to show off screenshots of a site or a replacement for Alexa's thumbnailing service) and the code that is needed to make things work. The script asks for the three properties the API needs - a URL for the target site, the height of the browser "window" taking the shot, and the width of this same "window".

Cal show examples of the messages sent back and forth and includes the code for the PHP 5 class to make the request along with some sample usage code. The class makes a basic HTTP request to the API with the XML payload and waits for the response - an estimate of the time for the job and the URL that the results can be found at.