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[Lchad]

Hi, looking for some help from the Javascript gurus!
I have a client that wants something like this feature located here.http://www.vinylwords.com/CustomLettering.php
A more simplistic version is here http://www.danielledecor.com/home/builder.php

I can't even begin to search online for help because I don't know what this is called. You type in a phrase, select the font, select the color, and size and you get a preview of your selection.

Any ideas on how to achieve this or where to look would be of great help!
Thanks,
Linda

[Daniel]

talk to JacobHaug - hes a flash expert

[JacobHaug]

Yeah, I would say flash would be a great place to start...plus it would be much harder for some one to still the fonts if it was in flash. You could also do this in JavaScript...just depends on what you want...lol

[Ryan Fait]

Don't make me still that!

[Lchad]

Does anyone have a name for this type of form? I'd prefer Javascript then flash since I'm not fluent in flash. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
The fonts that we use are the usual ones that everyone can get free.. so stilling LOL isn't a concern!

[Ryan Fait]

Having a closer look, I would say this is done in PHP. I have no idea how, though.

[JacobHaug]

Well then what good are ya Ryan?

[Ryan Fait]

I had a look around Google, I didn't find any pre-made scripts. Sorry, I'm no great shakes at PHP image functions.

[JacobHaug]

hehehe...lol

[ukgeoff]

The preview image is generated server side using php script and the various text/image functions.

Do you have any knowledge of php?

[Lchad]

Zero knowledge what so ever. But thank you for identifying what it is I was looking at.

I'm waiting to hear back from Mason Barge... Once Ryan said it was php, I baled!
I'll see if Mason wants the job!

Thanks,
Linda

[Ryan Fait]

If you know a little bit of JavaScript, PHP will be easy to learn. It's just a lot of functions, a lot of them having to do with math, that let you accomplish just about anything. It's basically got the same syntax as JavaScript, only it's a little bit more strict.

[Lchad]

Thanks Ryan for the encouragement!

[Ryan Fait]

http://php.net/ is an awesome reference list for all the functions and http://phpfreaks.com/ has a great forum and a lot of tutorials to get started. I'd say go for it. Even the simplest of PHP scripts will make you marvel at how much easier managing websites can be.