How can PHP beginners improve their skills in image manipulation and text overlay on images?

To improve their skills in image manipulation and text overlay on images, PHP beginners can start by learning about PHP's GD library, which provides functions for image processing. They can practice creating scripts to manipulate images, such as resizing, cropping, adding filters, and overlaying text. Additionally, they can explore libraries like Imagick for more advanced image processing capabilities.

// Example code for overlaying text on an image using PHP GD library

// Load the image
$image = imagecreatefromjpeg('image.jpg');

// Set the font size and color
$font_size = 20;
$font_color = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);

// Add text to the image
$text = "Hello, World!";
imagettftext($image, $font_size, 0, 10, 50, $font_color, 'arial.ttf', $text);

// Output the image
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
imagejpeg($image);

// Free up memory
imagedestroy($image);