How can the date() function in PHP be utilized to determine the current date for image manipulation?

To determine the current date for image manipulation using the date() function in PHP, you can use the 'Y-m-d' format to get the date in the year-month-day format. This can be useful for dynamically naming or organizing images based on the current date.

$current_date = date('Y-m-d');
echo $current_date;
// Output example: 2022-01-01