In what situations might using a custom function like "imagepatternedline()" be preferable over standard PHP functions for drawing dashed lines with varying thickness?

Using a custom function like "imagepatternedline()" might be preferable over standard PHP functions for drawing dashed lines with varying thickness when you need more control over the pattern of the dashes or the thickness of the line. Custom functions allow you to define specific patterns and thicknesses that may not be achievable with standard functions alone. 

<?php
function imagepatternedline($image, $x1, $y1, $x2, $y2, $color, $thickness, $pattern) {
    $length = sqrt(pow($x2 - $x1, 2) + pow($y2 - $y1, 2));
    $angle = atan2($y2 - $y1, $x2 - $x1);
    
    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i += array_sum($pattern)) {
        foreach ($pattern as $segment) {
            $x = $x1 + $i * cos($angle);
            $y = $y1 + $i * sin($angle);
            imageline($image, $x, $y, $x + $segment * cos($angle), $y + $segment * sin($angle), $color);
            $i += $segment;
        }
    }
}

// Example usage
$image = imagecreate(200, 200);
$color = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 0, 0);
$pattern = [5, 5]; // Dash pattern: 5 pixels on, 5 pixels off
imagepatternedline($image, 50, 50, 150, 150, $color, 2, $pattern);

header('Content-Type: image/png');
imagepng($image);
imagedestroy($image);
?>

Keywords

custom function imagepatternedline() dashed lines varying thickness PHP functions

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