What are the benefits of server-side image scaling in PHP compared to browser scaling?

When scaling images, server-side image scaling in PHP offers several benefits compared to browser scaling. Server-side scaling allows for more control over the quality and compression of the scaled image, resulting in better performance and optimized file sizes. Additionally, server-side scaling can help prevent issues such as distorted images or slow loading times that may occur with browser scaling.

// Example of server-side image scaling in PHP
$sourceImage = 'original.jpg';
$destinationImage = 'scaled.jpg';
$width = 300; // desired width for scaled image

list($sourceWidth, $sourceHeight) = getimagesize($sourceImage);
$aspectRatio = $sourceWidth / $sourceHeight;
$height = $width / $aspectRatio;

$source = imagecreatefromjpeg($sourceImage);
$destination = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);

imagecopyresampled($destination, $source, 0, 0, 0, 0, $width, $height, $sourceWidth, $sourceHeight);

imagejpeg($destination, $destinationImage, 90); // save scaled image with 90% quality
imagedestroy($source);
imagedestroy($destination);