What is the recommended approach for drawing shapes using PHP?

Drawing shapes in PHP can be achieved using the GD library, which provides functions for creating and manipulating images. To draw shapes, you can use functions like `imagecreatetruecolor()` to create a new image, `imagefilledrectangle()` to draw rectangles, `imagefilledellipse()` to draw ellipses, and so on. Make sure to output the image using `header()` function with the appropriate content type.

// Create a blank image
$image = imagecreatetruecolor(200, 200);

// Set the background color
$bgColor = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);
imagefill($image, 0, 0, $bgColor);

// Draw a rectangle
$rectangleColor = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 0, 0);
imagefilledrectangle($image, 50, 50, 150, 150, $rectangleColor);

// Output the image
header('Content-Type: image/png');
imagepng($image);

// Free up memory
imagedestroy($image);