What is the significance of the GD library in PHP web development?

The GD library in PHP is significant in web development as it allows for the manipulation of images, such as resizing, cropping, and adding text or shapes. This library provides functions to create images from scratch or modify existing images, making it a powerful tool for generating dynamic content on websites.

// Example code snippet showing how to use the GD library to resize an image
$source_image = 'image.jpg';
$destination_image = 'resized_image.jpg';
$desired_width = 300;
$desired_height = 200;

// Get the original dimensions of the image
list($width, $height) = getimagesize($source_image);

// Create a new image with the desired dimensions
$new_image = imagecreatetruecolor($desired_width, $desired_height);

// Resize the original image to fit the new dimensions
$original_image = imagecreatefromjpeg($source_image);
imagecopyresampled($new_image, $original_image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $desired_width, $desired_height, $width, $height);

// Save the resized image to a new file
imagejpeg($new_image, $destination_image);