How to achieve a blur effect in PHP?

Question

I've been looking for PHP code to apply a Gaussian blur to images.

What I've done was like this:

<?php
$image = imagecreatefromjpeg('new.jpg'); 
imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GAUSSIAN_BLUR);
imagejpeg($image, 'blur.jpeg');
imagedestroy($image);
?>

However the effect is very weak, and if I repeat the blur effect, it takes a very long time to process and the end result is still not that good.

I also used Timthumb , I always liked its simplicity, but it crops the image by default and its blurring effect is very weak.

Solution 1

You can use ImageMagic

Original Image

Run via exec

convert a.png -blur 0x3 a_blur.png

OR Run

convert a.png -blur 0x8 a_blur.png

Solution 2

It is possible also without ImageMagic lib;

header('Content-Type: image/png');

$blurs = 10;
$image = imagecreatefrompng('blur.png');
for ($i = 0; $i < $blurs; $i++) {
    imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GAUSSIAN_BLUR);
}
imagepng($image, 'blur10.png');
imagedestroy($image);

After 10 blur applied;