Home | Products | Services | Support | Contacts | Links |
GIF Support in GD
These patches restore GIF support to various versions of GD.
Disclaimer
First let me state that this site is in no way supported or encouraged by the original author of GD.
His position on the LZW patent issue is clear from his actions.
Second, note that I do not in any way intend to contravene any applicable laws. It is my understanding that the LZW patent has not been registered in Australia, and that it is now too late to do so.
As a general rule Australia chooses to recognize copyrights of software, as
a way to protect original work. I also believe that rights to copy the gd software have been granted.
If you want to know my opinions on Patents and Copyright follow
If you have a legal opnion which indicates the above is incorrect, plase send mail to
libgd@rime.com.au, and we will make any necessary corrections.
We have no desire to infringe upon others rights under the law.
GD History
The original GD library allowed developers to manipulate GIF files. It was (and is) open source
freeware developed by Thomas Boutell of
Boutell.Com, Inc.
As you may or may not be aware, Unisys holds the patents on the LZW compression technology used in
GIF files. Despite the fact that they were made open and freely available for several years, and
as a result became a de-facto standard, in 1996 (I think) Unisys decided to enforce it's patent.
The result of this is that libraries like GD, which are open source, free development projects,
created, basically, out of the good nature of it's original author, could no longer use the
GIF format.
As a result, all support for GIF was removed in version 1.6 of the GD library.
This is the only correct solution for someone that lives in Canada or the US.
PHP
We are often asked how to build PHP (versions before 4.3) with GIF support.
While we have no direct experience of this, we did receive an
email describing the process.
It can be found here.
The process for building PHP 4.3+ with a patched GD seems to
be to use the
using the external shared library. PHP is smart enough to check if the
library has GIF support.
GD Patches
The following links will take you to different flavours of the STABLE GD
2.0.26 library:
- Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library Version 2.0.26.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patch to add support for the patched
GD library back into version 2.041 of Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm
V2.041 Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it).
For those of you who use SuSE Linux and PHP, the RPMS for mod_php etc will be
forthcoming...
The following links will take you to different flavours of the OLD GD
2.0.21 library:
- Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library Version 2.0.15.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents.
- A Patch to add support for the patched
GD library back into version 2.041 of Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm
V2.041 Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it).
For those of you who use SuSE Linux and PHP, there are also RPMs for
mod_php etc at
http://downloads.rhyme.com.au/gd/suse.
The following links will take you to different flavours of the OLD GD
2.0.15 library:
- Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library Version 2.0.15.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents.
- A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patch to add support for the patched
GD library back into version 2.041 of Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm
V2.041 Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it).
The following links will take you to different flavours of the OLD GD 1.8.4 library:
- The Base Library (1.8.4).
This is free of patent
issues and is a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents.
- A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - Patch to add internal GIF support
and AutoMake support back into GD. The Automake support is based on the patches
in Lincoln Stein's GD module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support and AutoMake
support (the latter based on the patches in Lincoln Stein's GD module).
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patch to add support for the patched
GD library back into version 1.30 of Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm V1.30 Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - The Documentation for the Patched Version.
I will endeavour to ensure that these files are up-to-date with respect to
the official version, but if for some reason you notice that they are out
of date, please send mail to libgd@rhyme.com.au.
Please report any problems with these versions to
libgd@rhyme.com.au.
You can also download the latest version of the standard libary from
the GD Home Page.
Finally, a local copy of the standard GD documentation can be found
here.
Older Versions
The following links will take you to different flavours of the OLD GD
2.0.12 library:
- Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library Version 2.0.12.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents.
The following links will take you to different flavours of the OLD GD 2.0.11 library:
- Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library Version 2.0.11. This is not the original patch
file released, since that one had several unnecessary files included.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patch to add support for the patched
GD library back into version 2.041 of Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm
V2.041 Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it).
The following links will take you to different flavours of the OLD GD 2.0.7 library:
- Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library Version 2.0.7.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents.
- A Patch to add support for the patched
GD library back into version 2.041 of Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm
V2.041 Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it).
The following links will take you to different flavours of the current GD 1.8.3 library:
- The Base Library (1.8.3).
This is free of patent
issues and is a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - Patch to add internal GIF support
and AutoMake support back into GD. The Automake support is based on the patches
in Lincoln Stein's GD module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support and AutoMake
support (the latter based on the patches in Lincoln Stein's GD module).
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patch to add support for the patched
GD library back into version 1.30 of Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm V1.30 Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - The Documentation for the Patched Version.
The following links will take you to different flavours of the current GD 1.8.1 library:
- The Base Library (1.8.1).
This is free of patent
issues and is a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patch to add support for the patched GD library back into Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - A Patched GD.pm Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - The Documentation for the Patched Version.
The following links will take you to different flavours of the current GD 1.7.3 library:
- The Base Library (1.7.3).
This is free of patent
issues and is a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patch to add support for the patched GD library back into Lincoln Stein's GD.pm Perl Module.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it).
- A Patched GD.pm Perl Module with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents (but I doubt it). - The Documentation for the Patched Version.
The following links will take you to different flavours of the current GD 1.6.3 library:
- The Base Library (1.6.3).
This is free of patent
issues and is a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - The Documentation for the Patched Version.
The following links will take you to different flavours of the revised GD 1.6.2 library
(this differs from the original 1.6.2 release in that a problem with the make file
was been addressed):
- The Base Library (1.6.2).
This is free of patent
issues and is a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents.
The following links will take you to different flavours of the
GD 1.6.2 library as originally released:
- The Base Library (1.6.2).
This is free of patent
issues and is a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - The Base Library (1.6.2) + gdImageOpenPolygon.
This is also free of patent issues, and includes an extra function (gdImageOpenPolygon)
that is needed if you want to use this library as a direct substitute in GD.pm.
The patch is also available separately,
and is included in the versions below. - Patch to add internal GIF support
to the Base GD library.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents. - A Patched Library with GIF support.
Depending on where you live, this may infringe patents.
For all releases since the first release I have not bothered to reinstate LIBGIF support
since (1) I don't need it,
(2) More people download the internal support, and (3) the required patches are still not
applied to the standard LIBGIF library. If you really feel that you
need LIBGIF support, then send mail to
The following links will take you to patches for older versions of the GD library:
- The Base Libary (1.6.1). This is free of patent issues and is
a copy of the file from Boutell.Com Inc. - A slightly modified version of the Base Libary (1.6.1).
This is also free of patent issues and is just the base library with a few (minor) bug fixes
and changes to make it compile cleanly with '-Wall' compiler flag.
NOTE: You need the above version (or this patch
for the base library) if you intend to use the patches below to add GIF support. - Patch to add GIF support to The Standard Libary
by using the GIFLIB library. This
requires the absolute latest version of GIFLIB, 4.1.0 + patches all the way to July, 1999. The
July patch may not even be on their web site yet, since I only submitted it recently as a
result of developing this version of GD.
For convenience you can download the final patch directly fromhere.
Note: GIFLIB may also break the LZW patent. Be careful before using it.
The GIFLIB Home Page talks about
patent issues. - The Standard Libary + GIF Support using LZW
compression internally.
Note: Do not download this if you reside in a country that supports software patents and recognizes
the Unisys claim to LZW.