php - Best way to blur images

Question

I'm trying to blur first image like third one,But I cant do it ! :(

 header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');
$image = imagecreatefromjpeg('1.jpg');
for ($x=1; $x<=40; $x++){
    imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GAUSSIAN_BLUR,999);
} 
    imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_SMOOTH,99);
    imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_BRIGHTNESS, 10);
imagejpeg($image);
imagedestroy($image);

Answer 1

Try to scale down the image and apply the loop with gaussian blur on the resized image. That way you will save some performance on large images:

header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');
$file = '1.jpg';
$image = imagecreatefromjpeg($file);

    /* Get original image size */
    list($w, $h) = getimagesize($file);

    /* Create array with width and height of down sized images */
    $size = array('sm'=>array('w'=>intval($w/4), 'h'=>intval($h/4)),
                   'md'=>array('w'=>intval($w/2), 'h'=>intval($h/2))
                  );                       

    /* Scale by 25% and apply Gaussian blur */
    $sm = imagecreatetruecolor($size['sm']['w'],$size['sm']['h']);
    imagecopyresampled($sm, $image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $size['sm']['w'], $size['sm']['h'], $w, $h);

    for ($x=1; $x <=40; $x++){
        imagefilter($sm, IMG_FILTER_GAUSSIAN_BLUR, 999);
    } 

    imagefilter($sm, IMG_FILTER_SMOOTH,99);
    imagefilter($sm, IMG_FILTER_BRIGHTNESS, 10);        

    /* Scale result by 200% and blur again */
    $md = imagecreatetruecolor($size['md']['w'], $size['md']['h']);
    imagecopyresampled($md, $sm, 0, 0, 0, 0, $size['md']['w'], $size['md']['h'], $size['sm']['w'], $size['sm']['h']);
    imagedestroy($sm);

        for ($x=1; $x <=25; $x++){
            imagefilter($md, IMG_FILTER_GAUSSIAN_BLUR, 999);
        } 

    imagefilter($md, IMG_FILTER_SMOOTH,99);
    imagefilter($md, IMG_FILTER_BRIGHTNESS, 10);        

/* Scale result back to original size */
imagecopyresampled($image, $md, 0, 0, 0, 0, $w, $h, $size['md']['w'], $size['md']['h']);
imagedestroy($md);  

// Apply filters of upsized image if you wish, but probably not needed
//imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GAUSSIAN_BLUR); 
//imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_SMOOTH,99);
//imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_BRIGHTNESS, 10);       

imagejpeg($image);
imagedestroy($image);

I have borrowed the downsizing idea and some of the code form this answer

I have tested the solution with your image, and the result:

You can elaborate and increase/decrease the blur by changing the number of loops for the small image. If you change for ($x=1; $x <=40; $x++){ to for ($x=1; $x <=75; $x++){ you will get more blur.

The downside to this solution is that you will get som visible pixelation because of the resizing going on. The upside is better performance, less server load and execution time compared to if you would apply the blur loop on the original sized image.