One of the coolest things about PHP that's been introduced since it's birth has been the ability to, with the GD libraries, create dynamic images, combining things like GIF/JPEG creation with dynamic text. In the latest PHP builds (PHP 4.3.0 and up), the GD extensions are now bundled in, and can be installed standard with a simple configure addition, and the O'Reilly Network wants to show you how.

In this piece, Compiling and Enabling GD in PHP 4.3, they show you the simple way to get this powerful tool installed on your PHP instance. Of course, they opt for building their own GD install with the libraries you can get, mainly because they wanted things like TrueType support, and PNG/XPM support built in. They make it pretty simple, though, and step you through it all.

If you want more than just the base install of GD in PHP 4.3.x, then I'd take a look at this. If you're just planning on some "light" usage of it, then the bundled install is probably enough...