FreeType library is typically required along with GD library in PHP. This will enable usage of imagettftext() and other functions.
Install FreeType
Install FreeType library first at OS level.
# yum install freetype-devel
You have to add the installed path to the PHP configure command.. FreeType will be installed in /usr/include/freetype2 on RHEL.
find / -name freetype
Enable FreeType in PHP
You have to get the configure command first. Use php -i | grep “Configure” command and get the configure command. It will be something like this.
./configure –prefix=/usr/local/php7 –with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config –with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs –with-config-file-path=/usr/local/apcahe2/conf –with-libdir=lib64 –with-openssl –with-zlib-dir=/usr/lib –with-gd –with-gettext –with-ldap –with-mcrypt –with-mysql –enable-soap –with-imap –enable-zip –with-pdo-mysql –with-kerberos –with-imap-ssl –with-curl –enable-mbstring php_sapis=cli
To the end, add this.
–with-freetype-dir=/usr/include/freetype2 –enable-gd-native-ttf
So your complete configure command will look like below.
./configure –prefix=/usr/local/php7 –with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config –with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs –with-config-file-path=/usr/local/apcahe2/conf –with-libdir=lib64 –with-openssl –with-zlib-dir=/usr/lib –with-gd –with-gettext –with-ldap –with-mcrypt –with-mysql –enable-soap –with-imap –enable-zip –with-pdo-mysql –with-kerberos –with-imap-ssl –with-curl –enable-mbstring php_sapis=cli –with-freetype-dir=/usr/include/freetype2 –enable-gd-native-ttf
After executing this command in PHP directory, execute below commands
make clean
make
make install
Restart your Apache/Nginx server, if required.
You can check whether it is enabled or not in phpinfo();