This one is a port of the Imagetext plugin for Smarty. So as I won't include the credit in this snippet please check them in the Smarty plugin itself here.

Requirements

In order to make it work, this is what you need : - A 'fonts' folder in your projects' data directory, in which you copy the .ttf files you need - The following helper :

function imagetext($text,$styleName=null,$params=array())
    {
        if(!$styleName){
            $styleName='default';
        }
        if (empty($text)) { return; }
        // Which style is in use
        $style=sfConfig::get('app_imagetext_styles');
        $style=$style[$styleName];
        // Param values overwrite style values
        foreach ($params as $key=>$value) $style[$key] = $value;
        // Error handling
        if (empty($style['font'])) { throw new sfViewException("imagetext: missing 'font' parameter"); return; }
        if (empty($style['size'])) { throw new sfViewException("imagetext: missing 'size' parameter"); return; }
        if (empty($style['bgcolor'])) { $style['bgcolor'] = 'FFFFFF'; }
        if (empty($style['fgcolor'])) { $style['fgcolor'] = '000000';  }
 
    ### Preferences
    $cacheDir=sfConfig::get('sf_web_dir').DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'images'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'imagetext'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
    $cacheUrl='imagetext/';
    $fontDir=sfConfig::get('sf_data_dir').DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'fonts'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;  
    $text = preg_replace("=<br( /)?>=i", "\n", $text);
 
    // Which font is in use
    $font = $fontDir.$style['font'];
    // Hash of text and all parameters for the cache function
    $hash = md5(implode('',$style).$text);
    // The url of the created image
    $imgFile    = $cacheDir.$styleName.'_'.$hash.'.'.$style['format'];
    $imgUrl = $cacheUrl.$styleName.'_'.$hash.'.'.$style['format'];
 
    ### Use cached image if available
    if (file_exists($imgFile) && @$style['dev'] != true && @$style['dynamic'] != true) 
          if (@$style['urlonly'] == 'true') return $imgUrl; else
        return @$style['prehtml'].image_tag($imgUrl,array('style'=>'border: 0 px solid #00ff00','alt'=>preg_replace("=\r\n|\r|\n|\t=", ' ', htmlspecialchars($text)))).@$style['posthtml'];
 
    ### otherwise create it
    // Function to get a color handler of hex values
    if (!function_exists('fromhex'))
        {
        function fromhex($image,$string) {
            sscanf($string, "%2x%2x%2x", $red, $green, $blue);
            return ImageColorAllocate($image,$red,$green,$blue);
            }
        }
 
    ### create a four times larger image to improve kerning
    // The multiplier. The bigger the better the kerning and the typeface, but the slower the creation
    $multi = 4;
 
    // If "pixelfont" don´t use multiplier
    if ($style['pixelfont'] == 1) $multi = 1;
 
    // Calculate measures of image
    $bbox = imagettfbbox ($style['size']*$multi, 0, $font, $text);
    $xcorr = 0-$bbox[6]; // northwest X
    $ycorr = 0-$bbox[7]; // northwest Y
    $box['left']    = $bbox[6]+$xcorr+$style['x']*$multi;
    $box['height']  = abs($bbox[5])+abs($bbox[1]);
    $box['width']   = abs($bbox[2])+abs($bbox[0])+$style['x']*$multi;
    $box['top']     = abs($bbox[5]);
 
    // Create the big image
    $im = imagecreate ($box['width'], $box['height']);
    $bgcolor = fromhex($im,$style['bgcolor']);
    $fgcolor = fromhex($im,$style['fgcolor']);
    if ($style['pixelfont'] == 1) $fgcolor = -$fgcolor;
    imagettftext ($im, $style['size']*$multi, 0, $box['left'], $box['top'], $fgcolor, $font, $text);
 
    // Sample down the big image
    $width = $style['width']+$style['addx'];
    $height = $style['height']+$style['addy'];
 
    // Overwrite when height oder width is given
    if (empty($style['width'])) $width = $box['width']/$multi+$style['addx']+$style['x'];
    if (empty($style['height'])) $height = $box['height']/$multi+$style['addy']+$style['y'];
 
    $ds = imagecreatetruecolor ($width, $height);
    $bgcolor2 = fromhex($ds,$style['bgcolor']);
    imageFill($ds,0,0,$bgcolor2);
    imagecopyresampled($ds,$im,0,$style['y'],0,0,$box['width']/$multi, $box['height']/$multi,$box['width'], $box['height']);
    imagetruecolortopalette($ds,0,256);
    imagepalettecopy($ds,$im);
    ImageColorTransparent($ds,$bgcolor);
 
 
    // write whereto?
    if ($style['format'] == 'gif') ImageGIF ($ds,$imgFile); else ImagePNG ($ds,$imgFile);
    ImageDestroy ($im);
    ImageDestroy ($ds);
 
    // and display
    if ($style['dev']) $border = 1; else $border = 0;
  if ($style['urlonly'] == 'true') return $imgUrl;
        else
    return $style['prehtml'].image_tag($imgUrl,array('style'=>'border: '.$border.'px solid #00ff00','alt'=>preg_replace("=\r\n|\r|\n|\t=", ' ', htmlspecialchars($text)))).$style['posthtml'];
}

As you can see in this code styles can (at least 'default' MUST be) be configured in app.yml. This is an example style config :

    imagetext:
        styles:
            default:
                font:   hockey.ttf
                size:   18
                format: png

So now you can use the helper in your templates :

<?php use_helper('imageText') ?>
 
<? echo imagetext('This is my title') ?>
<p>Some blah blah</p>
<? echo imagetext('This is another headline style','anotherstyle') ?>

This helper uses GD so depending on which version you have installed, you might or might not handle PNG or GIF.

I've found a very nice and easy method to add transparent PNG image support to IE. This filter is an easy alternative from using Javascript or server-side php scripts. Original code from http://koivi.com/ie-png-transparency/

Add code below to your lib folder with filename pngAlphaFilter.class.php

<?php
 
class pngAlphaFilter extends sfFilter
{
  public function execute ($filterChain)
  {
    $filterChain->execute();
  }
 
  public function executeBeforeRendering ($filterChain)
  {
    $response = $this->getContext()->getResponse();
 
    $content = $response->getContent();
    $newContent = $this->replacePngTags($content, '/images/');
    $response->setContent($newContent);
 
    $filterChain->execute();
  }
 
  /**
  *  KOIVI PNG Alpha IMG Tag Replacer for PHP (C) 2004 Justin Koivisto
  *  Version 2.0.12
  *  Last Modified: 12/30/2005
  *  
  *  Modifies IMG and INPUT tags for MSIE5+ browsers to ensure that PNG-24
  *  transparencies are displayed correctly.  Replaces original SRC attribute
  *  with a binary transparent PNG file (spacer.png) that is located in the same
  *  directory as the orignal image, and adds the STYLE attribute needed to for
  *  the browser. (Matching is case-insensitive. However, the width attribute
  *  should come before height.
  *  
  *  Also replaces code for PNG images specified as backgrounds via:
  *  background-image: url(image.png); or background-image: url('image.png');
  *  When using PNG images in the background, there is no need to use a spacer.png
  *  image. (Only supports inline CSS at this point.)
  *  
  *  @param string $x  String containing the content to search and replace in.
  *  @param string $img_path   The path to the directory with the spacer image relative to
  *                      the DOCUMENT_ROOT. If none os supplied, the spacer.png image
  *                      should be in the same directory as PNG-24 image.
  *  @param string $sizeMeth   String containing the sizingMethod to be used in the
  *                      Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader call. Possible values are:
  *                      crop - Clips the image to fit the dimensions of the object.
  *                      image - Enlarges or reduces the border of the object to fit
  *                              the dimensions of the image.
  *                      scale - Default. Stretches or shrinks the image to fill the borders
  *                              of the object.
  *  @param bool   $inScript  Boolean flag indicating whether or not to replace IMG tags that
  *                      appear within SCRIPT tags in the passed content. If used, may cause
  *                      javascript parse errors when the IMG tags is defined in a javascript
  *                      string. (Which is why the options was added.)
  *  @return string
  */
  public function replacePngTags($x,$img_path='',$sizeMeth='scale',$inScript=FALSE){
      $arr2=array();
      // make sure that we are only replacing for the Windows versions of Internet
      // Explorer 5.5+
      $msie='/msie\s(5\.[5-9]|[6]\.[0-9]*).*(win)/i';
      if( !isset($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) ||
          !preg_match($msie,$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) ||
          preg_match('/opera/i',$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']))
          return $x;
 
      if($inScript){
          // first, I want to remove all scripts from the page...
          $saved_scripts=array();
          $placeholders=array();
          preg_match_all('`<script[^>]*>(.*)</script>`isU',$x,$scripts);
          for($i=0;$i<count($scripts[0]);$i++){
              $x=str_replace($scripts[0][$i],'replacePngTags_ScriptTag-'.$i,$x);
              $saved_scripts[]=$scripts[0][$i];
              $placeholders[]='replacePngTags_ScriptTag-'.$i;
          }
      }
 
      // find all the png images in backgrounds
      preg_match_all('/background-image:\s*url\(([\\"\\\']?)([^\)]+\.png)\1\);/Uis',$x,$background);
      for($i=0;$i<count($background[0]);$i++){
          // simply replace:
          //  "background-image: url('image.png');"
          // with:
          //  "filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(
          //      enabled=true, sizingMethod=scale, src='image.png');"
          // I don't think that the background-repeat styles will work with this...
          $x=str_replace($background[0][$i],'filter:progid:DXImageTransform.'.
                  'Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled=true, sizingMethod='.$sizeMeth.
                  ', src=\''.$background[2][$i].'\');',$x);
      }
 
      // find all the IMG tags with ".png" in them
      $pattern='/<(input|img)[^>]*src=([\\"\\\']?)([^>]*\.png)\2[^>]*>/i';
      preg_match_all($pattern,$x,$images);
      for($num_images=0;$num_images<count($images[0]);$num_images++){
          // for each found image pattern
          $original=$images[0][$num_images];
          $quote=$images[2][$num_images];
          $atts=''; $width=0; $height=0; $modified=$original;
 
          // We do this so that we can put our spacer.png image in the same
          // directory as the image - if a path wasn't passed to the function
          if(empty($img_path)){
              $tmp=split('[\\/]',$images[3][$num_images]);
              $this_img=array_pop($tmp);
              $img_path=join('/',$tmp);
              if(empty($img_path)){
                  // this was a relative URI, image should be in this directory
                  $tmp=split('[\\/]',$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);
                  array_pop($tmp);    // trash the script name, we only want the directory name
                  $img_path=join('/',$tmp).'/';
              }else{
                  $img_path.='/';
              }
          }else if(substr($img_path,-1)!='/'){
              // in case the supplied path didn't end with a /
              $img_path.='/';
          }
 
          // If the size is defined by styles, find them
          preg_match_all(
              '/style=([\\"\\\']).*(\s?width:\s?([0-9]+(px|%));).*'.
              '(\s?height:\s?([0-9]+(px|%));).*\\1/Ui',
                 $images[0][$num_images],$arr2); 
          if(is_array($arr2) && count($arr2[0])){
              // size was defined by styles, get values
              $width=$arr2[3][0];
              $height=$arr2[6][0];
 
              // remove the width and height from the style
              $stripper=str_replace(' ','\s','/('.$arr2[2][0].'|'.$arr2[5][0].')/');
              // Also remove any empty style tags
              $modified=preg_replace(
                  '`style='.$arr2[1][0].$arr2[1][0].'`i',
                  '',
                  preg_replace($stripper,'',$modified));
          }else{
              // size was not defined by styles, get values from attributes
              preg_match_all('/width=([\\"\\\']?)([0-9%]+)\\1/i',$images[0][$num_images],$arr2);
              if(is_array($arr2) && count($arr2[0])){
                  $width=$arr2[2][0];
                  if(is_numeric($width))
                      $width.='px';
 
                  // remove width from the tag
                  $modified=str_replace($arr2[0][0],'',$modified);
              }
              preg_match_all('/height=([\\"\\\']?)([0-9%]+)\\1/i',$images[0][$num_images],$arr2);
              if(is_array($arr2) && count($arr2[0])){
                  $height=$arr2[2][0];
                  if(is_numeric($height))
                      $height.='px';
 
                  // remove height from the tag
                  $modified=str_replace($arr2[0][0],'',$modified);
              }
          }
 
          if($width==0 || $height==0){
              // width and height not defined in HTML attributes or css style, try to get
              // them from the image itself
              // this does not work in all conditions... It is best to define width and
              // height in your img tag or with inline styles..
              if(file_exists($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$img_path.$images[3][$num_images])){
                  // image is on this filesystem, get width & height
                  $size=getimagesize($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$img_path.$images[3][$num_images]);
                  $width=$size[0].'px';
                  $height=$size[1].'px';
              }else if(file_exists($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$images[3][$num_images])){
                  // image is on this filesystem, get width & height
                  $size=getimagesize($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$images[3][$num_images]);
                  $width=$size[0].'px';
                  $height=$size[1].'px';
              }
          }
 
          // end quote is already supplied by originial src attribute
          $replace_src_with=$quote.$img_path.'spacer.png'.$quote.' style="width: '.$width.
              '; height: '.$height.'; filter: progid:DXImageTransform.'.
              'Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src=\''.$images[3][$num_images].'\', sizingMethod='.
              $sizeMeth.');"';
 
          // now create the new tag from the old
          $new_tag=str_replace($quote.$images[3][$num_images].$quote,$replace_src_with,
              str_replace('  ',' ',$modified));
          // now place the new tag into the content
          $x=str_replace($original,$new_tag,$x);
      }
 
      if($inScript){
          // before the return, put the script tags back in. (I was having problems when there was
          // javascript that had image tags for PNGs in it when using this function...
          $x=str_replace($placeholders,$saved_scripts,$x);
      }
 
      return $x;
  }
}
 
?>

add this to your apps/your_app/config/filters.yml

pngAlphaFilter:
  class: pngAlphaFilter

and put a spacer.png with 1 by 1 pixel with binary opacity in images/ directory. Or simply download one from the url below. http://koivi.com/ie-png-transparency/spacer.png

And now you are able to use the transparent PNG files as if IE fully supports it! The rest of templates need no change.