Dynamically Generated images?

[Kyttias]

The plus side to layering images is that they'll be cached by the browser for fast loading. On the other hand, these images are relatively small in size to begin with so load times don't really matter. The down side is, they're a collection of images rather than a truly merged image and therefore cannot be saved. Merging things with GD is definitely possible, so keep looking into it! On the other-other hand, separate images means you can even layer animated gif images onto your avatars - something PHP is still incapable of doing even a decade after people first asked for such features.