Canvases are created using one of the %imagecreate*% family of functions as %imagecreate()% (to create an empty canvas) or %imagecreatefromjpeg()% (to create from an existing Jpeg image) Both functions return a resource representing the canvas for that image. ]]> %imagecreate($width, $height)% - Creates an empty canvas %imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height)% - Creates an empty 24-bit color canvas %imagecreatefromjpeg($filename)% - Creates a canvas based on a Jpeg image %imagecreatefrompng($filename)% - Creates a canvas based on a PNG image Similar functions for XPM, WBMP, XBM, and GIF files