Ajaxorized have an interesting javascript library to manipulate images using PHP GD and prototype. Phototype could be used to resize, rotate, flip, drop shadow, or to add special effects on any photo such make it sketchy, greyscale, adding caption ... etc. Phototype supports chaining, and you can write something like : l_oPhoto = new Photo().load("test.jpg").dropShadow().flipH().makeSketchy(); doc