Graphics Rendering [OT?]

[Jonathan Allen]

Hi All,

This is probably off-topic, but perhaps someone can point me to the
right place to ask the question.  I am looking for one of two things:

   1. an application that takes a text file and a .ttf file and renders
      the text in that font into a .gif file; perhaps with a few flags
      for things like size, colour, background and so on - in the
      simplest case, just size, rendered in black on white

   2. some kind of clue as to how to generate such an application

The context is that I want to be able to generate .gif files for single
words in a non-Roman font language on the fly in a PHP environment (ie
as if from a command-line) assuming no graphics support (such as X) or
WP running.

Jonathan