So you want to know how to generate an image with an ASP page on the fly? Well there is a few ways to do it, such as flash etc, but with Microsoft and GDI+ the task is made a lot easier. This tutorial just covers the basics, but from it you can always move on and experiment with GDI+ (and intellisense) :)

Well, lets start with the calling page default.aspx (or whatever you would like to call it):

I usually like to draw all my controls to a table using code, there are other ways to do it, but I like doing it this way:

1. Add a TextBox to the default.aspx page calling it whatever you like (for the tutorial we'll call it txtWord)
2. Add a CommandButton to the page and call it whatever you like (just to submit the form)
3. Add a server side Table control (call it what you want I'll just call it imageTable)
4. In the codebehind page (.aspx.vb) add the following code, or similar to the Page_Load procedure
   
        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
       ' #Check if the page is posted
       If Page.IsPostBack Then
           Dim m_sWord As String
           m_sWord = Request("txtWord")
           ' #Check if txtWord has a value
           If Not m_sWord = "" Then
               GenImage(m_sWord)
           Else
               Dim tRow As New TableRow
               Dim tCell As New TableCell
               tCell.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("Error getting the word you posted"))
               tRow.Controls.Add(tCell)
               imageTable.Controls.Add(tCell)
           End If
       End If
     End Sub
   
5. Add a function called GenImage:
   
        Public Function GenImage(ByVal sWord As String)
         '#Create the row and cell to hold the image in
         Dim tRow As New TableRow
         Dim tCell As New TableCell
         tCell.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<img src='img_gen.aspx?w=' & sWord & '>"))
         tRow.Controls.Add(tCell)
         imageTable.Controls.Add(tRow)
     End Function

So now you have a page that accepts a word posted to it by itself, and calls a aspx page as an image source. Now that was easy, next the fun part ... drawing :).