Producing a graphic from Text

[Mike Owen]

Hi,

I am just about to write a registration screen for a web based application.
I have seen and used registration screens that show the user a graphic
containing randon text that they are asked to type in a box below the
graphic. I believe this is to stop automaton's automatically creating
multiple accounts without any human interaction.

From memory I think this method is used when registering for a hotmail
account.

Does anybody know how I can do this, i.e. Produce a graphic from randomly
generated text, in .Net?, and in particular is there any .net code out there
(VB.Net ideally), or component that does this job?
Thanks, Mike.

[V]

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I would use
either of the two approaches below:

1. Use GDI+ classes, to draw a bitmap based on a text, and then show it
at the runtime.

2. Better yet, I would simply create a small database of images and
store them with their texts, and rotate them randomly for the website.

But if there are libraries or controls which server specifically this
purpose, I am not aware of that.

- Vaibhav

Mike Owen wrote:

Hi,

I am just about to write a registration screen for a web based application.
I have seen and used registration screens that show the user a graphic
containing randon text that they are asked to type in a box below the
graphic. I believe this is to stop automaton's automatically creating
multiple accounts without any human interaction.

From memory I think this method is used when registering for a hotmail
account.

Does anybody know how I can do this, i.e. Produce a graphic from randomly
generated text, in .Net?, and in particular is there any .net code out there
(VB.Net ideally), or component that does this job?
Thanks, Mike.

[Mike Owen]

Thanks Vaibhav.

The 'small database of images' sounds like a good idea, and it would
probably be good enough.

I wonder if anybody else knows if this is how sites like msn do it, or is
there some cunning code out there that already does the job?
Cheers, Mike.

"V" wrote:

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I would use
either of the two approaches below:

1. Use GDI+ classes, to draw a bitmap based on a text, and then show it
at the runtime.

2. Better yet, I would simply create a small database of images and
store them with their texts, and rotate them randomly for the website.

But if there are libraries or controls which server specifically this
purpose, I am not aware of that.

- Vaibhav

Mike Owen wrote:

Hi,

I am just about to write a registration screen for a web based application.
I have seen and used registration screens that show the user a graphic
containing randon text that they are asked to type in a box below the
graphic. I believe this is to stop automaton's automatically creating
multiple accounts without any human interaction.

From memory I think this method is used when registering for a hotmail
account.

Does anybody know how I can do this, i.e. Produce a graphic from randomly
generated text, in .Net?, and in particular is there any .net code out there
(VB.Net ideally), or component that does this job?
Thanks, Mike.

[GhostInAK]

Hello Mike,

The term you are looking for is CAPCHA (what a horrid name).. anyhow, look
it up on google.

-Boo

Thanks Vaibhav.

The 'small database of images' sounds like a good idea, and it would
probably be good enough.

I wonder if anybody else knows if this is how sites like msn do it, or
is there some cunning code out there that already does the job?

Cheers, Mike.

"V" wrote:

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I would use
either of the two approaches below:

1. Use GDI+ classes, to draw a bitmap based on a text, and then show
it at the runtime.

2. Better yet, I would simply create a small database of images and
store them with their texts, and rotate them randomly for the
website.

But if there are libraries or controls which server specifically this
purpose, I am not aware of that.

- Vaibhav

Mike Owen wrote:

Hi,

I am just about to write a registration screen for a web based
application. I have seen and used registration screens that show the
user a graphic containing randon text that they are asked to type in
a box below the graphic. I believe this is to stop automaton's
automatically creating multiple accounts without any human
interaction.

From memory I think this method is used when registering for a
hotmail account.

Does anybody know how I can do this, i.e. Produce a graphic from
randomly generated text, in .Net?, and in particular is there any
.net code out there (VB.Net ideally), or component that does this
job?

Thanks, Mike.

[Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your post!

The small database images solution is not perfect to achieve the really
random image. While the GDI+ dynamically generated image is more flexible
and it is very simple to implement. You just need to use
Graphics.DrawString method to write out the string to a Graphics object,
and then save it to the Response.OutputStream for displaying.

The article below shows you the full code snippet regarding doing this:
"How to Create Text Image on the fly with ASP.NET"
http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/createTextImage.asp

The 2 articles below demonstrate more the power of GDI+ for dynamic image
generating:
"Create Snazzy Web Charts and Graphics On the Fly with the .NET Framework"
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...w/default.aspx
"ASP.NET Controls to prevent automatic registrations from bots"
http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/antiauto.asp

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Community Support
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