protected function createImage($width, $height)
{
$newImg = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);
imagesavealpha($newImg, true);
imagealphablending($newImg, false);
$trans_colour = imagecolorallocatealpha($newImg, 0, 0, 0, 127);
imagefill($newImg, 0, 0, $trans_colour);
return $newImg;
}