Image (drop)shadow on the fly

Since I have like 50 images, I'd like to use php to create a (drop)shadow effect on the fly...What's an easy way? Thanks

PS - I need to control the blur...

drop shadow is one that I always find awkward. never quite looks as I'd like it to look.

basically you'd want to create an image some pixels wider + taller than the original then iterate a certain width at each edge and draw a line of a set opacity (though I think perhaps single pixel shading might be a neater algorythm).

What GD build do you have? I ask that as imagecopymerge has a glitch in 2.0.10 - 2.0.14 (or there abouts - certainly php4.3.2) so you might need to actually set the colour using math.

Did you say something?
Actually, I found a css style I like but I can't get text to wrap around it. The q is in the css forum...

Halp! I'm a CG artist trapped in a coding forum...Halp! :D