I created an existing sample that writes input text to a background image no problem. See here.

I attempted to use a font using Imagettftext () following the steps outlined here, however I can't get the function to create the image using the font I specified. This is the code I added to the working page above:
Code:
$font = 'arial.ttf';
imagettftext ($my_img, 10, 15, 30, 40, $txt_colour, $font, $input_text);
Also tried...