Creating an image and storing it as a GIF in a database

Hi all, I've an image I've createt with various image functions. I need to save it in a database, in GIF format. How can I do it? ATM the only way I've found is to output the image to a file, using ImageGIF() function, then read the file and copy the content of that file in my database. Isn't there a faster way? It looks a bit stupid to save and reload and then store... Isn't there a function that take an image handle and store it as a GIF/JPEG/PNG into a variable? Best Regards, -- Federico Pomi http://www.Pomi.net