ImageMagick, gd and other hellish incantations

Greetings, I have compiled in support for gd in PHP 3.0.16, but I'm not happy with some of the things that I'm coming across. For starters, after installing gd, png, zlib, and re-configuring PHP dozens of times to get it to accept gd support, I find this: checking for png_info_init in -lpng... yes checking for gdImageCreateFromPng in -lgd... yes checking for gdImageCreateFromJpeg in -lgd... no checking for gdImageCreateFromGif in -lgd... no checking for gdImageLzw in -lgd... no checking for gdImageColorResolve in -lgd... yes checking for gdImageString16 in -lgd... yes checking whether to include GD support... yes checking whether to include FreeType support... yes Now, I realize that JPEG and LZW support requires those specific libraries that I neglected to install, but GIF support is going to be a problem as well. I do have access to imagecopyresized(), but I'm guessing all I'm left with is the PNG format, rather than GIF or JPEG. Just so you know, I know the history behind gd and gifs. No need for explanation there. I have gd-1.6.3, and I'm stuck with it. I also saw this during configuration: checking for ImageMagick support... no The problem is that I'm looking for a solution for creating genuine thumbnails of images on the fly -- not resized originals (via HTML's height and width attributes), because that pretty much defeats the purpose of creating thumbnails. I'd also love it if the solution that I found was as portable as possible. So, my first question is what role does ImageMagick play in PHP's configuration/installation, since it does look for it? I haven't seen any ImageMagick specific functions, nor have I seen any configuration options (such as --with-imagemagick or the like). I also realize that ImageMagick has the capability to copy and resize images. Is anyone using this in conjunction with PHP? Does it work well with all image formats (mainly jpeg and gif)? To me, gd is turning out to be a nightmare. I usually create all of my graphics in the usual way(s), and, as of now, all I'm looking for is a way to create _real_ thumbnails on the fly that is as portable as possible. Sounds easy, but it ain't lookin' so easy. ;-) Thanks for any tips, trade secrets, pacts that involve selling my soul, etc.. Brian