Question reading a file

Hi gang: I have a few questions -- this is my first one. Please review this link: http://webbytedd.com/cccc/perms/ This page simply reads the contents of a file of the user's choice and displays the file's data. My first question is with regard to reading a file ( fread() ): If the user picks the PDF file, the [1] First 20 bytes are: %PDF... If the user picks a JPG file, the [1] First 20 bytes are: ...JFFIF... If the user picks a GIF file, the [1] First 20 bytes are: GIF89a... Of course, the above is just reading/echoing the header for each of those files. Likewise, if the user picks a TXT or CSS file, then [1] First 20 bytes echoed are the first 20 characters of the file. However, if the user picks a HTML or PHP file, there are no [1] First 20 bytes echoed. BUT, the ord() and chr() of the bytes ARE indeed collected and can be echoed as shown in statements [2] and [3]. So, my question is specifically "Why is the data gathered in the variable $content not echoed for the HTML and PHP files, but is for all other files?" Please review the code shown. Cheers, tedd _____________________ tedd@sperling.com http://sperling.com