I am posting the simple hack I made with using dynamic images to replace the date entries of my blog. Just follow the short tutorial here to implement the same with your Wordpress blog:
- Create your own date image template in Photoshop. Make sure that you layout them so that the month, day and year are all distinct from each other and not overlapping. See my example here :
- Using the ruler guide in Photoshop, slice the template into three parts.
- You will need to determine the date format you use in your blog. Mine uses day of week, day and month. Now create individual images using the sliced template and name them accordingly. For day of week, the naming convention is mon.gif, tue.gif, … sun.gif; for the day — 1.gif,… 30.gif; for the month — jan.gif, feb.gif,… dec.gif.
- Now, we’re ready to hack the WP date function to replace text dates with images. Go to your WP theme folder and look for the post.php file and open it for editing. Note: depending on the WP theme you use, the file could also be index.php.
- Look for the date function as such:
< ?php the_time('D, M j') ?>
You will need to break that into 3 parts like this:
< ?php the_time('D') ?>
< ?php the_time('M') ?>
< ?php the_time('j') ?>Now we edit them so the code echos the image equivalent:
< ?php $d = strtolower(get_the_time('D')); echo ("< img src= 'wp-images/{$d}.gif' > “); ?>
< ?php $m = strtolower(get_the_time('M')); echo ("< img src= 'wp-images/{$m}.gif' > “); ?>
< ?php $j = strtolower(get_the_time('j')); echo ("< img src = 'wp-images/{$j}.gif' > “); ?> - You will need to check on the date format parameter string if you have a different date format.
(Note: If you use full date names, you will need to name your GIF files similarly (i.e. Friday, February 22, 2005 will use “friday.gif”, “february.gif”, “22.gif” and “2005.gif”).
I hope that was fairly simple to understand. 
I’m not sure if this hack can be made into a plugin though. Maybe some other time. 
David Shea of mezzoblue.com made a simplier version using HTML/CSS. Update: Josh of File Me Away made the same tute for MT.
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wow. just as i thought. yeah. im a newbie but i almost exactly figured out what you have done to came up with your wp-image-date Plugins. You really are a PHP guru. Why not submit your plugin?? and share your package to others…
master i know how to make some tweaks on wordpress but i dont know php itself.
cool plug-in!!! did you join Alex King’s contest?
Will install it this week! Great one, Yuga!!! You really deserve all the accolades you have been getting.
Yup it can be made into a plug-in, I think that add_action function in WP…
@mr. nice ash
tehehe… madali lang yan actually. Konting kalikot lang.
@AnP
Thanks! Hindi po, late na ako dun tsaka di ko ata kaya yun!
@Fleeb
Will look into it, but this one is pretty simple. Yung magiging problem mo dito cguro yung management ng Options as WP-Admin.
Yuga, you can actually do it without hacking the date functions. You just make do with:
.gif’ >
and the others in similar ways. That way, upgrading WP won’t kill your nice hack.
Damo gali sagad sa guam bah. Labay lang ko ah.
i agree with markku
Kates, taga diin ka? Ilongga ka man?
Thanks markku, darksparrow… will look into it.
and the wordpress hacks… sikat na talaga master ko.