When I specify an absolute path to a font with ImageTTFText, such as "$DOCUMENT_ROOT/fonts/verdana.ttf", it displays the text twice on top of itself, but slightly misaligned to produce a blurring effect.  I get this effect with all truetype fonts.  ImagePSText does not exhibit this behavior.

When I specify the font using a relative path, like "../../../../$DOCUMENT_ROOT/fonts/verdana.ttf", it displays fine.

Here's an example of what causes the problem:

  $im = ImageCreate(100,100);
  $white = ImageColorAllocate ($im, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF);
  $b  $black = ImageColorAllocate ($im, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00);
  ImageTTFText($im,16,0,0,50,$black,
    "$DOCUMENT_ROOT/fonts/verdana.ttf","Testing...");
  Header("Content-type: image/png");
  ImagePNG($im);
  ImageDestroy($im);

And here's what makes the problem go away:

   ImageTTFText($im,16,0,0,50,$black,
      "../../../../$DOCUMENT_ROOT/fonts/verdana.ttf",
      "Testing...");