Howdy siadmin, Not sure exec is the way to go here. 'exec' is used to execute an external program on the server or run shell commands. This can get dangerous if you do not parse your $url properly as someone can enter a malicious url. With an image you really only want the data, fopen, or file_get_contents can perform this safely without interacting with the system itself. Always be cautious when using exec, if its not needed don't use it.