Initials Profile Pics

A local plugin for Moodle which automatically creates profile pictures for users based on their initials.
This plugin currently runs on PHP 7.0 as a minimum and will fail on lower versions.
Initials Profile Pictures generator
A local plugin for Moodle which automatically creates profile pictures for users based on their initials.
Written by Paul Vaughan ( paulieboo@gmail.com ,  @MoodleVaughany ), © 2018.
Introduction
For our Moodle installation, we wanted unique profile pictures for each user instead of the generic default ‘silhouette’ image, without the requirement of each user uploading their own. This plugin automatically and silently creates a profile picture for each user from their initials when their profile is created or saved. A few classes were found which did roughly what we wanted, and they were used as inspiration for this plugin, as was the way the Android Contacts app displays people without images.
This plugin uses the  Intervention Image library for PHP  and was inspired by  this wrapper  for it.
Installation
Compatibility
This plugin has so far been tested with Moodle 3.2 and 3.4, but will probably work with all of the 3.x and most of the 2.x branches. It has a minimum requirement of PHP 7.0, however.
Requirements
PHP’s GD image library.
PHP 7.0 or later.
This plugin uses the  Intervention Image library for PHP  (it and it’s dependencies are included with the plugin; there is no need to use Composer) and was inspired by  this wrapper  for it, with a tip of the hat to the way default contact images are displayed in the Android Contacts app.
Installing
Install as you would any local Moodle plugin, by copying or cloning the  ciabinitialsprofilepics  folder into your Moodle’s  local/  folder. If you use  git clone , please ensure the folder name is exactly as stated as it will not install or work otherwise.
Log in to your Moodle as an administrator and head to the Notifications page, where all being well, Moodle will discover the new plugin and install it.
There are an increasing number of configuration options, and I plan to make more of the plugin configurable over time.
How It Works