function base64EncodeImage ($image_file) {
$base64_image = '';
$image_info = getimagesize($image_file);
$image_data = fread(fopen($image_file, 'r'), filesize($image_file));
$base64_image = 'data:' . $image_info['mime'] . ';base64,' . chunk_split(base64_encode($image_data));
return $base64_image;
}