I was wondering if there is anything in PHP that will get me different properties of a font like ascent, descent, leading, height, etc.
Something similar to FontMetrics class in java fount at:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/awt/FontMetrics.html
I looked into imagettfbbox function (GD Library) but it wont give me all the properties I am looking for.
No, there is no built-in function that gives you that info. Have to get it by parsing the font file. Try googling "TTF parser PHP".
A bit late, but this function => http://php.net/manual/fr/imagick.queryfontmetrics.php