added direct output method

src/Intervention/Image/Image.php

@@ -1831,6 +1831,45 @@ class Image
         $this->original['height'] = $this->height;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Send direct output with proper header
+     *
+     * @return string
+     */
+    public function output()
+    {
+        // Determine image type
+        $type = '';
+
+        // set type
+        switch ($this->type) {
+            case IMAGETYPE_PNG:
+                $type = 'png';
+                break;
+
+            case IMAGETYPE_JPEG:
+                $type = 'jpg';
+                break;
+
+            case IMAGETYPE_GIF:
+                $type = 'gif';
+                break;
+        }
+
+        // If this is a Laravel application, prepare response object
+        if (function_exists('app') && is_a($app = app(), 'Illuminate\Foundation\Application'))
+        {
+            $response = \Response::make($this->encode());
+            $response->header('Content-type', 'image/' . $type);
+            return $response;
+        }
+
+        // If this is not Laravel, set header directly
+        header('Content-type: image/' . $type);
+
+        return $this->encode();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Returns image stream
      *