Use this function to split a string per character.

<?php

function outputString($str, $line_end) 
	{
    // Set the variable that holds the string
    $str = "";

    // Use a for loop to grab each character
    for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($str); $i++) 
		{
		// This line cuts the string one character at a time
        $str .= substr($str, $i , 1) . $line_end;
		}

    // Return the '$str' variable
    return $str;
	}

// Here is the string we want to affect
$text = "This is an example string!";

// Finally print out the string 
print outputString($text, "
");


?>