how to create "pretty" numbers?

I would use Log10 to find how "long" the number is and then round it up or down. Here's a quick and dirty example.

echo prettyFloor(23.07);//20
echo " - ";
echo prettyCeil(103.50);//110

echo prettyFloor(130777.12);//130000
echo " - ";
echo prettyCeil(542441.17);//550000

function prettyFloor($n)
{
  $l = floor(log(abs($n),10))-1; // $l = how many digits we will have to nullify :)
  if ($l<=0)
    $l++;

  if ($l>0)
    $n=$n/(pow(10,$l)); //moving decimal point $l positions to the left eg(if $l=2 1234 => 12.34 )
  $n=floor($n);
  if ($l>0)
    $n=$n*(pow(10,$l)); //moving decimal point $l positions to the right eg(if $l=2 12.3 => 1230 )
  return $n;
}

function prettyCeil($n)
{
  $l = floor(log(abs($n),10))-1;
  if ($l<=0)
    $l++;
  if ($l>0)
    $n=$n/(pow(10,$l));
  $n=ceil($n);
  if ($l>0)
    $n=$n*(pow(10,$l));
  return $n;
}

This example unfortunately will not convert 130 to 150. As both 130 and 150 have the same precision. Even thou for us, humans 150 looks a bit "rounder". In order to achieve such result I would recommend to use quinary system instead of decimal.

You can use php's round function which takes a parameter to specify the precision.

<?php
echo round(3.4);         // 3
echo round(3.5);         // 4
echo round(3.6);         // 4
echo round(3.6, 0);      // 4
echo round(1.95583, 2);  // 1.96
echo round(1241757, -3); // 1242000
echo round(5.045, 2);    // 5.05
echo round(5.055, 2);    // 5.06
?>