3 Building ImageMagick source for Windows requires a modern version of Microsoft
4 Visual Studio IDE. Users have reported success with the Borland C++ compiler
5 as well. If you don't have a compiler you can still install a self-installing
8 Download ImageMagick-windows.zip from ftp.imagemagick.org or its mirrors
9 and verify the distribution against its message digest.
11 You can unpack the distribution with WinZip or type the following from any
12 MS-DOS Command Prompt window:
14 $magick> unzip ImageMagick-windows.zip
16 Now that you have the ImageMagick Windows source distribution unpacked,
21 These instructions are specific to building ImageMagick with the Visual
22 Studio under Windows XP, Win2K, or Windows 98. ImageMagick does not include
23 any workspace (DSW) or project files (DSP) except for those included with
24 third party libraries. Instead, there is a configure program that must be
25 built and run which creates the Visual Studio workspaces for ImageMagick. The
26 Visual Studio system provides four different types of runtime environments
27 that must match across all application, library, and dynamic-library (DLL)
28 code that is built. The configure program creates a set of build files that
29 are consistent for a specific runtime selection listed here:
31 1. Dynamic Multi-threaded DLL runtimes (VisualDynamicMT).
32 2. Static Single-threaded runtimes (VisualStaticST).
33 3. Static Multi-threaded runtimes (VisualStaticMT).
34 4. Static Multi-threaded DLL runtimes (VisualStaticMTDLL).
36 In addition to these runtimes, the VisualMagick build environment allows
37 you to select whether to include the X11 libraries in the build or not. X11
38 DLLs and headers are provided with the VisualMagick build environment. Most
39 Windows users are probably not interested in using X11, so you might prefer
40 to build without X11 support. Since the animate, display, and import program
41 depends on the X11 delegate libraries, these programs will no work if you
42 choose not to include X11 support.
44 This leads to five different possible build options. The default binary
45 distribution is built using the Dynamic Multi-threaded DLL (VisualDynamicMT)
46 option with the X11 libraries included. This results in an X11 compatible
47 build using all DLL's for everything and multi-threaded support (the only
50 To create a workspace for your requirements, simply go to the
51 VisualMagick\configure folder and open the configure.dsw workspace (for
52 Visual Studio 6) or configure.sln (for Visual Studio 7 or 8). Set the build
53 configuration to Release.
55 Build and execute the configure program and follow the on-screen
56 instructions. You should not change any of the defaults unless you have a
57 specific reason to do so.
59 The configure program has a button entitled:
61 Edit "magick_config.h"
63 Click on this button to bring up magick-config.h in Windows Notepad. Review and
64 optionally change any preprocessor defines in ImageMagick's magick_config.h
65 file to suit your needs. This file is copied to magick\magick_config.h. You
66 may safely open magick\magick_config.h, modify it, and recompile without
67 re-running the configure program. In fact, using Notepad to edit the copied
68 file may be preferable since it preserves the original magick_config.h file.
70 Key user defines in magick_config.h include:
72 MAGICKCORE_QUANTUM_DEPTH (default 16)
73 Specify the depth of the pixel component depth (8, 16, or 32). A value of 8
74 uses half the memory than 16 and may run 30% faster, but provides 256 times
75 less color resolution than a value of 16. We recommend a quantum depth
76 of 16 because 16-bit images are becoming more prevalent on the Internet.
78 MAGICKCORE_INSTALLED_SUPPORT (default undefined)
79 Define to build a ImageMagick which uses registry settings or embedded
80 paths to locate installed components (coder modules and configuration
81 files). The default is to look for all files in the same directory as
82 the executable. You will wand to define this value if you intend on
83 installing ImageMagick on your system.
85 ProvideDllMain (default defined)
86 Define to include a DllMain() function ensures that the ImageMagick
87 DLL is properly initialized without participation from dependent
88 applications. This avoids the requirement to invoke IntializeMagick()
89 from dependent applications is only useful for DLL builds.
91 ImageMagick is now configured and ready to build.
93 The default build is WIN32. For 64-bit, open a newly created static solution
94 and enter Configuration Manager. Add a x64 configuration, copying the
95 configuration from WIn32. Be sure that it adds the configuration to all the
96 projects. Now compile.
100 After creating your build environment, proceed to open the DSW (or SLN)
101 workspace in the VisualMagick folder. In the DSW file choose the All project
102 to make it the active project. Set the build configuration to the desired one
103 (Debug, or Release) and clean and build:
105 1. Right click on the All project and select Set As Active Project
106 2. Select "Build=>Clean Solution"
107 3. Select "Build=>Build Solution"
109 The clean step is necessary in order to make sure that all of the target
110 support libraries are updated with any patches needed to get them to compile
111 properly under Visual Studio.
113 After a successful build, all of the required files that are needed to run
114 any of the command line tools are located in the VisualMagick\bin folder. This
115 includes EXE, DLL libraries, and ImageMagick configuration files. You should
116 be able to test the build directly from this directory without having to
117 move anything to any of the global SYSTEM or SYSTEM32 areas in the operating
120 The Visual Studio distribution of ImageMagick comes with the Magick++
121 C++ wrapper by default. This add-on layer has a large number of demo
122 and test files that can be found in ImageMagick\Magick++\demo, and
123 ImageMagick\Magick++\tests. There are also a variety of tests that use the
124 straight C API as well in ImageMagick\tests.
126 All of these programs are not configured to be built in the default workspace
127 created by the configure program. You can cause all of these demos and test
128 programs to be built by checking the box in configure that says:
130 Include all demo and test programs
132 In addition, there is another related checkbox (checked by default) that
133 causes all generated project files to be created standalone so that they
134 can be copied to other areas of you system.
138 Generate all utility projects with full paths rather then relative paths.
140 Visual Studio uses a concept of dependencies that tell it what other
141 components need to be build when a particular project is being build. This
142 mechanism is also used to ensure that components link properly. In my normal
143 development environment, I want to be able to make changes and debug the
144 system as a whole, so I like and NEED to use dependencies. However, most end
145 users don't want to work this way.
147 Instead they really just want to build the package and then get down to
148 business working on their application. The solution is to make all the utility
149 projects (UTIL_xxxx_yy_exe.dsp) use full absolute paths to all the things they
150 need. This way the projects stand on their own and can actually be copied
151 and used as templates to get a particular custom application compiling with
154 With this feature enabled, you should be able to nab a copy of
156 VisualMagick\utilities\UTIL_convert_xxx_exe.dsp (for C) or
157 VisualMagick\Magick++\demo\UTIL_demo_xxx_exe.dsp (for C++)
159 and pop it into Notepad, modify it (carefully) to your needs and be on your
160 way to happy compiling and linking.
162 You can feel free to pick any of the standard utilities, tests, or demo
163 programs as the basis for a new program by copying the project and the source
166 The choice of what to use as a starting point is very easy.
168 For straight C API command line applications use something from:
171 ImageMagick\utilities (source code) or
172 ImageMagick\VisualMagick\tests or
173 ImageMagick\Visualmagick\utilities (project - DSP)
175 For C++ and Magick++ command line applications use something from:
177 ImageMagick\Magick++\tests or ImageMagick\Magick++\demo (source code) or
178 ImageMagick\VisualMagick\Magick++\tests or
179 ImageMagick\VisualMagick\Magick++\demo (project - DSP)
181 For C++ and Magick++ and MFC windows applications use:
183 ImageMagick\contrib\win32\MFC\NtMagick (source code) or
184 ImageMagick\VisualMagick\contrib\win32\MFC\NtMagick (project - DSP)
186 The ImageMagick distribution is very modular. The default configuration is
187 there to get you rolling, but you need to make some serious choices when
188 you wish to change things around.
190 The default options are all targeted at having all the components in one place
191 (e.g. the bin directory of the VisualMagick build tree). These components
192 may be copied to another folder (such as to another computer).
194 The folder containing the executables and DLLs should contain the following
204 The bin folder should contains all EXE's and DLL's as well as the very
205 important modules.xml file.
207 With this default setup, you can use any of the command line tools and run
208 scripts as normal. You can actually get by quite nicely this way by doing
209 something like pushd e:\xxx\yyy\bin in any scripts you write to execute out
212 By default the core of ImageMagick on Win32 always looks in the place were
213 the exe program is run from in order to find all of the files as well as
216 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
218 You can use the System control panel to allow you to add and delete what
219 is in any of the environment variables. You can even have user specific
220 environment variables if you wish.
224 This environmental variable sets the default list of places were Windows
225 looks for EXE's and DLL's. Windows CMD shell seems to look in the current
226 directory first no matter what, which may make it unnecessary to update the
227 PATH. If you wish to run any of utilities from another location then you
228 must add the path to your bin directory in. For instance, to do this for
229 the default build environment like I do, you might add:
231 C:\ImageMagick\VisualMagick\bin
234 If all you do is modify the PATH variable, the first problem you will run into
235 is that ImageMagick may not be able to find any of its modules. Modules are
236 all the IM_MOD*.DLL files you see in the distribution. There is one of these
237 for each and every file format that ImageMagick supports. This environment
238 variable tells the system were to look for these DLL's. The compiled in
239 default is execution path - which says - look in the same place that the
240 application is running in. If you are running from somewhere other then bin
241 - this will no longer work and you must use this variable. If you elect to
242 leave the modules in the same place as the EXE's (a good idea) then you can
243 simply set this to the same place as you did the PATH variable. In my case:
245 C:\ImageMagick\coders
247 This also the place were ImageMagick expects to find the colors.xml,
248 delegates.xml, magic.xml, modules.xml, and type.xml files.
250 One cool thing about the modules build of ImageMagick is that you can now
251 leave out file formats and lighten you load. If all you ever need is GIF and
252 JPEG, then simply drop all the other DLL's into the local trash can and get
255 Always keep the XC format, since ImageMagick uses it internally.
257 You can elect to changes these things the good old hard-coded way. This
258 define is applicable in magick-config.h:
260 #define MagickConfigurePath "C:\\ImageMagick\\"
262 To view any image in a Microsoft window, type
264 $magick> convert image.ext win:
266 Make sure Ghostscript is installed, otherwise, you will be unable to convert
267 or view a Postscript document, and Postscript standard fonts will not be
270 You may use any standard web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) to browse the
271 ImageMagick documentation.
273 The Win2K executables will work under Windows 98.
275 ImageMagick is now configured and built. You can optionally install it on
276 your system as discussed below.
278 If you are looking to install the ImageMagick COM+ object, see Installing
279 the ImageMagickObject COM+ Component.
283 You can run ImageMagick command line utilities directly from the
284 VisualMagick\bin folder, however, in most cases you may want the convenience
285 of an installer script. ImageMagick provides Inno Setup scripts for this
286 purpose. Note, you must define MAGICKCORE_INSTALLED_SUPPORT at configure
287 time to utilize the installer scripts.
289 To get started building a self-installing ImageMagick executable, go to
290 VisualMagick\installer folder and click on a script that matches your build
291 environment. Press F9 to build and install ImageMagick. The default location
292 is C:Program Files\ImageMagick-6.?.?\Q?. The exact folder name depends
293 on the ImageMagick version and quantum depth. Once installed, ImageMagick
294 command line utilities and libraries are available to the MS Command Prompt,
295 web scripts, or to meet your development needs.
297 Create a Self-Installing Binary Distribution
301 1. Download and install Inno Setup 5.
302 2. Download and install ActiveState ActivePerl @
303 http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/downloads/.
305 Run the Configure Wizard
307 1. Double-click on VisualMagick/configure/configure.sln to build the
309 2. Select Rebuild All and launch the configure wizard.
310 3. Uncheck Use X11 Stubs and check Build demo and test programs.
311 4. Click on Edit magick_config.h and define MAGICKCORE_INSTALLED_SUPPORT.
312 5. Complete the configure wizard screens to create the ImageMagick Visual
317 1. Double-click on VisualMagick/VisualDynamicMT.sln to launch the
318 ImageMagick Visual workspace.
319 2. Set the active configuration to Win32 Release.
320 3. Select Rebuild All to build the ImageMagick binary distribution.
322 Build ImageMagickObject
324 1. Launch the MS-DOS Command Prompt application and move to the
325 contrib\win32\ATL7\ImageMagickObject folder.
326 2. Build ImageMagickObject with these commands:
328 $magick> BuildImageMagickObject clean
329 $magick> BuildImageMagickObject release
333 1. Launch the MS-DOS Command Prompt application and move to the PerlMagick
335 2. Build PerlMagick with these commands:
337 $magick> perl Makefile.nt
338 $magick> nmake release
340 Create the Self-installing ImageMagick Binary Distribution
342 1. Double-click on VisualMagick/installer/im-dll-16.iss to launch the
344 2. Select File->Compile.
346 Install the Binary Distribution
348 1. Double-click on VisualMagick/bin/ImageMagick-6.5.9-0-Q16-windows-dll.exe
349 to launch the ImageMagick binary distribution.
350 2. Complete the installer screens to install ImageMagick on your system.
352 Test the Binary Distribution
354 1. Launch the MS-DOS Command Prompt application and move to the PerlMagick
359 2. Move to the VisualMagick/tests folder and type
363 3. Move to the VisualMagick/Magick++/tests folder and type
365 $magick> run_tests.bat
367 4. Move to the VisualMagick/Magick++/demo folder and type
369 $magick> run_demos.bat
371 If all the tests pass without complaint, the ImageMagick self-install binary
372 distribution is ready for use.
374 Dealing with Unexpected Problems
376 Chances are the download, configure, build, and install of ImageMagick went
377 flawlessly as it is intended, however, certain systems and environments may
378 cause one or more steps to fail. We discuss a few problems we've run across
379 and how to take corrective action to ensure you have a working release
382 If the compiler generates an error or if it quits unexpectedly, go to the
383 Visual Studio web site and look for Visual Studio service packs. Chances
384 are, after you download and install all the Visual Studio service packs,
385 ImageMagick will compile and build as expected.
387 Building Your Custom Project
389 The Windows binary distribution includes a number of demo projects that
390 you can use as a template for your own custom project. For example,
391 start with the Button project, generally located in the c:/Program
392 Files/ImageMagick-6.5.5-0/Magick++_demos folder. If not, be sure to select
393 Configuration Properties->C/C++->Preprocessor and set these definitions:
399 NeedFunctionPrototypes