1 Introduction to ImageMagick
3 ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images.
4 It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100)
5 including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG,
6 and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and
7 transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw
8 text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.
10 The functionality of ImageMagick is typically utilized from the command line
11 or you can use the features from programs written in your favorite programming
12 language. Choose from these interfaces: G2F (Ada), MagickCore (C), MagickWand
13 (C), ChMagick (Ch), ImageMagickObject (COM+), Magick++ (C++), JMagick (Java),
14 L-Magick (Lisp), NMagick (Neko/haXe), MagickNet (.NET), PascalMagick (Pascal),
15 PerlMagick (Perl), MagickWand for PHP (PHP), IMagick (PHP), PythonMagick
16 (Python), RMagick (Ruby), or TclMagick (Tcl/TK). With a language interface,
17 use ImageMagick to modify or create images dynamically and automagically.
19 ImageMagick is free software delivered as a ready-to-run binary distribution
20 or as source code that you may freely use, copy, modify, and distribute. Its
21 license is compatible with the GPL. It runs on all major operating systems.
22 Features and Capabilities
24 Here are just a few examples of what ImageMagick can do:
26 * Format conversion: convert an image from one format to another (e.g. PNG
28 * Transform: resize, rotate, crop, flip or trim an image
29 * Transparency: render portions of an image invisible
30 * Draw: add shapes or text to an image
31 * Decorate: add a border or frame to an image
32 * Special effects: blur, sharpen, threshold, or tint an image
33 * Animation: create a GIF animation sequence from a group of images
34 * Text & comments: insert descriptive or artistic text in an image
35 * Image identification: describe the format and properties of an image
36 * Composite: overlap one image over another
37 * Montage: juxtapose image thumbnails on an image canvas
38 * Motion picture support: read and write the common image formats used in
40 * Image calculator: apply a mathematical expression to an image or image
42 * High dynamic-range images: accurately represent the wide range of
43 * intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from the brightest direct
44 sunlight to the deepest darkest shadows
45 * Large image support: read, process, or write mibi- and gibi-pixel image
47 * Encipher or decipher an image: convert ordinary images into
48 unintelligible gibberish and back again
49 * Threads of execution support: ImageMagick is thread safe and many
50 internal algorithms are already threaded to take advantage of speed-ups
51 offered by the dual and quad-core processor technologies
53 For more information, see http://www.imagemagick.org.
55 Examples of Imagemagick Usage, http://www.imagemagick.org/usage/,
56 shows how to use ImageMagick from the command-line to accomplish any
57 of these tasks and much more. Also, see Fred's ImageMagick Scripts,
58 http://www.fmwconcepts.com/imagemagick/, a plethora of command-line scripts
59 that perform geometric transforms, blurs, sharpens, edging, noise removal,
60 and color manipulations.