1 Introduction to ImageMagick
3 ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, compose, or convert
4 bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats (over
5 200) including PNG, JPEG, JPEG-2000, GIF, TIFF, DPX, EXR, WebP, Postscript,
6 PDF, and SVG. Use ImageMagick to resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort,
7 shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special
8 effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.
10 The functionality of ImageMagick is typically utilized from the command
11 line or you can use the features from programs written in your favorite
12 language. Choose from these interfaces: G2F (Ada), MagickCore (C),
13 MagickWand (C), ChMagick (Ch), ImageMagickObject (COM+), Magick++ (C++),
14 JMagick (Java), L-Magick (Lisp), Lua, NMagick (Neko/haXe), Magick.NET
15 (.NET), PascalMagick (Pascal), PerlMagick (Perl), MagickWand for PHP
16 (PHP), IMagick (PHP), PythonMagick (Python), RMagick (Ruby), or TclMagick
17 (Tcl/TK). With a language interface, use ImageMagick to modify or create
18 images dynamically and automagically.
20 ImageMagick utilizes multiple computational threads to increase performance
21 and can read, process, or write mega-, giga-, or tera-pixel image sizes.
23 ImageMagick is free software delivered as a ready-to-run binary distribution
24 or as source code that you may use, copy, modify, and distribute in both open
25 and proprietary applications. It is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.
27 The ImageMagick development process ensures a stable API and ABI. Before
28 each ImageMagick release, we perform a comprehensive security assessment
29 that includes memory error and thread data race detection to prevent
30 security vulnerabilities.
32 ImageMagick is available from http://www.imagemagick.org/download to download.
33 It runs on Linux, Windows, Mac Os X, iOS, Android OS, and others.
35 The authoritative ImageMagick web site is
36 http://www.imagemagick.org. The authoritative source code repository is
37 http://git.imagemagick.org/repos/ImageMagick/.
40 Features and Capabilities
42 Here are just a few examples of what ImageMagick can do:
44 * Format conversion: convert an image from one format to another (e.g.
46 * Transform: resize, rotate, deskew, crop, flip or trim an image.
47 * Transparency: render portions of an image invisible.
48 * Draw: add shapes or text to an image.
49 * Decorate: add a border or frame to an image.
50 * Special effects: blur, sharpen, threshold, or tint an image.
51 * Animation: create a GIF animation sequence from a group of images.
52 * Text & comments: insert descriptive or artistic text in an image.
53 * Image identification: describe the format and attributes of an image.
54 * Composite: overlap one image over another.
55 * Montage: juxtapose image thumbnails on an image canvas.
56 * Generalized pixel distortion: correct for, or induce image distortions
57 including perspective.
58 * Computer vision: Canny edge detection.
59 * Morphology of shapes: extract features, describe shapes and recognize
61 * Motion picture support: read and write the common image formats used in
63 * Image calculator: apply a mathematical expression to an image or image
65 * Connected component labeling: uniquely label connected regions in an
67 * Discrete Fourier transform: implements the forward and inverse DFT.
68 * Perceptual hash: maps visually identical images to the same or similar
69 hash-- useful in image retrieval, authentication, indexing, or copy
70 detection as well as digital watermarking.
71 * Color management: accurate color management with color profiles or in
72 lieu of-- built-in gamma compression or expansion as demanded by the
74 * High dynamic-range images: accurately represent the wide range of
75 intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from the brightest direct
76 sunlight to the deepest darkest shadows.
77 * Encipher or decipher an image: convert ordinary images into
78 unintelligible gibberish and back again.
79 * Virtual pixel support: convenient access to pixels outside the image
81 * Large image support: read, process, or write mega-, giga-, or
82 tera-pixel image sizes.
83 * Threads of execution support: ImageMagick is thread safe and most
84 internal algorithms are OpenMP-enabled to take advantage of speed-ups
85 offered by multicore processor chips.
86 * Distributed pixel cache: offload intermediate pixel storage to one or
88 * Heterogeneous distributed processing: certain algorithms are
89 OpenCL-enabled to take advantage of speed-ups offered by executing in
90 concert across heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs, GPUs, and
92 * ImageMagick on the iPhone: convert, edit, or compose images on your
95 Examples of ImageMagick Usage shows how to use ImageMagick from the
96 command-line to accomplish any of these tasks and much more. Also,
97 see Fred's ImageMagick Scripts: a plethora of command-line scripts that
98 perform geometric transforms, blurs, sharpens, edging, noise removal,
99 and color manipulations. With Magick.NET, use ImageMagick without having
100 to install ImageMagick on your server or desktop.