ImageMagick - X11 Image Processing and Display Package

ImageMagick ^TM, version 4.1.6, is a package for display and interactive manipulation of images for the X Window System. It is written in C and interfaces to the X library, and therefore does not require any proprietary toolkit in order to compile. Although the software is copyrighted, it is available for free and can be redistributed without fee.

The ImageMagick image display program can display an image on any workstation screen running an X server. It can read and write many of the more popular image formats including JPEG, TIFF, PNM, GIF, and Photo CD. In addition you can interactively resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an image and save your completed work in the same or differing image format.

In addition to the image display program, ImageMagick also has command line programs that perform these functions:

Convert an image from one format to another

Resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an image

Create a framed thumbnail of an image

Create a transparent image suitable for use on the Web

Turn a group of images into a GIF animation sequence

Create a composite image by combining several separate images

Segment an image based on the color histogram

Describe the format and characteristics of an image

Retrieve, list, or print files from a remote network site

You can try these and many more functions from your Web browser at the ImageMagick Studio. Or, you can see examples of select ImageMagick functions.

ImageMagick is known to compile and run on virtually any Unix. system and Linux. It also runs under Windows NT, Windows 95, Macintosh, and VMS. See Install Guide for compiling instructions. Pre-compiled binaries are available for some of the more popular operating systems. The entire source and binary distribution is also available for a limited time on CD.

You can subscribe to the mailing list. Here you can ask questions and get advice from other ImageMagick users and see announcements of bug fixes, enhancements, and new releases.

Because ImageMagick is freeware, I am unwilling to certify that it is Y2K Compliant. However I am confident that it is. ImageMagick uses localtime to produce time-stamps for encoding PDF and Postscript output. It also uses system routines such as select to produce suitable sub-second delays when animating an image sequence.

For further information about ImageMagick, select from these sources:

ImageMagick Archives

Frequently Asked Questions

What's New

How You Can Help

ImageMagick Tools

Magick Image File Format

ImageMagick's color reduction algorithm

Magick Application Programming Interface

Object-oriented Perl Interface to ImageMagick

Object-oriented Python Interface to ImageMagick

Common Desktop Environment Screen Saver