What is ImageMagick? How to Install and Use it for Effective Image Editing

ImageMagick is open-source software that is used to create and edit images. It is used to edit bitmap images of 200 formats. It’s available for free software that can be used as source code with a ready-run binary distribution feature. Imagemagick is mainly used to batch process large digital images and perform modification and optimization tasks.

In simple terms, ImageMagick is a large collection of tools and libraries used to read, write, and manipulate digital images. These 200 formats include popular image formats such as TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, PhotoCD, and GIF, etc.

Using ImageMagick is quite easier than it seems. All you need is to run a command in the command-line interface to do your required changes. With an easy-to-use command line and graphic interface, you can easily create a set of commands and save them into a text file for copy-paste later. You can also use it for rapid prototyping. This makes the entire process easier. You also have the ability to create scripts and run them with commands. 

Mogrify and convert are the commands that are used to do all the changes of the ImageMagick.

The Mogrify image command is used to overwrite the existing images and convert batches of images in the ImageMagick.

• Add a border
• Resize an image
• More resizing options
• Changing file types
• Conversion parameters
• Combining transformations

ImageMagick can perform a lot of tasks to simplify the conversion and optimization process. The real worth of ImageMagick can be seen in the utilities provided by it. 

Display: With display utility, you can easily add, print, write to file, zoom, copy a region of the image with simple commands. 

Convert:  As the name suggests, the convert utility is used to convert images to different formats. You can do the conversion process with approx 200 images formats. This includes all the important image formats. 

Import: The import utility is largely used to capture screen, import, and use it in a format that is useful. While saving a file, you can set the preferred number of colours, colourspace, comments, etc., to the image. 

Animate: The animate utility is used to make the still images more appealing by making a sequence. This transforms the images to look like a video format. The one thing that makes ImageMagick Better than others is its capability for colour reduction to match the colour resolution of the workstation.

Composite: You can combine several images and create a composite result. Several filters can be used, e.g., ver, In, Out, Atop, Xor, Plus, Minus, Difference, Multiply, and Bump Map.

Montage: Montage utility can be used to make the ambience of images better. You can combine several images in the ImageMagick and give it a border and other editing touches for a better atmosphere. 

Mogrify: The mogrify utility is best used for image scaling, image rotation, and colour reduction, etc. It is used for image transformation. 

1. Convert any image from one format to another (e.g. TIFF to JPEG, PNG, and so on)
2. With Image Magick, you can Resize, rotate, sharpen, colour reduce, or add special effects to an image.
3. You can create a montage of image thumbnails.
4. You can create a transparent image suitable for use on the Web.
5. You get the ability to turn a group of images into a GIF animation sequence
6. You can create any composite image by combining several separate images with ImageMagick.
7. Draw shapes or text in an image format.
8. Decorate an image with a border or frame.
9. Easily Describe the format and characteristics of an image.

The powerful image tool ImageMagick can be installed in Windows by following the below process. 

1. Download ImageMagick .dll files from https://pecl.php.net/package/imagick.  Make sure you download the appropriate version getting help from your phpinfo() status by searching on “Architecture” and “PHP Extension Build”.
2. Now Extract and copy all files to the PHP extension directory. 
3. Next, copy all the CORE_RL_* files to the apache bin folder. For example, C:\xampp\apache\bin.
4. Make sure to edit the Edit php.ini file and add the extension=php_imagick.dll line in the extensions section while doing this. 
5. Next, install the ImageMagick binary release version for Windows. Follow this link to get the download. http://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php#windows. 
6. Now Customize the installation path to C:\ImageMagick.
7. Next, you need to copy all files from C:\ImageMagick\modules\coders and C:\ImageMagick\modules\filters to folder C:\ImageMagick to load ImageMagick supported formats.
8. Now head through the Control Panel, System, Advanced Settings, then Environment Variables, then Set New System Variable, then MAGICK_HOME = C:\ImageMagick.
9. Again, start/restart the Xampp/Wamp server and check phpinfo().
10. Your library should be displayed like above. If you don’t see anything there, check C:\ImageMagick is available to the path variable under Apache Environment. 
11. If not, restart your windows machine.
12. If you notice that the ImageMagick variable number of supported formats is equal to 0, then you have to troubleshoot this issue. All you need to do is reinstall the exact version of ImageMagick, which you can get from Imagick using the ImageMagick library version variable. 
13. You can grab the version from ftp://ftp.imagemagick.org/pub/ImageMagick/releases/ or the older version from http://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/deps/ before checking “Imagick compiled with ImageMagick version” or “Imagick using ImageMagick library version” in your phpinfo() file.
14. To do so, you need first to uninstall the previous version and download your required new version. Extract the new version on the exact location C:\ImageMagick. 
15. Head to the next step and modify the “Environmental variable” to MAGICK_HOME = C:\ImageMagick\bin. 
16. Next, restart your Windows PC and check phpinfo() again.

ImageMagick is a robust tool that is best used to edit and modify digital images. Its utility and benefits are some of the most appealing things that make it one of the best free-to-use image software. I hope all your concerns regarding ‘what is ImageMagick’ are clear. Have fun!

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