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[Introduction to ImageMagick | Features and Capabilities | Books on ImageMagick | User Community]

ImageMagick^®, version 6.2.6, is a free software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a large variety of formats. Images can be cropped, colors can be changed, various effects can be applied, images can be rotated and combined, and text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves can be added to images and stretched and rotated.

ImageMagick is free software: it is delivered with full source code and can be freely used, copied, modified and distributed. Its license is compatible with the GPL. It runs on all major operating systems.

Most of the functionality of ImageMagick can be used interactively from the command line; more often, however, the features are used from programs written in the programming languages C, Ch, C++, Java, Lisp, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl/Tk, for which ready-made ImageMagick interfaces (MagickCore, MagickWand, PerlMagick, Magick++, PythonMagick, MagickWand for PHP, RMagick, TclMagick, L_Magick, and JMagick) are available. This makes it possible to modify or create images automatically and dynamically.

ImageMagick supports many image formats (over 95) including formats like GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PNG, PDF, PhotoCD, TIFF, and DPX.

Here are just a few examples of what ImageMagick can do:

• Convert an image from one format to another (e.g. PNG to JPEG)
• Resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an image
• Create a montage of image thumbnails
• 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 image
• Draw shapes or text on an image
• Decorate an image with a border or frame
• Describe the format and characteristics of an image

Examples of ImageMagick Usage shows how to use ImageMagick to accomplish any of these tasks and much more.

An open source project backed by years of continual development, ImageMagick supports over 90 image formats and can perform impressive operations such as creating images from scratch; changing colors; stretching, rotating, and overlaying images; and overlaying text on images. Whether you use ImageMagick to manage the family photos or to embark on a job involving millions of images, this book will provide you with the knowledge to manage your images with ease.

The Definitive Guide to ImageMagick explains all of these capabilities and more in a practical, learn-by-example fashion. You'll get comfortable using ImageMagick for any image-processing task. Through the book's coverage of the ImageMagick interfaces for C, Perl, PHP, and Ruby, you'll learn how to incorporate ImageMagick features into a variety of applications.

To join the ImageMagick user community, try the discourse server or mailing lists. Both permit you to review questions or comments (with informed responses) posed by ImageMagick users as well as an opportunity to ask your own questions.