=======================================
GraphicsMagick Image Processing System
=======================================

.. meta::
   :description: GraphicsMagick is a robust collection of tools and libraries to read,
                 write, and manipulate an image in any of the more popular
                 image formats including GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, and Photo CD.
                 With GraphicsMagick you can create GIFs dynamically making it
                 suitable for Web applications.  You can also resize, rotate,
                 sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an image and
                 save your completed work in the same or differing image format.

   :keywords: GraphicsMagick, Image Magick, Image Magic, PerlMagick, Perl Magick,
              Perl Magic, CineMagick, PixelMagick, Pixel Magic, WebMagick,
              Web Magic, visualization, image processing, software development,
              simulation, image, software, AniMagick, Animagic,  Magick++


.. _GraphicsMagic-1.1 : http://www.graphicsmagick.org/1.1/
.. _download GraphicsMagic-1.1 : http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=73485
.. _GraphicsMagic-1.2 : http://www.graphicsmagick.org/1.2/
.. _download GraphicsMagic-1.2 : http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=73485
.. _GraphicsMagic-1.3 : http://www.graphicsmagick.org/1.3/
.. _download GraphicsMagic-1.3 : http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=73485

.. _programming : programming.html

========================  ===============================================
Legacy Stable Branch:     1.1.14__ (Released June 5, 2008) download__
Previous Stable Branch:   1.2.6__ (Released November 17, 2008) download__
Current StableBranch:     1.3.4__ (Released January 15, 2009) download__
========================  ===============================================

__ `GraphicsMagic-1.1`_
__ `download GraphicsMagic-1.1`_
__ `GraphicsMagic-1.2`_
__ `download GraphicsMagic-1.2`_
__ `GraphicsMagic-1.3`_
__ `download GraphicsMagic-1.3`_


Check http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/ for the latest version of this page.

.. _ImageMagick : http://www.imagemagick.org/
.. _Open Source Initiative : http://www.opensource.org/
.. _FSF : http://www.fsf.org/
.. _GPL Version 2 :  http://www.fsf.org/licenses/licenses.html
.. _OpenMP : OpenMP.html
.. _`benchmarks` : benchmarks.html

GraphicsMagick is the swiss army knife of image processing. Comprised of
337K lines of C and C++ code, it provides a robust and efficient
collection of tools and libraries which support reading, writing, and
manipulating an image in over 88 major formats including important
formats like DPX, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PNG, PDF, PNM, and TIFF.
GraphicsMagick supports huge images on systems that support large files,
and has been tested with gigapixel-size images. GraphicsMagick can create
new images on the fly, making it suitable for building dynamic Web
applications. GraphicsMagick may be used to resize, rotate, sharpen,
color reduce, or add special effects to an image and save the result in
the same or differing image format. Image processing operations are
available from the command line, as well as through C, C++, Perl, Tcl,
Ruby, or Windows COM programming interfaces. With some modification,
language extensions for ImageMagick may be used.

GraphicsMagick is originally derived from ImageMagick_ 5.5.2 but has been
completely independent of the ImageMagick project since then. Since the
fork from ImageMagick in 2002, many improvements have been made (`see
news <NEWS.html>`_) by `many authors <authors.html>`_ using an open
development model but without breaking the API or utilities operation.

Here are some reasons to prefer GraphicsMagick over ImageMagick:

  * GM is much more efficient (see the `benchmarks`_) so it gets the job
    done faster using fewer resources.
  
  * GM is much smaller and tighter.
  
  * GM does not use generic names for its utilities so it does not
    conflict with other installed software (including system tools.)
  
  * GM comes with a comprehensive manual page.
  
  * GM provides API and ABI stability and managed releases that you can
    count on.
  
  * GM provides detailed human-readable ChangeLog and NEWS files.
  
  * GM is available for free, may be used to support both open and
    proprietary applications, and may be redistributed without fee.
  
  * GM is dististributed under an X11-style license ("MIT License"),
    which is approved by the `Open Source Initiative`_ and declared by
    the FSF_ to be compatible with the `GPL Version 2`_.

GraphicsMagick is `copyrighted <Copyright.html>`_ by the GraphicsMagick
Group as well as many others.

Here are just a few `examples <images/examples.jpg>`_ of what GraphicsMagick
can do:

  * Convert an image from one format to another (e.g. TIFF 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 images  
  
  * Draw shapes or text on an image  
  
  * Decorate an image with a border or frame  
  
  * Describe the format and characteristics of an image

GraphicsMagick is quite portable, and compiles under almost every general
purpose operating system that runs on 32-bit or 64-bit CPUs.
GraphicsMagick is available for virtually any Unix or Unix-like system,
including Linux. It also runs under `Windows <INSTALL-windows.html>`_ '98
and later ('98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP), and MacOS-X.

Major developments which appeared in GraphicsMagick 1.3:

  * Algorithms are re-written so that they are accelerated via OpenMP_.
    OpenMP_ allows you to take advantage of those extra cores in your
    multi-core/multi-CPU system in order to dramatically reduce
    processing time.
  
  * Additional operators are added for tasks like thresholding, gamma
    correction, and adding noise.

Major developments which appeared in GraphicsMagick 1.2:

  * Stellar support for SMPTE DPX format as used by the motion picture
    industry for film frames. `Read about it <motion-picture.html>`_!
  
  * TIFF format support is completely re-written to support all
    subformats, an arbitrary number of sample bits, floating point types,
    and improved performance.
  
  * Support for ITU Rec.601 and Rec.709 colorspaces (RGB and Luma).
  
  * A huge number of bug fixes, performance improvements, and minor
    features.

.. |copy|   unicode:: U+000A9 .. COPYRIGHT SIGN

Copyright |copy| GraphicsMagick Group 2002 - 2009

