GraphicsMagick
GraphicsMagick is free software for image conversion, processing, and 2D vector rendering.
What GraphicsMagick is
GraphicsMagick is free software for image conversion, processing, and 2D vector rendering. It offers command-line utilities, programming interfaces, and graphical interfaces, with operations for resizing, rotating, sharpening, reducing colors, applying effects, comparing images, compositing, and drawing shapes or text. It can also create montages and GIF animations. GraphicsMagick reads, writes, and manipulates more than 92 major formats, including AVIF, GIF, HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, JXL, PNG, PDF, TIFF, and WebP. It supports huge images, including gigapixel-size images. OpenMP multi-threading can scale CPU-bound tasks across processor cores when built with a compatible compiler. Interfaces are available for C, C++, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, Ruby, Windows .NET, and Windows COM. Some format capabilities depend on external libraries or programs, such as Ghostscript for PDF and PostScript or dcraw for camera RAW formats. The software is distributed under an MIT-style license. The project recommends keeping up with its current release because significant issues are addressed in nearly every release.
Good
- Reads and writes more than 92 major formats.
- Supports gigapixel-size images.
- Offers command-line tools and multiple programming interfaces.
- Free software under an MIT-style license.
- OpenMP can scale CPU-bound processing across cores.
Watch out
- Some format capabilities require external libraries or programs.
- OpenMP requires a compatible compiler.
- The project recommends updating to the current release.
Who it suits
GraphicsMagick suits users who need image processing through command-line tools, programming interfaces, or graphical interfaces. Its broad format support and large-image handling may also suit automated or batch image workflows.
Verdict
GraphicsMagick offers a wide range of image operations and format support across command-line, programming, and graphical interfaces. Check external dependencies for the formats you need and keep the software current.
Plans and prices
From GraphicsMagick's own pricing page, checked 15 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| GraphicsMagick | Free | command-line tools · libraries · programming interfaces · GUIs · proprietary or GPL applications permitted |
The facts
Each one read from GraphicsMagick's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- API stability
- The project explicitly targets stable programming APIs and ABI compatibility across managed releases.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Batch processing
- The gm mogrify command processes many files in one invocation and can write results into a separate directory.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Build dependencies
- Some format capabilities require external libraries or programs, including Ghostscript for Postscript and PDF and dcraw for camera RAW formats.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Command interface
- The command-line interface uses the gm program with subcommands such as convert, mogrify, montage, composite, display, animate, and import.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Core API
- The core C API exposes low-level functions for reading, manipulating, writing, and displaying images and links against the GraphicsMagick library.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Documentation
- Documentation includes an HTML reference, the gm manual page, a detailed FAQ, API references, installation instructions, NEWS files, and ChangeLogs.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Download verification
- The download page describes verifying distributed packages with GnuPG signatures and also mentions SHA-256 or SHA-1 checksums in release announcements.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Format support
- The project says it reads, writes, and manipulates more than 92 major formats, including AVIF, HEIC, JPEG, JPEG 2000, JXL, PNG, PDF, TIFF, and WebP.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Image operations
- Documented operations include resizing, rotation, sharpening, color reduction, effects, thumbnail montages, transparency, animation, compositing, drawing, borders, and image comparison.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Image processing
- GraphicsMagick provides utilities, programming interfaces, and GUIs for image conversion, processing, and 2D vector rendering.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Installation requirements
- Builds use a C99-compatible compiler; optional capabilities depend on libraries such as Ghostscript, FreeType, libxml2, libjpeg, libpng, libtiff, WebP, libheif, and JPEG XL.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Large images
- GraphicsMagick reports testing with gigapixel-scale images and supports creating images dynamically for web applications.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Latest release
- The site lists version 1.3.48, released July 23, 2026, as the current release.checked 5 Oct 2026
- License
- GraphicsMagick is distributed under an MIT-style license that the project says permits open-source, GPL, and proprietary applications.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: external delegates
- Several formats require separately installed delegate libraries, and the installation documentation warns that Ghostscript has historically had serious security problems with untrusted PostScript.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: no GPU roadmap
- The Debian-hosted FAQ says GraphicsMagick has no plan to use OpenCL or CUDA and instead focuses on multicore CPU processing.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: small developer community
- Wikipedia reports four active GraphicsMagick code contributors in 2023, compared with 24 for ImageMagick.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Multithreading
- OpenMP is used to parallelize CPU-bound image processing across processor cores when compiled with a suitable compiler.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Node.js integration
- The official programming-interface list identifies a GraphicsMagick Node.js binding for server-side JavaScript image processing.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Notable security issue
- SourceForge bug #766 records a buffer-overflow issue tracked as CVE-2026-33535 and marked fixed after a Mercurial changeset.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Performance
- Image processing uses OpenMP multi-threading so CPU-bound tasks can scale as processor cores are added; OpenMP requires a compatible compiler.checked 5 Oct 2026
The company
- Company identity
- The software is attributed to the GraphicsMagick Group rather than a conventional commercial software company.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Founded
- The project began in 2002 when it split from ImageMagick.checked 15 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Independent platform listing
- SourceForge lists BSD, Cygwin, Linux, MinGW/MSYS2, and Windows support, with command-line, Win32, and X11 interfaces and C, C++, Perl, and Tcl languages.checked 15 Oct 2026
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