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ImageMagick uses an ASCII string known as "magick" (e.g. "GIF") to identify file formats, algorithms acting as formats, built-in images, and embedded profile types.


ImageMagick supports reading over 89 major file formats (not including sub-formats). The following table provides a summary of the supported image formats.

Supported Image Formats


Format

Mode

Description

Notes

ART

R

PFS: 1st Publisher

Format originally used on the Macintosh (MacPaint?) and later used for PFS: 1st Publisher clip art.

AVI

R

Microsoft Audio/Visual Interleaved

 

AVS

RW

AVS X image

 

BMP

RW

Microsoft Windows bitmap

 

CGM

R

Computer Graphics Metafile

Requires ralcgm to render CGM files.

CIN

RW

Kodak Cineon Image Format


Cineon Image Format is a subset of SMTPE DPX.

CMYK

RW

Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black samples

Set -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.

CMYKA

RW

Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and alpha samples

Set -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.

CUR

R

Microsoft Cursor Icon

 

CUT

R

DR Halo

 

DCM

R

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) image

Used by the medical community for images like X-rays.

DCX

RW

ZSoft IBM PC multi-page Paintbrush image

 

DIB

RW

Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap

DIB is a BMP file without the BMP header. Used to support embedded images in compound formats like WMF.

DPX

RW

Digital Moving Picture Exchange

 

EMF

R

Microsoft Enhanced Metafile (32-bit)

Only available under Microsoft Windows.

EPDF

RW

Encapsulated Portable Document Format

 

EPI

RW

Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format

Requires Ghostscript to read.

EPS

RW

Adobe Encapsulated PostScript

Requires Ghostscript to read.

EPS2

W

Adobe Level II Encapsulated PostScript

Requires Ghostscript to read.

EPS3

W

Adobe Level III Encapsulated PostScript

Requires Ghostscript to read.

EPSF

RW

Adobe Encapsulated PostScript

Requires Ghostscript to read.

EPSI

RW

Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format

Requires Ghostscript to read.

EPT

RW

Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format with TIFF preview

Requires Ghostscript to read.

FAX

RW

Group 3 TIFF

See TIFF format. Note that FAX machines use non-square pixels which are 1.5 times wider than they are tall but computer displays use square pixels so FAX images may appear to be narrow unless they are explicitly resized using a resize specification of "150x100%".

FIG

R

FIG graphics format

Requires TransFig.

FITS

RW

Flexible Image Transport System

 

FPX

RW

FlashPix Format

Requires FlashPix SDK.

GIF

RW

CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format

8-bit RGB PseudoColor with up to 256 palette entires. Specify the format "GIF87" to write the older version 87a of the format.

GPLT

R

Gnuplot plot files

Requires gnuplot3.5.tar.Z or later.

GRAY

RW

Raw gray samples

Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.

HPGL

R

HP-GL plotter language

Requires hp2xx-3.2.0.tar.gz

HTML

RW

Hypertext Markup Language with a client-side image map

Also known as "HTM". Requires html2ps to read.

ICO

R

Microsoft icon

Also known as "ICON".

JBIG

RW

Joint Bi-level Image experts Group file interchange format

Also known as "BIE" and "JBG". Requires jbigkit-1.0.tar.gz.

JNG

RW

Multiple-image Network Graphics

JPEG in a PNG-style wrapper with transparency. Requires libjpeg and libpng-1.0.2 or later, libpng-1.2.5 or later recommended.

JP2

RW

JPEG-2000 JP2 File Format Syntax

Requires jasper-1.600.0.zip

JPC

RW

JPEG-2000 Code Stream Syntax

Requires jasper-1.600.0.zip

JPEG

RW

Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format

Requires jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz

MAN

R

Unix reference manual pages

Requires that GNU groff and Ghostcript are installed.

MAT

R

MATLAB image format

 

MIFF

RW

Magick image file format

Open ImageMagick's own image format (with ASCII header) which ensures that no image attributes understood by ImageMagick are lost.

MONO

RW

Bi-level bitmap in least-significant-byte first order

 

MNG

RW

Multiple-image Network Graphics

A PNG-like Image Format Supporting Multiple Images, Animation and Transparent JPEG. Requires libpng-1.0.2 or later, libpng-1.2.5 or later recommended.

MPEG

RW

Motion Picture Experts Group file interchange format (version 1)

Requires mpeg2vidcodec_v12.tar.gz.

M2V

RW

Motion Picture Experts Group file interchange format (version 2)

Requires mpeg2vidcodec_v12.tar.gz.

MPC

RW

Magick Persistent Cache image file format

The native "in-memory" ImageMagick uncompressed file format. This file format is identical to that used by Open ImageMagick to represent images in memory and is read in "zero time" via memory mapping. The MPC format is not portable and is not suitable as an archive format. It is suitable as an intermediate format for high-performance image processing.

The MPC format requires two files to support one image. When writing the MPC format, a file with extension ".mpc" is used to store information about the image, while a file with extension “.cache” stores the image pixels. The storage space required by a MPC image (or an image in memory) may be calculated by the equation (5*QuantumDepth*Rows*Columns)/8.

MSL

RW

Magick Scripting Language

MSL is the XML-based scripting language supported by the conjure utility.

MTV

RW

MTV Raytracing image format

 

MVG

RW

Magick Vector Graphics.

The native ImageMagick vector metafile format. A text file containing vector drawing commands accepted by convert's -draw option.

OTB

RW

On-the-air Bitmap

 

P7

RW

Xv's Visual Schnauzer thumbnail format

 

PALM

RW

Palm pixmap

 

PBM

RW

Portable bitmap format (black and white)

 

PCD

RW

Photo CD

The maximum resolution written is 768x512 pixels since larger images require huffman compression (which is not supported).

PCDS

RW

Photo CD

Decode with the sRGB color tables.

PCL

W

HP Page Control Language

For output to HP laser printers.

PCX

RW

ZSoft IBM PC Paintbrush file

 

PDB

RW

Palm Database ImageViewer Format

 

PDF

RW

Portable Document Format

Requires Ghostscript to read.

PFA

R

Postscript Type 1 font (ASCII)

Opening as file returns a preview image.

PFB

R

Postscript Type 1 font (binary)

Opening as file returns a preview image.

PGM

RW

Portable graymap format (gray scale)

 

PICON

RW

Personal Icon

 

PICT

RW

Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT file

 

PIX

R

Alias/Wavefront RLE image format

 

PNG

RW

Portable Network Graphics

Requires libpng-1.0.2 or later, libpng-1.2.5 or later recommended.

PNM

RW

Portable anymap

PNM is a family of formats supporting portable bitmaps (PBM) , graymaps (PGM), and pixmaps (PPM). There is no file format associated with pnm itself. If PNM is used as the output format specifier, then ImageMagick automatically selects the most appropriate format to represent the image.

The default is to write the binary version of the formats. Use +compress to write the ASCII version of the formats.

PPM

RW

Portable pixmap format (color)

 

PS

RW

Adobe PostScript file

Requires Ghostscript to read.

PS2

RW

Adobe Level II PostScript file

Requires Ghostscript to read.

PS3

RW

Adobe Level III PostScript file

Requires Ghostscript to read.

PSD

RW

Adobe Photoshop bitmap file

 

PTIF

RW

Pyramid encoded TIFF

Multi-resolution TIFF containing successively smaller versions of the image down to the size of an icon. The desired sub-image size may be specified when reading via the -size option.

PWP

R

Seattle File Works multi-image file

 

RAD

R

Radiance image file

Requires that ra_ppm from the Radiance software package be installed.

RGB

RW

Raw red, green, and blue samples

Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.

RGBA

RW

Raw red, green, blue, and alpha samples

Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.

RLA

R

Alias/Wavefront image file

 

RLE

R

Utah Run length encoded image file

 

SCT

R

Scitex Continuous Tone Picture

 

SFW

R

Seattle File Works image

 

SGI

RW

Irix RGB image

 

SHTML

W

Hypertext Markup Language client-side image map

Used to write HTML clickable image maps based on a the output of montage or a format which supports tiled images such as MIFF.

SUN

RW

SUN Rasterfile

 

SVG

RW

Scalable Vector Graphics

Requires libxml2 and freetype-2. Note that SVG is a very complex specification so support is still not complete.

TGA

RW

Truevision Targa image

Also known as formats "ICB", "VDA", and "VST".

TIFF

RW

Tagged Image File Format

Also known as "TIF". Requires tiff-v3.6.1.tar.gz or later. Note that since Unisys claims a patent on the LZW algorithm (expiring in the US as of June 2003) used by LZW-compressed TIFF files, ImageMagick binary distributions do not include support for the LZW algorithm so LZW TIFF files can not be written. Although a patch is available for libtiff to enable building with LZW support. Users should consult the Unisys LZW web page before applying it.

TIM

R

PSX TIM file

 

TTF

R

TrueType font file

Requires freetype 2. Opening as file returns a preview image.

TXT

RW

Raw text file

 

UIL

W

X-Motif UIL table

 

UYVY

RW

Interleaved YUV raw image

Use -size command line option to specify width and height.

VICAR

RW

VICAR rasterfile format

 

VIFF

RW

Khoros Visualization Image File Format

 

WBMP

RW

Wireless bitmap

Support for uncompressed monochrome only.

WMF

 

Windows Metafile

Requires libwmf. By default, renders WMF files using the dimensions specified by the metafile header. Use the -density option to adjust the output resolution, and thereby adjust the ouput size. The default output resolution is 72DPI so "-density 144" results in an image twice as large as the default. Use -background color to specify the WMF background color (default white) or -texture filename to specify a background texture image.

WPG

R

Word Perfect Graphics File

 

XBM

RW

X Windows system bitmap, black and white only

Used by the X Windows System to store monochrome icons.

XCF

R

GIMP image

 

XPM

RW

X Windows system pixmap

Also known as "PM". Used by the X Windows System to store color icons.

XWD

RW

X Windows system window dump

Used by the X Windows System to save/display screen dumps.

YCbCr

RW

Raw Y, Cb, and Cr samples

Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.

YCbCrA

RW

Raw Y, Cb, Cr, and alpha samples

Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.

YUV

RW

CCIR 601 4:1:1

Use -size command line option to specify width and height.


ImageMagick supports a number of image format specifications which refer to images prepared via an algorithm, or input/output targets. The following table lists these pseudo image formats:

Pseudo Image Formats


Tag

Mode

Description

Notes

CAPTION

R

Image caption

fixme

CLIPBOARD

RW

Windows Clipboard

Only available under Microsoft Windows.

FRACTAL

R

Plasma fractal image


GRADIENT

R

Gradual passing from one shade to another

Returns a rendered gradient image using the specified image size. Specify the desired shading as part of the filename (e.g. "gradient:red-blue"or "gradient:#F00-#00F").

HISTOGRAM

W

Histogram of the image


LABEL

R

Text image format

Specify the desired text as the filename (e.g. "label:This is a label").

MAP

RW

Colormap intensities and indices

Set -depth to set the sample size of the intensities; indices are 16-bit if colors > 256.

MATTE

W

MATTE format

Write only.

NULL

RW

NULL image

Useful for creating blank tiles with montage (use "NULL:"). Also useful as an output format when evaluating image read performance.

PLASMA

R

Plasma fractal image


PREVIEW

W

Show a preview an image enhancement, effect, or f/x

Creates a preview montage of images prepared over a parameteric range in order to assist with parameter selection. Specify the desired preview type via the -preview option).

PRINT

W

Send image to your computer printer

Unix users may set the PRINTER (for 'lp') or LPDEST (for 'lpr') environment variables to select the desired printer.

SCAN

R

Import image from a scanner device

Requires SANE Specify the device name and path as the filename (e.g. "scan:mustek:/dev/scanner").

STEGANO

R

Steganographic image

Use -size command line option to specify width, height, and offset of the steganographic image

TILE

R

Tiled image

Create a tiled version of an image at by tiling a image. Use -size to specify the tiled image size. The image is specified similar to "TILE:image.miff".

VID

RW

Visual Image Directory

Used to create a thumbnailed directory (tiled thumbnails) of a set of images which may be used to select images to view via the display program, or saved to a MIFF or SHTML file.

WIN

RW

Select image from or display image to your computer screen

Only supported under Microsoft Windows.

X

RW

Select image from or display image to your X server screen

Also see the import and display programs.

XC

R

Canvas image of specified color

Useful to create solid color "canvas" images. Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth. Example XC color specifications include "XC:red" and "XC:#FF0000".


ImageMagick includes a number of built-in (embedded) images which may be referenced as if they were an image file. The “magick:” format tag may be used via the syntax "magick:name" to request an embedded image (e.g. “magick:logo”). For backwards compatibility, the image specifications “GRANITE:”, “LOGO:”,NETSCAPE:”, andROSE:” may also be used to request images with those names.

Built-in Image Formats


Name

Description

Notes/Sample

GRANITE

128x128 granite texture pattern

LOGO

640x480, ImageMagick Logo

NETSCAPE

216x144 image using colors in Netscape 216 (6x6x6 ) color cube.

Most commonly used with the convert/mogrify -map option to create “web safe” images.

ROSE

70x46, Picture of a rose.




ImageMagick includes a number of built-in (embedded) patterns which may be referenced as if they were an image file. The “pattern:” format tag may be used via the syntax "pattern:name" to request an embedded pattern (e.g. “pattern:checkerboard”). The pattern size is controlled with the -size command line option.

Built-in Image Patterns


Name

Description

Notes/Sample

BRICKS

16x16 brick pattern

CHECKERBOARD

30x30 checkerboard pattern

CIRCLES

16x16 circles pattern

CROSSHATCH

8x4 crosshatch pattern

CROSSHATCH30

8x4 crosshatch pattern with lines at 30 degrees.

CROSSHATCH45

8x4 crosshatch pattern with lines at 45 degrees.

FISHSCALES

16x8 fish scales pattern

GRAY0

32x32 0% intensity gray

GRAY5

32x32 5% intensity gray

GRAY10

32x32 10% intensity gray

GRAY15

32x32 15% intensity gray

GRAY20

32x32 20% intensity gray

GRAY25

32x32 25% intensity gray

GRAY30

32x32 30% intensity gray

GRAY35

32x32 35% intensity gray

GRAY40

32x32 40% intensity gray

GRAY45

32x32 45% intensity gray

GRAY50

32x32 50% intensity gray

GRAY55

32x32 55% intensity gray

GRAY60

32x32 60% intensity gray

GRAY65

32x32 65% intensity gray

GRAY70

32x32 70% intensity gray

GRAY75

32x32 75% intensity gray

GRAY80

32x32 80% intensity gray

GRAY85

32x32 85% intensity gray

GRAY90

32x32 90% intensity gray

GRAY95

32x32 95% intensity gray

GRAY100

32x32 100% intensity gray

HEXAGONS

30x18 hexagon pattern

HORIZONTAL

8x4 horizontal line pattern

HORIZONTALSAW

16x8 horizontal saw-tooth pattern

HS_BDIAGONAL

8x8 backward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope)

HS_CROSS

8x8 cross line pattern

HS_DIAGCROSS

8x8 diagonal line cross pattern (45 degrees slope)

HS_FDIAGONAL

8x8 forward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope)

HS_HORIZONTAL

8x8 horizontal line pattern

HS_VERTICAL

8x8 vertical line pattern

LEFT30

8x4 forward diagonal pattern (30 degrees slope)

LEFT45

8x8 forward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope)

LEFTSHINGLE

24x24 left shingle pattern

OCTAGONS

16x16 octagons pattern

RIGHT30

8x4 backward diagonal line pattern (30 degrees)

RIGHT45

8x8 backward diagonal line pattern (30 degrees)

RIGHTSHINGLE

24x24 right shingle pattern

SMALLFISHSCALES

8x8 small fish scales pattern

VERTICAL

8x8 vertical line pattern

VERTICALBRICKS

16x16 vertical brick pattern

VERTICALLEFTSHINGLE

24x24 vertical left shingle pattern

VERTICALRIGHTSHINGLE

24x24 vertical right shingle pattern

VERTICALSAW

8x16 vertical saw-tooth pattern

ImageMagick provides a number of format identifiers which are used to add, remove, and save embedded profiles for images which can support embedded profiles. Image types which may contain embedded profiles are TIFF, JPEG, and PDF.


Embedded Image Patterns


Format

Mode

Description

Notes

8BIM

RW

Photoshop resource format (binary)


8BIMTEXT

RW

Photoshop resource format (ASCII)

An ASCII representation of the 8BIM format.

APP1

RW

Raw application information


APP1JPEG

RW

Raw JPEG binary data

Profile in JPEG wrapper.

ICC

RW

International Color Consortium color profile

Also known as "ICM". To read, use -profile with convert.

IPTC

RW

IPTC Newsphoto (binary)

To read, use -profile with convert

IPTCTEXT

RW

IPTC Newsphoto (ASCII)

An ASCII representation of the IPTC format.


Support for some of the formats are delegated to libraries or external programs. The Installation Guide describes where to find these distributions and any special configuration options required.

To get a complete listing of which image formats are supported on your system, type

   identify -list format

On some platforms, ImageMagick automatically processes these extensions: .gz for Zip compression, .Z for Unix compression, .bz2 for block compression, and .pgp for PGP encryption. For example, a PNM image called image.pnm.gz is automatically uncompressed.


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