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GraphicsMagick

graphicsmagick.org

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Spec score 8.7 #6 of 36 in Batch Photo Processing Software

What it is

GraphicsMagick is free image-processing software with command-line tools, programming interfaces, and graphical interfaces for image conversion, editing, and 2D vector rendering. It can resize, rotate, sharpen, reduce colors, apply effects, compare and composite images, create montages and GIF animations, and draw shapes or text. It reads, writes, and manipulates images in more than 92 major formats, including AVIF, GIF, HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, JXL, PNG, PDF, TIFF, and WebP. The software also supports very large images, including gigapixel-size files. OpenMP multi-threading can scale CPU-bound processing across processor cores when built with a compatible compiler. Interfaces include C, C++, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, Ruby, Windows .NET, and Windows COM, alongside the command line. Some format support relies on external components, such as Ghostscript for PDF and PostScript or dcraw for camera RAW formats. GraphicsMagick is distributed under an MIT-style license for open-source, proprietary, or GPLed applications. The project lists version 1.3.48, released July 23, 2026, as current and recommends updating because significant issues are addressed in almost every release.

Spec sheet

What it does
GraphicsMagick is a portable image-processing toolkit for converting, editing, compositing, rendering, comparing, and describing images.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Platforms
The project says it runs on Unix and Unix-like systems including Linux, Windows 10 and later, and MacOS-X.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
License
GraphicsMagick is distributed under an MIT-style license that the project says permits open-source, GPL, and proprietary applications.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Founded
The project began in 2002 when it split from ImageMagick.Read 15 Oct 2026 · en.wikipedia.org
API stability
The project explicitly targets stable programming APIs and ABI compatibility across managed releases.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Batch processing
The gm mogrify command processes many files in one invocation and can write results into a separate directory.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sources.debian.org
Build dependencies
Some format capabilities require external libraries or programs, including Ghostscript for Postscript and PDF and dcraw for camera RAW formats.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Command interface
The command-line interface uses the gm program with subcommands such as convert, mogrify, montage, composite, display, animate, and import.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sources.debian.org
Company identity
The software is attributed to the GraphicsMagick Group rather than a conventional commercial software company.Read 15 Oct 2026 · en.wikipedia.org
Core API
The core C API exposes low-level functions for reading, manipulating, writing, and displaying images and links against the GraphicsMagick library.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Documentation
Documentation includes an HTML reference, the gm manual page, a detailed FAQ, API references, installation instructions, NEWS files, and ChangeLogs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Download verification
The download page describes verifying distributed packages with GnuPG signatures and also mentions SHA-256 or SHA-1 checksums in release announcements.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
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.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Image operations
Documented operations include resizing, rotation, sharpening, color reduction, effects, thumbnail montages, transparency, animation, compositing, drawing, borders, and image comparison.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Image processing
GraphicsMagick provides utilities, programming interfaces, and GUIs for image conversion, processing, and 2D vector rendering.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
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.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
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.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Large images
GraphicsMagick reports testing with gigapixel-scale images and supports creating images dynamically for web applications.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Latest release
The site lists version 1.3.48, released July 23, 2026, as the current release.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
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.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
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.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sources.debian.org
Limit: small developer community
Wikipedia reports four active GraphicsMagick code contributors in 2023, compared with 24 for ImageMagick.Read 15 Oct 2026 · en.wikipedia.org
Multithreading
OpenMP is used to parallelize CPU-bound image processing across processor cores when compiled with a suitable compiler.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Node.js integration
The official programming-interface list identifies a GraphicsMagick Node.js binding for server-side JavaScript image processing.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Notable security issue
SourceForge bug #766 records a buffer-overflow issue tracked as CVE-2026-33535 and marked fixed after a Mercurial changeset.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
Performance
Image processing uses OpenMP multi-threading so CPU-bound tasks can scale as processor cores are added; OpenMP requires a compatible compiler.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Perl API
PerlMagick is an object-oriented Perl interface for reading, modifying, and writing images or image sequences, and is installed with GraphicsMagick on Unix.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Praise: ease and conversion
G2 reviewers praise its simple image-format conversion, thumbnail creation, transparent backgrounds, GIF creation, and a Node.js library that can crop by dimensions.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Praise: speed and security
A SourceForge reviewer specifically praises GraphicsMagick as faster and more secure than ImageMagick.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
Praise: stability
SourceForge reviewers repeatedly describe the software as stable and reliable in production.Read 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
Programming APIs
Official programming interfaces cover C core, C Wand, C++, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl/Tk, Ruby, Go, Node.js, Redis, .NET, and Windows COM, with some maintained by third parties.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Programming interfaces
Interfaces are available for C, C++, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, Ruby, Windows .NET, and Windows COM, as well as the command line.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Project origin
GraphicsMagick was forked from ImageMagick 5.5.2 in 2002 to pursue stable interfaces and controlled releases.Read 15 Oct 2026 · en.wikipedia.org
Rating on G2
4.7 out of 5 from 3 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Rating on SourceForge
5.0 out of 5 from 21 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net
Recent release
The official mirror lists GraphicsMagick 1.3.49 as released on October 8, 2026.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Security disclosure
GraphicsMagick says it does not currently author CVEs, while Debian and openSUSE have assigned CVEs to GraphicsMagick issues.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Security limitation
The security page warns that hostile files or URLs can potentially cause crashes, memory leaks, resource exhaustion, infinite processing, or code execution, so untrusted input needs isolation and limits.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Security testing
Security testing includes daily OSS-Fuzz runs, Coverity, Clang scan-build, GCC analyzer, AddressSanitizer, UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer, and Valgrind.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Self-hosting
Source and binaries are downloadable from SourceForge, and the source can be cloned from Mercurial repositories for local builds and private modifications.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Support and maintenance
The project recommends updating to the current release because significant issues are addressed in almost every release.Read 5 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Supported systems
The project states that it compiles on modern Unix-like systems, Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows 10 or later.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io
Wand API
The C Wand library provides a mid-level interface organized around drawing, image-processing, and pixel APIs, with a GraphicsMagickWand-config build helper.Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io

Plans and prices

GraphicsMagick Free command-line tools · libraries · programming interfaces · GUIs · proprietary or GPL applications permitted Read 15 Oct 2026 · graphicsmagick.sourceforge.io

Every GraphicsMagick plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Free software under an MIT-style license.
  • Supports more than 92 major image formats.
  • Includes interfaces for multiple programming languages.
  • Supports very large, gigapixel-size images.
  • OpenMP can parallelize CPU-bound tasks.

Limits

  • Some formats require external libraries or programs.
  • OpenMP requires a compatible compiler.
  • Project recommends updating to the current release.

Who it suits

GraphicsMagick suits developers and image-processing workflows that need command-line or programming interfaces across Linux, Unix-like systems, Windows, or macOS. It can also suit users who need batch image operations or broad format handling.

Verdict

GraphicsMagick offers broad image operations and format support through several interfaces without a listed price. Check external dependencies for the formats you need and the current release guidance before deploying it.

Where Specifiction places it

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