Developer Oracles » image processing php http://devoracles.com Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:05:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Installing ImageMagick without headaches http://devoracles.com/installing-imagemagick-without-headaches/17 http://devoracles.com/installing-imagemagick-without-headaches/17#comments Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:51:56 +0000 Gary Illyes http://devoracles.com/?p=17 This is simple: on windows systems you have the option to use the automated installer here, it’s neither complicated or hard to install. On Linux based systems I recommend to install it from source for obvious reasons like you know what’s installed, where, and if there was a problem, you can debug easily because the log is displayed.
So, login using SSH, you will need to login with a username which has compiling and install privileges.
After you logged in, create a directory where you place the gzipped package you will download from Imagemagick.org.
after you created the directory, type in the console:

wget ftp://ftp.imagemagick.org/pub/ImageMagick/ImageMagick-6.4.2-1.tar.gz

Currently (13th of July, 2008) 6.4.2 is the latest version of ImageMagick, you may want to check what is the latest release when you install your ImageMagick.
So, the above command will download the imagemagick package to your server.
Let’s depack it using tar, tar, not untar as there’s no such command on Linux ;)

tar xvfz ImageMagick-6.4.2-1.tar.gz

Depacked. Change the directory to the newly created ImageMagick directory, then let’s configure and compile it:

./configure
make

If everything was OK, no error, warning or any other weird stuff during compile, you are safe to install it:

make install

And theoretically you are done. To test your installation try Imagemagick’s convert program, if it works, you’re the best! Type the following in the command line:

/usr/local/bin/convert logo: logo.gif

ImageMagick is a dependency for Imagick PECL, so before you can use it in PHP for example, the first step is to install ImageMagick THEN Imagick.

]]> http://devoracles.com/installing-imagemagick-without-headaches/17/feed 1 How to install Imagick in the most simple way? http://devoracles.com/how-to-install-imagick-in-the-most-simple-way/8 http://devoracles.com/how-to-install-imagick-in-the-most-simple-way/8#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:17:31 +0000 Gary Illyes http://devoracles.com/?p=8 This article is recommended for advanced users with linux knowledge.
First, what is Imagick and why would you use it?!
There is a library called ImageMagick© which can handle over 100 types of image formats, apply to images very cool effects and many more things with almost any type of image or even PDF!
So, the PHP developers were a bit jealous as they couldn’t use easily in their programs this library. Many will say, “yeah, but GDLibrary it’s still there”. Well, if we don’t look at GDLibrary’s slowness, the incapability of process almost any type of image file and the fact that it simply has not enough inbuilt gadgets, then yes, there it is.
Let’s fancy a bit :D
I develop and manage an image hosting site and in the beginning we used GDLibrary to process the images. It was all cool, we thought it’s fast and the function we wrote to first check the image type then decide which GD function to use to process the image to create one single thumbnail, is OK. Well, it was. It had only about 100 lines and since we didn’t have too many members/users, it processed quite fast the images.
Then there was a boom in the number of the users, and the server started to act slow. We added more RAM, then another boom, even more RAM and so on. After a while I started to focus on other methods than always adding RAM and putting new servers in the cluster, and after a while I found Imagick, an ImageMagick interface written by Mikko Koppanen.
After a few test-runs on the production server, I was amazed. The 100 lines of image processing has been forgotten, the total number of lines we use now to create the thumbnails is 9, yeah, nine, and the performance? Well, we got rid of a great amount of RAM.

OK, so how do you install Imagick in a very simple way on a Linux machine.
Imagick is depending on ImageMagick, you have to install that prior you install Imagick. To learn how to install it, I created a short few-step guide here (link).
Don’t get mad, but there are only two steps while installing Imagick, first, type the following in the command line (after you logged in as root, of course):


pecl install imagick

Watch the screen, beautiful, isn’t it? :D

OK, the last step is to add the following line in your php.ini:


extension=imagick.so

You’re done. You can now use imagick classes in your PHP scripts. Some examples I will post later, just to show you how easy is to use it.
To get the latest Imagick PECL extension, please navigate to the official imagick page on pecl.php.net

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