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[Introducing Formats • Supported Formats • Pseudo Formats • Built-in Images • Built-in Patterns • Embedded Profiles]

Introducing Image Formats

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

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.

Supported Image Formats

ImageMagick supports reading over 100 major file formats (not including sub-formats). The following table provides a summary of the supported image formats.

Tag 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 Use -set to specify the image gamma or black and white points (e.g. -set gamma 1.7, -set reference-black 95, -set reference-white 685). Properties include cin:file.create_date, cin:file.create_time, cin:file.filename, cin:file.version, cin:film.count, cin:film.format, cin:film.frame_id, cin:film.frame_position, cin:film.frame_rate, cin:film.id, cin:film.offset, cin:film.prefix, cin:film.slate_info, cin:film.type, cin:image.label, cin:origination.create_date, cin:origination.create_time, cin:origination.device, cin:origination.filename, cin:origination.model, cin:origination.serial, cin:origination.x_offset, cin:origination.x_pitch, cin:origination.y_offset, cin:origination.y_pitch, cin:user.data.
CMYK RW Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black samples Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth. To specify a single precision floating-point format, use -define quantum:format=floating-point. Set the depth to 64 for a double precision floating-point format.
CMYKA RW Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and alpha samples Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth. To specify a single precision floating-point format, use -define quantum:format=floating-point. Set the depth to 64 for a double precision floating-point format.
CR2 R Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format Requires an explicit image format otherwise the image is interpreted as a TIFF image (e.g. cr2:image.cr2).
CRW R Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format  
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.
DCR R Kodak Digital Camera Raw Image File  
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.
DJVU R
DNG R Digital Negative Requires an explicit image format otherwise the image is interpreted as a TIFF image (e.g. dng:image.dng).
DOT R Graph Visualization Use -define to specify the layout engine (e.g. -define dot:layout-engine=neato).
DPX RW SMPTE Digital Moving Picture Exchange 2.0 (SMPTE 268M-2003) See Motion Picture Support in ImageMagick for details on this image format.
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.
EXR RW High dynamic-range (HDR) file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic See High Dynamic-Range Images for details on this image format.
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. Use -transparent-color to specify the GIF transparent color (e.g. -transparent-color wheat).
GPLT R Gnuplot plot files Requires gnuplot4.0.tar.Z or later.
GRAY RW Raw gray samples Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth. To specify a single precision floating-point format, use -define quantum:format=floating-point. Set the depth to 64 for a double precision floating-point format.
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.
INFO W Format and characteristics of the image
JBIG RW Joint Bi-level Image experts Group file interchange format Also known as BIE and JBG. Requires jbigkit-1.6.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 Specify the encoding options with the -define option See JP2 Encoding Options for more details. Requires jasper-1.900.1.zip
JPC RW JPEG-2000 Code Stream Syntax Specify the encoding options with the -define option See JP2 Encoding Options for more details. Requires jasper-1.900.1.zip
JPEG RW Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format Requires jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz. By default we compute optimal Huffman coding tables. Use -define jpeg:optimize-coding=false to use the default Huffman tables.
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 This format persists all image attributes known to ImageMagick. To specify a single precision floating-point format, use -define quantum:format=floating-point. Set the depth to 64 for a double precision floating-point format.
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 ImageMagick to represent images in memory and is read by mapping the file directly into memory. 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. Image attributes are written to a file with the extension .mpc, whereas, image pixels are written to a file with the extension .cache.
MRW R Sony (Minolta) Raw Image File  
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.
NEF R Nikon Digital SLR Camera Raw Image File  
ORF R Olympus Digital Camera Raw Image File  
OTB RW On-the-air Bitmap  
P7 RW Xv's Visual Schnauzer thumbnail format  
PALM RW Palm pixmap  
PAM W Common 2-dimensional bitmap format  
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. By default, ImageMagick sets the page size to the MediaBox. Some PDF files, however, have a CropBox or TrimBox that is smaller than the MediaBox and may include white space, registration or cutting marks outside the CropBox or TrimBox. To force ImageMagick to use the CropBox or TrimBox rather than the MediaBox, use -define (e.g. -define pdf:use-cropbox=true or -define pdf:use-trimbox=true).
PEF R Pentax Electronic File Requires an explicit image format otherwise the image is interpreted as a TIFF image (e.g. pef:image.pef).
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.
PFM RW Portable float map format  
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.
PNG8 RW Portable Network Graphics 8-bit indexed with optional binary transparency
PNG24 RW Portable Network Graphics opaque 24-bit RGB
PNG32 RW Portable Network Graphics opaque or transparent 32-bit RGBA
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 none to write the ASCII version of the formats.
PPM RW Portable pixmap format (color)  
PS RW Adobe PostScript file Requires Ghostscript to read. To force ImageMagick to respect the crop box, use -define (e.g. -define ps:use-cropbox=true).
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.
RAF R Fuji CCD-RAW Graphic File  
RGB RW Raw red, green, and blue samples Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth. To specify a single precision floating-point format, use -define quantum:format=floating-point. Set the depth to 64 for a double precision floating-point format.
RGBA RW Raw red, green, blue, and alpha samples Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth. To specify a single precision floating-point format, use -define quantum:format=floating-point. Set the depth to 64 for a double precision floating-point format.
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. Use -define to specify the rows per strip (e.g. -define tiff:rows-per-strip=8). To specify a signed format, use -define quantum:format=signed. To specify a single-precision floating-point format, use -define quantum:format=floating-point. Set the depth to 64 for a double-precision floating-point format. Use -define quantum:polarity=min-is-black or -define quantum:polarity=min-is-white to toggle the photometric interpretation for a bilevel image. Specify the extra samples as associated or unassociated alpha with, for example, -define tiff:alpha=unassociated.
TIM R PSX TIM file  
TTF R TrueType font file Requires freetype 2. Opening as file returns a preview image. Use -set if you do not want to hint glyph outlines after their scaling to device pixels (e.g. -set type:hinting off).
TXT RW Raw text file  
UIL W X-Motif UIL table  
UYVY RW Interleaved YUV raw image Use -size and -depth command line options to specify width and height. Use -sampling-factor to set the desired subsampling (e.g. -sampling-factor 4:2:2).
VICAR RW VICAR rasterfile format  
VIFF RW Khoros Visualization Image File Format  
WBMP RW Wireless bitmap Support for uncompressed monochrome only.
WMF R 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 output 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  
X RW display or import an image to or from an X11 server Use -define to obtain the image from the root window (e.g. -define x:screen=true).
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.
X3F R Sigma Camera RAW Picture File  
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 and -depth command line options to specify width, height, and depth. Use -sampling-factor to set the desired subsampling (e.g. -sampling-factor 4:2:2).

Pseudo-image Formats

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:

Tag Mode Description Notes
CAPTION R Image caption  
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.
UNIQUE W Write only unique pixels to the image file.  
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:#FF0000M.

Built-in Images

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:, and ROSE: may also be used to request images with those names.

Tag Mode Description Notes
GRANITE R 128x128 granite texture pattern
LOGO R ImageMagick Logo, 640x480 The ImageMagick logo.
NETSCAPE R image using colors in Netscape 216 (6x6x6 ) color cube, 216x144 Most commonly used with the convert and mogrify programs with the -map option to create web safe images.
ROSE R Picture of a rose, 70x46

Built-in Patterns

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.

Tag Mode Description Notes
BRICKS R brick pattern, 16x16
CHECKERBOARD R checkerboard pattern, 30x30
CIRCLES R circles pattern, 16x16
CROSSHATCH R crosshatch pattern, 8x4
CROSSHATCH30 R crosshatch pattern with lines at 30 degrees, 8x4
CROSSHATCH45 R crosshatch pattern with lines at 45 degrees, 8x4
FISHSCALES R fish scales pattern, 16x8
GRAY0 R 0% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY5 R 5% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY10 R 10% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY15 R 15% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY20 R 20% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY25 R 25% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY30 R 30% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY35 R 35% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY40 R 40% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY45 R 45% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY50 R 50% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY55 R 55% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY60 R 60% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY65 R 65% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY70 R 70% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY75 R 75% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY80 R 80% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY85 R 85% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY90 R 100% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY95 R 100% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY100 R 100% intensity gray, 32x32
HEXAGONS R hexagon pattern, 30x18
HORIZONTAL R horizontal line pattern, 8x4
HORIZONTALSAW R horizontal saw-tooth pattern, 16x8
HS_BDIAGONAL R backward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope), 8x8
HS_CROSS R cross line pattern, 8x8
HS_DIAGCROSS R diagonal line cross pattern (45 degrees slope), 8x8
HS_FDIAGONAL R forward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope), 8x8
HS_HORIZONTAL R horizontal line pattern, 8x8
HS_VERTICAL R vertical line pattern, 8x8
LEFT30 R forward diagonal pattern (30 degrees slope), 8x4
LEFT45 R forward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope), 8x8
LEFTSHINGLE R left shingle pattern, 24x24
OCTAGONS R octagons pattern, 16x16
RIGHT30 R backward diagonal line pattern (30 degrees) 8x4
RIGHT45 R backward diagonal line pattern (30 degrees), 8x8
RIGHTSHINGLE R right shingle pattern, 24x24
SMALLFISHSCALES R small fish scales pattern, 8x8
VERTICAL R vertical line pattern, 8x8
VERTICALBRICKS R vertical brick pattern, 16x16
VERTICALLEFTSHINGLE R vertical left shingle pattern, 24x24
VERTICALRIGHTSHINGLE R vertical right shingle pattern, 24x24
VERTICALSAW R vertical saw-tooth pattern, 8x16

Embedded Image Profiles

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.

Tag 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.