GraphicsMagick Perl API -- PerlMagick

Introduction

PerlMagick is an objected-oriented Perl interface to GraphicsMagick. Use the module to read, manipulate, or write an image or image sequence from within a Perl script. This makes it very suitable for Web CGI scripts. You must have GraphicsMagick 1.0.0 or above and Perl version 5.005_02 or greater installed on your system for either of these utilities to work. There are a number of useful scripts available to show you the value of PerlMagick. The PerlMagick demo directory provides a number of sample demos.

Installation

UNIX

PerlMagick is installed by default by installing GraphicsMagick. Installing PerlMagick as a subordinate package of GraphicsMagick is the best way to avoid problems.

For Unix, you typically need to be root to install the software. There are ways around this. Consult the Perl manual pages for more information.

Windows XP - Windows 12

[ These procedures have not been exercised for some time ]

After GraphicsMagick has been compiled from the GraphicsMagick Windows source distribution using Microsoft Visual C++, PerlMagick may be manually built and installed by opening a CLI window and performing the following steps:

cd PerlMagick
copy Makefile.nt Makefile.PL
perl Makefile.PL
nmake
nmake install

See the PerlMagick Windows HowTo page for further installation instructions.

Running the Regression Tests

To verify a correct installation, type:

make test

Use nmake test under Windows. There are a few demonstration scripts available to exercise many of the functions PerlMagick can perform. Type

cd demo
make

You are now ready to utilize the PerlMagick methods from within your Perl scripts.

Overview

Any script that wants to use PerlMagick methods must first define the methods within its namespace and instantiate an image object. Do this with

use Graphics::Magick;
$image=Graphics::Magick->new;

Note that this differs from the ImageMagick version of PerlMagick which uses the namespace Image::Magick. Any PerlMagick code written for the ImageMagick version of PerlMagick requires a global substitution of Image::Magick to Graphics::Magick in order to work with the GraphicsMagick version.

The new() method takes the same parameters as SetAttribute . For example:

$image=Graphics::Magick->new(size=>'384x256');

Next you will want to read an image or image sequence, manipulate it, and then display or write it. The input and output methods for PerlMagick are defined in Read or Write an Image. See Set an Image Attribute for methods that affect the way an image is read or written. Refer to Manipulate an Image for a list of methods to transform an image. Get an Image Attribute describes how to retrieve an attribute for an image. Refer to Create an Image Montage for details about tiling your images as thumbnails on a background. Finally, some methods do not neatly fit into any of the categories just mentioned. Review Miscellaneous Methods for a list of these methods.

Once you are finished with a PerlMagick object you should consider destroying it. Each image in an image sequence is stored in either virtual memory or as a file in the system's temporary file directory. This can potentially add up to megabytes of memory or disk. Upon destroying a PerlMagick object, the memory is returned for use by other Perl methods. The recommended way to destroy an object is with undef

undef $image;

To delete all the images but retain the Graphics::Magick object use

@$image = ();

and finally, to delete a single image from a multi-image sequence, use

undef $image->[x];

The next section illustrates how to use various PerlMagick methods to manipulate an image sequence.

Some of the PerlMagick methods require external programs such as Ghostscript. This may require an explicit path in your PATH environment variable to work properly. For example,

$ENV{PATH}='/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin';

Example Script

Here is an example script to get you started:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use Graphics::Magick;
my($image, $status);
$image = Graphics::Magick->new;
$status = $image->Read('girl.png', 'logo.png', 'rose.png');
warn "$status" if "$status";
$status = $image->Crop(geometry=>'100x100+100+100');
warn "$status" if "$status";
$status = $image->Write('x.gif');
warn "$status" if "$status";

The script reads three images, crops them, and writes a single image as a GIF animation sequence. In many cases you may want to access individual images of a sequence. The next example illustrates how this is done:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use Graphics::Magick;
my($image, $p, $q);
$image = new Graphics::Magick;
$image->Read('x1.png');
$image->Read('j*.jpg');
$image->Read('k.miff[1, 5, 3]');
$image->Contrast();
for ($x = 0; $image->[x]; $x++)
{
  $image->[x]->Frame('100x200') if $image->[x]->Get('magick') eq 'GIF';
  undef $image->[x] if $image->[x]->Get('columns') < 100;
}
$p = $image->[1];
$p->Draw(stroke=>'red', primitive=>'rectangle', points=>'20,20 100,100');
$q = $p->Montage();
undef $image;
$q->Write('x.miff');

Suppose you want to start out with a 100 by 100 pixel white canvas with a red pixel in the center. Try

$image = Graphics::Magick->new;
$image->Set(size=>'100x100');
$image->ReadImage('xc:white');
$image->Set('pixel[49,49]'=>'red');

Or suppose you want to convert your color image to grayscale:

$image->Quantize(colorspace=>'gray');

Here we annotate an image with a Taipai TrueType font:

$text = 'Works like magick!';
$image->Annotate(font=>'kai.ttf', pointsize=>40, fill=>'green', text=>$text);

Other clever things you can do with a PerlMagick objects include

$i = $#$p"+1"; # return the number of images associated with object p
push(@$q, @$p); # push the images from object p onto object q
@$p = (); # delete the images but not the object p
$p->Convolve([1, 2, 1, 2, 4, 2, 1, 2, 1]); # 3x3 Gaussian kernel

Read or Write an Image

Use the methods listed below to either read, write, or display an image or image sequence.

Read or Write Methods

Method

Parameters

Return Value

Description

Read

one or more filenames

the number of images read

read an image or image sequence

Write

filename

the number of images written

write an image or image sequence

Display

server name

the number of images displayed

display the image or image sequence to an X server

Animate

server name

the number of images animated

animate image sequence to an X server

For convenience, methods Write(), Display(), and Animate() can take any parameter that SetAttribute knows about. For example,

$image->Write(filename=>'image.png', compression=>'None');

Use - as the filename to method Read() to read from standard in or to method Write() to write to standard out:

binmode STDOUT;
$image->Write('png:-');

To read an image from a disk file, use:

$image = Graphics::Magick->new; $filename = 'test.gif'; $status = $image->Read ($filename);

and to write the image back to the disk file, use:

$status = $image->Write($filename);

To read an image in the GIF format from a PERL filehandle, use:

$image = Graphics::Magick->new;
open(IMAGE, 'image.gif');
$status = $image->Read(file=>\*IMAGE);
close(IMAGE);

To write an image in the PNG format to a PERL filehandle, use:

$filename = "image.png";
open(IMAGE, ">$filename");
$status = $image->Write(file=>\*IMAGE, filename=>$filename);
close(IMAGE);

If %0Nd appears in the filename, it is interpreted as a printf format specification and the specification is replaced with the specified decimal encoding of the scene number. For example,

image%03d.miff

converts files image000.miff, image001.miff, etc.

You can optionally add Image to any method name. For example, ReadImage() is an alias for method Read().

To set encoder parameters when saving a file use AddDefinition($magick, $key, $value); this returns 0 on success or 1 on failure. A comma-delimited list of parameters can also be set using AddDefinition($values); this returns 0 on success or 1 on failure. To remove parameters use RemoveDefinitions($keys) (comma-delimited; the special key * can be used to remove all definitions); this returns 1 if the specified keys were present and removed, 0 otherwise. To get the current value of a parameter use AccessDefinition($magick, $key); note that if no value was explicitly set then undef is returned. These are equivalent to using the commandline gm utility's -define option. For example, to save a lossless WebP image one can use:

$image->AddDefinition('webp', 'lossless', 'TRUE'); $image->Write(filename=&gt;'webp:output.webp');

or

$image->AddDefinitions('webp:lossless=TRUE'); $image->Write(filename=&gt;'webp:output.webp');

Manipulate an Image

Once you create an image with, for example, method ReadImage() you may want to operate on it. Below is a list of all the image manipulations methods available to you with PerlMagick. There are examples of select PerlMagick methods. Here is an example call to an image manipulation method:

$image->Crop(geometry=>'100x100"+1"0+20');
$image->[x]->Frame("100x200");

Image method parameters are often redundant. For example, a 'geometry' string parameter (e.g. 800x600+10+20) is equivalent to the explicit use of width, height, x, and y, parameters.

The following image manipulation methods are available:

Image Manipulation Methods

Method

Parameters

Description

AdaptiveThreshold

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer, offset =>integer

Local adaptive thresholding. Width and height specify the size of the local region while offset specifies the amount to subtract from the average of the region.

AddNoise

noise=>{Uniform, Gaussian, Multiplicative, Impulse, Laplacian, Poisson, Random}

Add noise to an image across the red, green, and blue, channels. Set the image colorspace to GRAY to obtain intensity noise.

AffineTransform

affine=>array of float values, translate=>float, float, scale=> float, float, rotate=>float, skewX=>float, skewY=>float

Affine transform image

Annotate

text=>string, font=>string, family=>string, style=>{Normal, Italic, Oblique, Any}, stretch=> {Normal, UltraCondensed, ExtraCondensed, Condensed, SemiCondensed, SemiExpanded, Expanded, ExtraExpanded, UltraExpanded}, weight=>integer, pointsize=>integer, density=> geometry, stroke=> color name, strokewidth=>integer, fill=>color name, undercolor=>color name, geometry=>geometry, gravity=> {NorthWest, North, NorthEast, West, Center, East, SouthWest, South, SouthEast}, antialias=> {true, false}, x=>integer, y=> integer, affine=>array of float values, translate=>float, float, scale=>float, float, rotate=> float. skewX=>float, skewY=> float, align=>{Left, Center, Right}, encoding=>{UTF-8}

annotate an image with text. See QueryFontMetrics to get font metrics without rendering any text.

Blur

geometry=>geometry, radius=> double, sigma=> double

blur the image with a Gaussian operator of the given radius and standard deviation (sigma).

Border

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer, fill=> color name

surround the image with a border of color

Channel

channel=>{Red, Cyan, Green, Magenta, Blue, Yellow, Opacity, Black, Matte, All, Gray}

extract a channel from the image

Charcoal

order=>integer

simulate a charcoal drawing

Chop

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer, x=> integer, y=>integer

chop an image

Coalesce

merge a sequence of images

Clip

apply any clipping path information as an image clip mask.

ColorFloodfill

geometry=>geometry, x=>integer, y =>integer , fill=>color name, bordercolor=> color name

changes the color value of any pixel that matches the color of the target pixel and is a neighbor. If you specify a border color, the color value is changed for any neighbor pixel that is not that color.

Colorize

fill=>color name, opacity=>string

colorize the image with the fill color

Comment

string

add a comment to your image

Compare

image=>image-handle

compare image to a reference image

Composite

image=>image-handle, compose=>{ Over, In, Out, Atop, Xor, Plus, Minus, Add, Subtract, Difference, Multiply, Bumpmap, Copy, CopyRed, CopyGreen, CopyBlue, CopyOpacity, Clear, Dissolve, Displace, Modulate, Threshold, No, Darken, Lighten, Hue, Saturate, Colorize, Luminize, Screen, Overlay, CopyCyan, CopyMagenta, CopyYellow, CopyBlack, Divide, HardLight}, mask=> image-handle, geometry=>geometry, x=>integer, y=>integer, gravity=> {NorthWest, North, NorthEast, West, Center, East, SouthWest, South, SouthEast}, opacity=> integer, tile=>{True, False}, rotate=>double, color=>color name

composite one image onto another

Contrast

sharpen=>{True, False}

enhance or reduce the image contrast

Convolve

coefficients=>array of float values

apply a convolution kernel to the image. Given a kernel order , you would supply order*order float values (e.g. 3x3 implies 9 values).

Crop

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer, x=> integer, y=>integer

crop an image

CycleColormap

amount=>integer

displace image colormap by amount

Deconstruct

break down an image sequence into constituent parts

Despeckle

reduce the speckles within an image

Draw

primitive=>{point, line, rectangle, roundRectangle, arc, ellipse, circle, polyline, polygon, ,bezier, path, color, matte, text, image, @filename}, points=>string , method=>{Point, Replace, Floodfill, FillToBorder, Reset}, stroke=> color name, fill =>color name, tile=>image-handle, strokewidth=>float, antialias=> {true, false}, bordercolor=>color name, x=> float, y=>float, affine =>array of float values, translate=>float, float, scale=> float, float, rotate=>float. skewX=>float, skewY=> float

annotate an image with one or more graphic primitives

Edge

radius=>double

enhance edges within the image with a convolution filter of the given radius.

Emboss

geometry=>geometry, radius=> double, sigma=> double

emboss the image with a convolution filter of the given radius and standard deviation (sigma).

Enhance

apply a digital filter to enhance a noisy image

Equalize

perform histogram equalization to the image

Flatten

flatten a sequence of images

Flip

create a mirror image by reflecting the image scanlines in the vertical direction

Flop

create a mirror image by reflecting the image scanlines in the horizontal direction

Frame

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer, inner =>integer, outer=>integer, fill=> color name

surround the image with an ornamental border

Gamma

gamma=>string, red=>double, green =>double , blue=>double

gamma correct the image

Implode

amount=>double

implode image pixels about the center

Label

string

assign a label to an image

Level

level=>string, 'black-point'=> double, 'mid-point'=>double, 'white-point'=>double

adjust the level of image contrast

Magnify

double the size of an image

Map

image=>image-handle, dither=> {True, False}

choose a particular set of colors from this image

MatteFloodfill

geometry=>geometry, x=>integer, y =>integer , matte=>integer, bordercolor=>color name

changes the matte value of any pixel that matches the color of the target pixel and is a neighbor. If you specify a border color, the matte value is changed for any neighbor pixel that is not that color.

MedianFilter

radius=>double

replace each pixel with the median intensity pixel of a neighborhood.

Minify

half the size of an image

Modulate

brightness=>double, saturation=> double, hue=> double

vary the brightness, saturation, and hue of an image by the specified percentage

MotionBlur

geometry=>geometry, radius=> double, sigma=> double, angle=> double

blur the image with a Gaussian operator of the given radius and standard deviation (sigma) at the given angle to simulate the effect of motion

Negate

gray=>{True, False}

replace every pixel with its complementary color (white becomes black, yellow becomes blue, etc.)

Normalize

transform image to span the full range of color values

OilPaint

radius=>integer

simulate an oil painting

Opaque

color=>color name, fill=> color name

change this color to the fill color within the image

Quantize

colors=>integer, colorspace=> {RGB, Gray, Transparent, OHTA, XYZ, YCbCr, YIQ, YPbPr, YUV, CMYK}, treedepth=> integer, dither=>{True, False}, measure_error=>{True, False}, global_colormap=>{True, False}

preferred number of colors in the image

Profile

name=>{ICM, IPTC}, profile=>blob

add or remove ICC or IPTC image profile

Raise

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer, x=> integer, y=>integer, raise=> {True, False}

lighten or darken image edges to create a 3-D effect

ReduceNoise

radius=>double

reduce noise in the image with a noise peak elimination filter

Resize

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer, filter =>{Point, Box, Triangle, Hermite, Hanning, Hamming, Blackman, Gaussian, Quadratic, Cubic, Catrom, Mitchell, Lanczos, Bessel, Sinc}, blur=>double

scale image to desired size. Specify blur > 1 for blurry or < 1 for sharp

Roll

geometry=>geometry, x=>integer, y =>integer

roll an image vertically or horizontally

Rotate

degrees=>double, color=>color name

rotate an image

Sample

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer

scale image with pixel sampling

Scale

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer

scale image to desired size

Segment

colorspace=>{RGB, Gray, Transparent, OHTA, XYZ, YCbCr, YCC, YIQ, YPbPr, YUV, CMYK}, verbose={True, False}, cluster=> double, smooth= double

segment an image by analyzing the histograms of the color components and identifying units that are homogeneous

Shade

geometry=>geometry, azimuth=> double, elevation=> double, gray =>{true, false}

shade the image using a distant light source

Sharpen

geometry=>geometry, radius=> double, sigma=> double

sharpen the image with a Gaussian operator of the given radius and standard deviation (sigma).

Shave

geometry=>geometry, width=> integer, height=> integer

shave pixels from the image edges

Shear

geometry=>geometry, x=>double, y =>double color=>color name

shear the image along the X or Y axis by a positive or negative shear angle

Signature

generate an SHA-256 message digest for the image pixel stream

Solarize

threshold=>integer

negate all pixels above the threshold level

Spread

amount=>integer

displace image pixels by a random amount

Stereo

image=>image-handle

composites two images and produces a single image that is the composite of a left and right image of a stereo pair

Stegano

image=>image-handle, offset=> integer

hide a digital watermark within the image

Swirl

degrees=>double

swirl image pixels about the center

Texture

texture=>image-handle

name of texture to tile onto the image background

Threshold

threshold=>string

threshold the image

Transparent

color=>color name

make this color transparent within the image

Trim

remove edges that are the background color from the image

UnsharpMask

geometry=>geometry, radius=> double, sigma=> double, amount=> double, threshold=>double

sharpen the image with the unsharp mask algorithm.

Wave

geometry=>geometry, amplitude=> double, wavelength=> double

alter an image along a sine wave

Note, that the geometry parameter is a short cut for the width and height parameters (e.g. geometry=>'106x80' is equivalent to width=>106, height=>80).

You can specify @filename in both Annotate() and Draw(). This reads the text or graphic primitive instructions from a file on disk. For example,

$image->Draw(fill=>'red', primitive=>'rectangle',
points=>'20,20 100,100 40,40 200,200 60,60 300,300');

Is equivalent to

$image->Draw(fill=>'red', primitive=>'@draw.txt');

Where draw.txt is a file on disk that contains this:

rectangle 20, 20 100, 100
rectangle 40, 40 200, 200
rectangle 60, 60 300, 300

The text parameter for methods, Annotate(), Comment(), Draw(), and Label() can include the image filename, type, width, height, or other image attribute by embedding these special format characters:

%b file size
%d comment
%d directory
%e filename extension
%f filename
%h height
%m magick
%p page number
%s scene number
%t top of filename
%w width
%x x resolution
%y y resolution
\n newline
\r carriage return

For example,

text=>"%m:%f %wx%h"

produces an annotation of MIFF:bird.miff 512x480 for an image titled bird.miff and whose width is 512 and height is 480.

You can optionally add Image to any method name. For example, TrimImage() is an alias for method Trim().

Most of the attributes listed above have an analog in convert. See the documentation for a more detailed description of these attributes.

Set an Image Attribute

Use method Set() to set an image attribute. For example,

$image->Set(dither=>'True');
$image->[$x]->Set(delay=>3);

And here is a list of all the image attributes you can set:

Image Attributes

Attribute

Values

Description

adjoin

{True, False}

join images into a single multi-image file

antialias

{True, False}

remove pixel aliasing

authenticate

string

decrypt image with this password.

background

color name

image background color

blue-primary

x-value, y-value

chromaticity blue primary point (e.g. 0.15, 0.06)

bordercolor

color name

set the image border color

clip-mask

image

Associate a clip mask with the image.

colormap[i]

color name

color name (e.g. red) or hex value (e.g. #ccc) at position i

colorspace

{RGB, CMYK}

type of colorspace

comment

string

Append to the image comment.

compression

{None, BZip, Fax, Group4, JPEG, LosslessJPEG, LZW, RLE, Zip, LZMA JPEG2000, JBIG1, JBIG2}

type of image compression

debug

{No, Configure, Annotate, Render, Transform, Locale, Coder, X11, Cache, Blob, Deprecate, User, Resource, TemporaryFile, Exception,All}

log copious debugging information for one or more event types

delay

integer

this many 1/100ths of a second must expire before displaying the next image in a sequence

density

geometry

vertical and horizontal resolution in pixels of the image

disk-limit

integer

set disk resource limit in megabytes

dispose

{Undefined, None, Background, Previous}

GIF disposal method

dither

{True, False}

apply error diffusion to the image

display

string

specifies the X server to contact

endian

{Undefined, LSB, MSB, Native}

specifies the ordering of bytes in a multi-byte word. MSB is big-endian, LSB is little-endian, and Native is whatever the current host uses by default.

file

filehandle

set the image filehandle

filename

string

set the image filename

fill

color

The fill color paints any areas inside the outline of drawn shape.

font

string

use this font when annotating the image with text

fuzz

integer

colors within this distance are considered equal

gamma

double

gamma level of the image

Gravity

{Forget, NorthWest, North, NorthEast, West, Center, East, SouthWest, South, SouthEast}

type of image gravity

green-primary

x-value, y-value

chromaticity green primary point (e.g. 0.3, 0.6)

index[x, y]

string

colormap index at position (x, y)

interlace

{None, Line, Plane, Partition}

the type of interlacing scheme

iterations

integer

add Netscape loop extension to your GIF animation

label

string

Append to the image label.

loop

integer

add Netscape loop extension to your GIF animation

magick

string

set the image format

matte

{True, False}

True if the image has transparency

mattecolor

color name

set the image matte color

map-limit

integer

set map resource limit in megabytes

memory-limit

integer

set memory resource limit in megabytes

monochrome

{True, False}

transform the image to black and white

page

{ Letter, Tabloid, Ledger, Legal, Statement, Executive, A3, A4, A5, B4, B5, Folio, Quarto, 10x14} or geometry

preferred size and location of an image canvas

pixel[x, y]

string

hex value (e.g. # ccc) at position (x , y)

pointsize

integer

pointsize of the Postscript or TrueType font

preview

{ Rotate, Shear, Roll, Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Gamma, Spiff, Dull, Grayscale, Quantize, Despeckle, ReduceNoise, AddNoise, Sharpen, Blur, Threshold, EdgeDetect, Spread, Solarize, Shade, Raise, Segment, Swirl, Implode, Wave, OilPaint, Charcoal, JPEG}

type of preview for the Preview image format

quality

integer

JPEG/MIFF/PNG compression level

red-primary

x-value, y-value

chromaticity red primary point (e.g. 0.64, 0.33)

rendering-intent

{Undefined, Saturation, Perceptual, Absolute, Relative}

the type of rendering intent

sampling-factor

geometry

horizontal and vertical sampling factor

scene

integer

image scene number

subimage

integer

subimage of an image sequence

subrange

integer

number of images relative to the base image

server

string

specifies the X server to contact

size

string

width and height of a raw image

stroke

color

The stroke color paints along the outline of a shape.

tile

string

tile name

texture

string

name of texture to tile onto the image background

type

{Bilevel, Grayscale, GrayscaleMatte, Palette, PaletteMatte, TrueColor, TrueColorMatte, ColorSeparation, ColorSeparationMatte, Optimize }

image type

units

{ Undefined, PixelsPerInch, PixelsPerCentimeters}

units of image resolution

verbose

{True, False}

print detailed information about the image

virtual-pixel

{Constant, Edge, Mirror, Tile}

the virtual pixel method

white-point

x-value, y-value

chromaticity white point (e.g. 0.3127, 0.329)

Note, that the geometry parameter is a short cut for the width and height parameters (e.g. geometry=>'106x80' is equivalent to width=>106, height=> 80).

SetAttribute() is an alias for method Set().

Most of the attributes listed above have an analog in gm convert. See the gm documentation for a more detailed description of these attributes.

Get an Image Attribute

Use method Get() to get an image attribute. For example,

($a, $b, $c) = $image->Get('colorspace', 'magick', 'adjoin');
$width = $image->[3]->Get('columns');

In addition to all the attributes listed in Set an Image Attribute , you can get these additional attributes:

Image Attributes

Attribute

Values

Description

base-columns

integer

base image width (before transformations)

base-filename

string

base image filename (before transformations)

base-rows

integer

base image height (before transformations)

class

{Direct, Pseudo}

image class

colors

integer

number of unique colors in the image

comment

string

image comment

columns

integer

image width

depth

integer

image depth

directory

string

tile names from within an image montage

error

double

the mean error per pixel computed with methods Compare() or Quantize()

filesize

integer

number of bytes of the image on disk

format

string

get the descriptive image format

geometry

string

image geometry

height

integer

the number of rows or height of an image

id

integer

GraphicsMagick registry id

label

string

image label

maximum-error

double

the normalized max error per pixel computed with methods Compare() or Quantize()

mean-error

double

the normalized mean error per pixel computed with methods Compare() or Quantize()

montage

geometry

tile size and offset within an image montage

rows

integer

the number of rows or height of an image

signature

string

SHA-256 message digest associated with the image pixel stream

taint

{True, False}

True if the image has been modified

width

integer

the number of columns or width of an image

x-resolution

integer

x resolution of the image

y-resolution

integer

y resolution of the image

GetAttribute() is an alias for method Get().

Most of the attributes listed above have an analog in convert. See the documentation for a more detailed description of these attributes.

Create an Image Montage

Use method Montage() to create a composite image by combining several separate images. The images are tiled on the composite image with the name of the image optionally appearing just below the individual tile. For example,

$image->Montage(geometry=>'160x160', tile=>'2x2', texture=>'granite:');

And here is a list of Montage() parameters you can set:

Montage Parameters

Parameter

Values

Description

background

color name

background color name

borderwidth

integer

image border width

compose

{Over, In, Out, Atop, Xor, Plus, Minus, Add, Subtract, Difference, Bumpmap, Copy, Mask, Dissolve, Clear, Displace}

composite operator

filename

string

name of montage image

fill

color name

fill color for annotations

font

string

X11 font name

frame

geometry

surround the image with an ornamental border

geometry

geometry

preferred tile and border size of each tile of the composite image

gravity

{NorthWest, North, NorthEast, West, Center, East, SouthWest, South, SouthEast}

direction image gravitates to within a tile

ICM

blob

color information profile

IPTC

blob

newswire information profile

label

string

assign a label to an image

mode

{Frame, Unframe, Concatenate}

thumbnail framing options

pointsize

integer

pointsize of the Postscript or TrueType font

shadow

{True, False}

add a shadow beneath a tile to simulate depth

stroke

color name

stroke color for annotations

texture

string

name of texture to tile onto the image background

tile

geometry

number of tiles per row and column

title

string

assign a title to the image montage

transparent

string

make this color transparent within the image

Note, that the geometry parameter is a short cut for the width and height parameters (e.g. geometry=>'106x80' is equivalent to width=>106, height=> 80).

MontageImage() is an alias for method Montage().

Most of the attributes listed above have an analog in montage. See the documentation for a more detailed description of these attributes.

Working with Blobs

A blob contains data that directly represent a particular image format in memory instead of on disk. PerlMagick supports blobs in any of these image formats and provides methods to convert a blob to or from a particular image format.

Blob Methods

Method

Parameters

Return Value

Description

ImageToBlob

any image attribute

an array of image data in the respective image format

convert an image or image sequence to an array of blobs

BlobToImage

one or more blobs

the number of blobs converted to an image

convert one or more blobs to an image

ImageToBlob() returns the image data in their respective formats. You can then print it, save it to an ODBC database, write it to a file, or pipe it to a display program:

@blobs = $image->ImageToBlob();
open(DISPLAY,"| display -") || die;
binmode DISPLAY;
print DISPLAY $blobs[0];
close DISPLAY;

Method BlobToImage() returns an image or image sequence converted from the supplied blob:

@blob=$db->GetImage();
$image=Graphics::Magick->new(magick=>'jpg');
$image->BlobToImage(@blob);

Miscellaneous Methods

The Append() method append a set of images. For example,

$p = $image->Append(stack=>{true,false});

appends all the images associated with object $image. By default, images are stacked left-to-right. Set stack to True to stack them top-to-bottom.

The Average() method averages a set of images. For example,

$p = $image->Average();

averages all the images associated with object $image.

The Clone() method copies a set of images. For example,

$p = $image->Clone();

copies all the images from object $q to $p. You can use this method for single or multi-image sequences.

The Morph() method morphs a set of images. Both the image pixels and size are linearly interpolated to give the appearance of a meta-morphosis from one image to the next:

$p = $image->Morph(frames=>integer);

where frames is the number of in-between images to generate. The default is 1.

Mosaic() creates an mosaic from an image sequence.

Method Mogrify() is a single entry point for the image manipulation methods (Manipulate an Image). The parameters are the name of a method followed by any parameters the method may require. For example, these calls are equivalent:

$image->Crop('340x256+0+0');
$image->Mogrify('crop', '340x256+0+0');

Method MogrifyRegion() applies a transform to a region of the image. It is similar to Mogrify() but begins with the region geometry. For example, suppose you want to brighten a 100x100 region of your image at location (40, 50):

$image->MogrifyRegion('100x100+40+50', 'modulate', brightness=>50);

Ping() is a convenience method that returns information about an image without having to read the image into memory. It returns the width, height, file size in bytes, and the file format of the image. You can specify more than one filename but only one filehandle:

($width, $height, $size, $format) = $image->Ping('logo.png');
($width, $height, $size, $format) = $image->Ping(file=>\*IMAGE);
($width, $height, $size, $format) = $image->Ping(blob=>@blob);

This is a more efficient and less memory intensive way to query if an image exists and what its characteristics are.

To have full control over text positioning you need font metric information. Use

($x_ppem, $y_ppem, $ascender, $descender, $width, $height, $max_advance) =
$image->QueryFontMetrics(parameters);

Where parameters is any parameter of the Annotate method.  The
'text' parameter must be specified since there can be no default for
the text to render. The return values are

* character width
* character height
* ascender
* descender
* text width
* text height
* maximum horizontal advance

Call QueryColor() with no parameters to return a list of known colors names or specify one or more color names to get these attributes: red, green, blue, and opacity value.

@colors = $image->QueryColor();
($red, $green, $blue, $opacity) = $image->QueryColor('cyan');
($red, $green, $blue, $opacity) = $image->QueryColor('#716bae');

QueryColorname() accepts a color value and returns its respective name or hex value;

$name = $image->QueryColorname('rgba(80,60,0,0)');

Call QueryFont() with no parameters to return a list of known fonts or specify one or more font names to get these attributes: font name, description, family, style, stretch, weight, encoding, foundry, format, metrics, and glyphs values.

@fonts = $image->QueryFont();
$weight = ($image->QueryFont('Helvetica'))[5];

Call QueryFormat() with no parameters to return a list of known image formats or specify one or more format names to get these attributes: adjoin, blob support, raw, decoder, encoder, description, and module.

@formats = $image->QueryFormat();
($adjoin, $blob_support, $raw, $decoder, $encoder, $description, $module) = $image->QueryFormat('gif');

Use RemoteCommand() to send a command to an already running display or animate application. The only parameter is the name of the image file to display or animate.

Finally, the Transform() method accepts a fully-qualified geometry specification for cropping or resizing one or more images. For example,

$p = $image->Transform(crop=>'100x100');

You can optionally add Image to any method name above. For example, PingImage() is an alias for method Ping().

Handling Errors

All PerlMagick methods return an undefined string context upon success. If any problems occur, the error is returned as a string with an embedded numeric status code. A status code less than 400 is a warning. This means that the operation did not complete but was recoverable to some degree. A numeric code greater or equal to 400 is an error and indicates the operation failed completely. Here is how errors are returned for the different methods:

  • Methods which return a number (e.g. Read(), Write()):

    $status = $image->Read(...);
    warn "$status" if "$status"; # print the error message
    $status =~ /(\d+)/;
    print $1; # print the error number
    print 0+$status; # print the number of images read
  • Methods which operate on an image (e.g. Resize(), Crop()):

    $status = $image->Crop(...);
    warn "$status" if "$status"; # print the error message
    $status =~ /(\d+)/;
    print $1; # print the error number
  • Methods which return images (Average(), Montage(), Clone()) should be checked for errors this way:

    $status = $image->Montage(...);
    warn "$status" if !ref($status); # print the error message
    $status =~ /(\d+)/;
    print $1; # print the error number

Here is an example error message:

Error 400: Memory allocation failed

Below is a list of error and warning codes:

Error and Warning Codes

Code

Mnemonic

Description

0

Success

method completed without an error or warning

300

ResourceLimitWarning

a program resource is exhausted (e.g. not enough memory)

305

TypeWarning

A font is unavailable; a substitution may have occurred

310

OptionWarning

a command-line option was malformed

315

DelegateWarning

an GraphicsMagick delegate returned a warning

320

MissingDelegateWarning

the image type can not be read or written because the appropriate Delegate is missing

325

CorruptImageWarning

the image file may be corrupt

330

FileOpenWarning

the image file could not be opened

335

BlobWarning

a binary large object could not be allocated

340

StreamWarning

there was a problem reading or writing from a stream

345

CacheWarning

pixels could not be saved to the pixel cache

350

CoderWarning

there was a problem with an image coder

355

ModuleWarning

there was a problem with an image module

360

DrawWarning

a drawing operation failed

365

ImageWarning

the operation could not complete due to an incompatible image

380

XServerWarning

an X resource is unavailable

385

MonitorWarning

there was a problem with prgress monitor

390

RegistryWarning

there was a problem getting or setting the registry

395

ConfigureWarning

there was a problem getting a configuration file

400

ResourceLimitError

a program resource is exhausted (e.g. not enough memory)

405

TypeError

A font is unavailable; a substitution may have occurred

410

OptionError

a command-line option was malformed

415

DelegateError

an GraphicsMagick delegate returned a warning

420

MissingDelegateError

the image type can not be read or written because the appropriate Delegate is missing

425

CorruptImageError

the image file may be corrupt

430

FileOpenError

the image file could not be opened

435

BlobError

a binary large object could not be allocated

440

StreamError

there was a problem reading or writing from a stream

445

CacheError

pixels could not be saved to the pixel cache

450

CoderError

there was a problem with an image coder

455

ModuleError

there was a problem with an image module

460

DrawError

a drawing operation failed

465

ImageError

the operation could not complete due to an incompatible image

480

XServerError

an X resource is unavailable

480

MonitorError

there was a progress monitor error

490

RegistryError

there was a problem getting or setting the registry

495

ConfigureError

there was a problem getting a configuration file

The following illustrates how you can use a numeric status code:

$status = $image->Read('rose.png');
$status =~ /(\d+)/;
die "unable to continue" if ($1 == ResourceLimitError);

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