ImageMagick is a free and open software for working with image files. It has a variety of functionalities to edit images, and is able to read and write over 200 image file formats. For more information about this software, visit ImageMagick’s website.
ImageMagick has a wide range of features and capabilities. For digital processing at the University of Illinois Archives, ImageMagick is used to convert file formats and resize images in batch. This tool can even convert files that seem corrupted or have an outdated format, into a usable file format.
ImageMagick is operated using command line, and allows a large variety of command-line tools. The most useful command that Archives’ staff has identified to convert images’ file format is “Mogrify”.The command mogrify is used to resize an image, blur, crop, despeckle, dither, draw on, flip, join, re-sample, and much more. With this tool the original image file is overwritten (unless you change the file suffix with the -format option) with any changes you request.
For digital processing of images, Archives’ staff has been using the mogrify tool for converting images in batch from JPG2000 to TIFF (or batch conversions in general), in general from outdated formats supported by the software, and for batch resize.
To use the mogrify tool for converting file formats, which will not modify your original files, follow these steps:
Navigate to the location where your files are stored.
Type the following command: mogrify -format (desired file extension) *.(source file extension)
Example:
C:\Users\chernan\Documents\physics_reports> mogrify -format tiff *.jp2
To use the mogrify tool for resizing files and preserving file formats, which will modify your original files, follow these steps:
Navigate to the location where your files are stored.
Type the following command: mogrify *.(source file extension) -resize (percentage size you want of the source file) *.(desired file extension)
Example:
C:\Users\chernan\Documents\physics_reports> mogrify resize 60% *.tiff
(Note: the command listed above will reduce your file by 60%)
See this page for more information and uses of the tool mogrify.