ImageMagick: Formats

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 90 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`).
CMYK	RW	Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black samples	Set -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.
CMYKA	RW	Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and alpha samples	Set -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.
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.
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.
DNG	R	Digital Negative
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	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`).
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.
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.
GPLT	R	Gnuplot plot files	Requires gnuplot3.5.tar.Z or later.
GRAY	RW	Raw gray samples	Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.
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-1.0.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	Requires jasper-1.600.0.zip
JPC	RW	JPEG-2000 Code Stream Syntax	Requires jasper-1.600.0.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
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`.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 to write the ASCII version of the formats.
PPM	RW	Portable pixmap format (color)
PS	RW	Adobe PostScript file	Requires Ghostscript to read.
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.
RGB	RW	Raw red, green, and blue samples	Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.
RGBA	RW	Raw red, green, blue, and alpha samples	Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth.
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. Note that since Unisys claims a patent on the LZW algorithm (expiring in the US as of June 2003) used by LZW-compressed TIFF files, ImageMagick binary distributions do not include support for the LZW algorithm so LZW TIFF files can not be written. Although a patch is available for libtiff to enable building with LZW support. Users should consult the Unisys LZW web page before applying it. Use -define to specify the rows per strip (e.g. `-define tiff:rows-per-strip=8`).
TIM	R	PSX TIM file
TTF	R	TrueType font file	Requires freetype 2. Opening as file returns a preview image.
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.
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 ouput 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
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.
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.

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`.
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 is copyright Pineapple USA Inc. It is freely redistributable, however, modifications to the logo other than sizing are not permitted.
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
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	90% intensity gray, 32x32
GRAY95	R	95% 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.