How To Install ImageMagick on Debian 12

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ImageMagick on Debian 12. ImageMagick, a powerful open-source software suite for image manipulation, stands as an indispensable tool for developers, designers, and content creators

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the ImageMagick on a Debian 12 (Bookworm).

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 12 (Bookworm).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies for ImageMagick.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install ImageMagick on Debian 12 Bookworm

Step 1. Before we install any software, it’s important to make sure your system is up to date by running the following apt commands in the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential libjpeg-dev libpng-dev libtiff-dev

This command will refresh the repository, allowing you to install the latest versions of software packages.

Step 2. Installing ImageMagick on Debian 12.

• Method 1: Install from the Default Repository

Once your system is up-to-date, you can install ImageMagick by running the following command:

sudo apt install imagemagick

To verify that ImageMagick is installed correctly, run the following command:

magick --version

• Method 2: Install from Source

Now download the latest “ImageMagick.tar.gz” source code package from the official ImageMagick download page or a mirror.

Unpack the downloaded file using the tar command and step into the extracted directory:

tar xvzf ImageMagick.tar.gz

Next, configure and compile ImageMagick using the following commands:

cd ImageMagick-7.1.1
./configure
make

To verify that ImageMagick is installed correctly, run the following command:

magick --version

Step 3. Basic Usage and Example Command-Line.

Now, brace yourself for the awe-inspiring magic of ImageMagick! Let’s commence with a simple command to resize an image:

convert input.jpg -resize 800x600 output.jpg

If you want to resize the image by a percentage, use the % symbol instead of pixels. For example, to resize the image to 50% of its original size, run the following command:

convert example.jpg -resize 50% resized_example.jpg

To resize multiple images at once, use the mogrify command instead of convert. For example, to resize all JPEG images in the current directory to a maximum dimension of 1024×768 pixels, run the following command:

mogrify -resize 1024x768 *.jpg

To resize images in a specific directory and its subdirectories, use the find command with mogrify. For example, to resize all JPEG images in the /home/user/images directory and its subdirectories to a maximum dimension of 1024×768 pixels, run the following command:

find /home/user/images -type f -name "*.jpg" -exec mogrify -resize 1024x768 {} \;

Congratulations! You have successfully installed ImageMagick. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the latest version of ImageMagick on Debian 12 Bookworm. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official ImageMagick website.