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Apr
2
Editing graphics from the GUI is overrated. You can do it faster and better from the command line. Here we list 7 command line graphic tools that you may use from your Linux desktop. Because they’re command line, they can be scripted.
- 1) montage
- Creates a ‘montage’, an image created of many other images, arranged in a random fashion.Command syntax:
montage r34.jpg r32.jpg skylines* skyline_images.miff
The above would create a “montage� of images (it would tile a certain number of images) into a composite image called “skyline_images.miff�, you could always use display to view the image.
- 2) convert
- To convert the file format of an image to another image format. convert is used to change a files format, for example from a jpeg to a bitmap or one of many other formats. convert can also manipulate the images as well (see the man page or the ImageMagick site).Example from Jpeg to PNG format:
convert JPEG: thisfile.jpg PNG: thisfile.png
- 3) import
- Captures screen-shots from the X server and saves them to a file. A screen-dump of what X is doing.Command syntax:
import file_name
- 4) display
- display is used to display (output) images on the screen. Once open you are can also perform editing functions and are able to read/write images. It has various interesting options such as the ability to display images as a slide show and the ability to capture screenshots of a single window on-screen.Command syntax (for displaying an image):
display image_name
To display a slide show of images, open the images you want possibly using a wildcard, for example:
display *.jpg
And then click on the image to bring up the menu and then look under the miscellaneous menu for the slide show option.
5) identify
- Will identify the type of image as well as it’s size, colour depth and various other information. Use the -verbose option to show detailed information on the particular file(s).Command syntax:
identify image_name
- 6) mogrify
- mogrify is another ImageMagick command which is used to transform images in a number of different ways, including scaling, rotation and various other effects. This command can work on a single file or in batch.For example, to convert a large number of tiff files to jpeg files you could type:
mogrify -format jpeg *.tiff
This command has the power to do a number of things in batch including making thumbnails of sets of images.
For this you could type:
mogrify -geometry 120x120 *.jpg
- 7) showrgb
- showrgb is used to uncompile an rgb colour-name database. The default is the one that X was built with. This database can be used to find the correct colour combination for a particular colour (well it can be used as a rough guide anyway).To list the colours from the X database, simply type:
showrgb
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You must have the package imagemagick installed, otherwise the programs will not be on your system