Useful CLI Utilities
A collection of useful CLI utilities and tools for the command line.
ImageMagick
ImageMagick is a powerful command-line tool for creating, editing, composing, and converting bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats (over 200) including PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, HEIC, SVG, PDF, DPX, EXR and TIFF.
Installation
Install it via the package manager of your choice:
# macOS
brew install imagemagick
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install imagemagickUsage
ImageMagick comes with several command-line tools:
convert: Convert between image formats and perform operationsmogrify: Similar to convert but overwrites the original imagesidentify: Display information about an imagecomposite: Composite one image onto anothermontage: Create a composite image from multiple images
Some common uses:
# Resize an image to 50% of its original size
convert image.jpg -resize 50% image_resized.jpg
# Convert between formats
convert image.jpg image.png
# Add a border
convert image.jpg -border 20x20 bordered_image.jpg
# Create a thumbnail
convert image.jpg -thumbnail 100x100 thumbnail.jpg
# Compress an image (quality ranges from 1-100)
convert image.jpg -quality 75 compressed_image.jpg
# Batch process multiple images
mogrify -resize 800x600 *.jpg
# Convert all JPEGs to PNG format
mogrify -format png *.jpg
# Apply a blur effect to all images
mogrify -blur 0x5 *.jpg
# Rotate all images 90 degrees clockwise
mogrify -rotate 90 *.jpg
# Add watermark to all images
mogrify -draw "text 10,20 'Copyright'" *.jpg
# Auto-adjust images (improve contrast, brightness)
mogrify -auto-level *.jpg
Written by Jaime González García , dad, husband, software engineer, ux designer, amateur pixel artist, tinkerer and master of the arcane arts. You can also find him on Twitter jabbering about random stuff.