How to Install ImageMagick 7 on Ubuntu/Debian

If you are an editor and editing images is part of your daily life, then you should try the ImageMagick tool.

ImageMagick is a free and open-source tool to edit, create, compose, or convert digital images into other formats. It supports over 200 formats, including PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, HEIC, SVG, PDF, DPX, EXR, and TIFF.

How to Install ImageMagick or Imagick PHP Extension in Linux

It provides various editing tools such as resizing, flipping, mirroring, rotating, distorting, shearing, and transforming images, adjusting image colors, applying multiple special effects, drawing text, lines, polygons, ellipses, and Bézier curves.

Table of Contents

Installation of ImageMagick 7 on Ubuntu/Debian

ImageMagick 7 is available in IMEI Script, Source file, and AppImage for installing it on Ubuntu or Debian-based distributions.

IMEI Script is the easiest way to install the latest release of ImageMagick on your system using the shell script. If you are considering this installation method, then you should note that it takes a long time to remove ImageMagick from your system.
AppImage is also easy to use and requires less effort, while new updates require manually changing the AppImage file.
Source files require an understanding of development tools and the application concept of compilation and building. For beginners, I suggest installing ImageMagick using the IMEI Script or AppImage.

Method 1: Install ImageMagick 7 from a Shell Script

Installing ImageMagick 7 on Linux can be a problem for beginners unaware of the process of compiling and building the application from the source file.

For them, I strongly recommend installing ImageMagic 7 from the IMEI Script, which takes care of all the dependencies and supports standard formats (PNG, TIFF, etc).

It takes care of all this for you, provides additional support for HEIF/HEIC/HEIX, AVIF, and JPEG XL, and incrementally updates your local ImageMagick (if you have it installed) after the initial installation.

Open your terminal app using the Ctrl+Alt+t or Ctrl+Shift+t keyboard shortcut and execute the below command to install ImageMagick from the IMEI script on your system.

$ git clone https://github.com/SoftCreatR/imei
$ cd imei
$ chmod +x imei.sh
$ sudo ./imei.sh

After the installation is successful, run the identify -version command to verify the installation, as shown below.

Installing ImageMagick from IMEI Script — ***Installing ImageMagick from an IMEI Script***

Method 2: Install ImageMagick 7 from AppImage

ImageMagick 7 is also available as a standalone AppImage, making it easier to use on all Linux distributions. Execute the below command on your terminal to grab the latest version of the ImageMagick 7 AppImage.

$ wget https://download.imagemagick.org/ImageMagick/download/binaries/magick

Once the file is downloaded, execute the below command to give the required permission to ImageMagick.

$ chmod +x magick

Now you are done. Execute the below command to check if it is working.

$ ./magick

Right now, this command is only accessible inside the file directory. If you change the directory, then the above command will not work.

To make the magick command available for execution from anywhere, place the file inside the user bin directory using the below command.

$ sudo mv magick /usr/bin/

Finally, as shown below, you can execute the magick command from anywhere.

$ magick

Below is the output of the above command.

Removing ImageMagick 7 from AppImage

If you were using AppImage within the directory, remove it using the rm magick command, or you can execute the below command to remove it from the user bin directory.

$ sudo rm /usr/bin/magick

Method 3: Install ImageMagick from Source File

Before downloading the ImageMagick source file for compilation and building, install the development tools in your system, which provide the necessary tools for building and compiling an application from the source file.

Installing Development Tools

Install the build-essential package on your system to install all the necessary tools for compiling and building, as shown below.

$ sudo apt install build-essential

Download the Source File

After the development tools are installed, grab the latest ImageMagick.tag.gz package from the official site, or you can use the wget command to download the compressed file from your terminal app.

$ wget https://download.imagemagick.org/ImageMagick/download/ImageMagick.tar.gz

After downloading the package, uncompress and move it into the directory using the following command.

$ tar xvf ImageMagick.tar.gz 
$ cd ImageMagick-7.1.0-37/

Configuring & Building the Source File

Now it’s time to configure the source below before compilation, as shown below.

$ ./configure

After the configuration is finished, start the compiling process with the following command.

$ make

If the compilation is finished without throwing any errors, you are ready to install it and configure dynamic linker run-time bindings on your system using the following command.

$ sudo make install
$ sudo ldconfig /usr/local/lib

Check out the ImageMagick Version

Finally, ImageMagick 7 is installed on your system without throwing any errors. Verify the application version by executing the below command.

$ magick -version
OR
$ identify -version

Below is the output of the above command.

***Installing ImageMagick from Source File***

Removing ImageMagick 7 from the Source File

To remove the ImageMagick installed via compilation and building from the source file, move into the source file directory used for compilation in step 2 and execute the below command.

$ sudo make uninstall

That’s all for now. If you have a question regarding the installation process, let us know in the comment section.

Jake Redfield

Innovative tech mind with 12 years of experience working as a computer programmer, web developer, and security researcher. Capable of working with a variety of technology and software solutions, and managing databases.