Using ImageMagick

If you ever need to do some quick image or document conversions, ImageMagick is a command-line tool that can save you a ton of time. Here's a quick guide on how to install it and use it to convert images, PDFs, and more. Perfect for automating repetitive tasks.

Installing ImageMagick 🪄 with Homebrew 🍺 (macOS)

To install ImageMagick on macOS, you can use Homebrew:

brew install imagemagick

Basic Conversion Using convert

Once you’ve got it installed, you can jump right in. Here’s a super simple example of converting a .psd file to a .jpg :

convert input.psd output.jpg

Just like that, input.psd turns into output.jpg .

Adding Options with convert (PDF to JPG)

Need more control over the output? No problem. You can adjust the quality and resolution with a few extra options. For example, to convert a PDF to a high-quality JPG:

convert -density 150 input.pdf -quality 90 output.jpg

What Do These Options Do?

• -density 150 : Sets the DPI (dots per inch). This controls the resolution of the output.
• -quality 90 : Adjusts the compression quality for the JPG, balancing file size and image quality.

Resize Images with convert

Want to resize the image as you convert it? You can do that too. Here's how to resize an image to 800x600 pixels:

convert input.psd -resize 800x600 output.jpg

This will resize the .psd to 800x600 and save it as .jpg .

Batch Conversion Using mogrify (PSD to JPG)

If you need to convert a bunch of files at once, mogrify is the way to go. It’s part of ImageMagick and is great for batch processing. Unlike convert , mogrify modifies files in place or creates new versions if you’re changing formats.

To convert all .psd files in a directory to .jpg , use:

mogrify -format jpg *.psd

Heads Up

If your .psd files have multiple layers, mogrify might create multiple output versions ( -0 , -1 , etc.) for each layer.

Using mogrify with Additional Options

If you only want a single output per file and don’t care about layers, add the -flatten option to merge everything into one:

mogrify -flatten -format jpg *.psd

• -flatten : Merges all the layers into one, so you get just one .jpg for each .psd .

Resize Images with mogrify

You can also resize multiple images at once. To resize all .psd files to 800x600 and convert them to .jpg :

mogrify -resize 800x600 -format jpg *.psd

This will resize every .psd file and save it as a .jpg in the same directory.

ImageMagick is a fantastic tool for batch processing, converting formats, or simply resizing images. 👍