GraphicsMagick Supported Formats

GraphicsMagick uses an ASCII string known as "magick" (e.g. "GIF") to identify file formats, algorithms acting as formats, built-in images, and embedded profile types. After a file has been read or "pinged", the associated magick string is stored in the "magick" member of the Image structure, and is reported in the default output of 'gm identify'.

GraphicsMagick supports reading over 92 major file formats (not including sub-formats). The following table provides a summary of the supported image formats.

Supported Image Formats
Format	Mode	Description	Notes
ART	RW	PFS: 1st Publisher	Format originally used on the Macintosh (MacPaint?) and later used for PFS: 1st Publisher clip art.
AVIF	R	AVIF Image File Format	AV1 in a _HEIF container. AVIF is supported via libheif if it supports AVIF decode.
AVS	RW	AVS X image
BMP	RW	Microsoft Windows bitmap
CALS	R	Continuous Acquisition and Life-cycle Support Type 1 image	Specified in MIL-R-28002 and MIL-PRF-28002. Standard blueprint archive format as used by the US military to replace microfiche.
CIN	R	Kodak Cineon	Kodak Cineon Log format (4.5 draft). Precursor to SMPTE DPX
CGM	R	Computer Graphics Metafile	Requires ralcgm to render CGM files.
CMYK	RW	Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black samples	Use -size, -depth, -endian, and -interlace to specify the image width, height, depth, byte order, and interlace.
CUR	R	Microsoft Cursor Icon
CUT	R	DR Halo
DCM	R	Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) image	Used by the medical community for images like X-rays. See the NEMA DICOM web site for more information. DICOM is the basis for the DICONDE format.
DCX	RW	ZSoft IBM PC multi-page Paintbrush image
DIB	RW	Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap	DIB is a BMP file without the BMP header. Used to support embedded images in compound formats like WMF.
DPX	RW	Digital Moving Picture Exchange	RGB and grayscale are fully supported at 1, 8, 10, 12, and 16 bits as per the SMPTE 268M-2003 (V2.0) specification. This includes support for images stored in a planar (multi-element) configuration and Cineon Log RGB. Rec. 601 and 709 YCbCr are fully supported with 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 subsampling. DPX is commonly used to store image frames in film and HDTV production.
EMF	R	Microsoft Enhanced Metafile (32-bit)	Only available under Microsoft Windows.
EPDF	RW	Encapsulated Portable Document Format
EPI	RW	Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format	Requires Ghostscript to read.
EPS	RW	Adobe Encapsulated PostScript	Requires Ghostscript to read.
EPS2	W	Adobe Level II Encapsulated PostScript	Requires Ghostscript to read.
EPS3	W	Adobe Level III Encapsulated PostScript	Requires Ghostscript to read.
EPSF	RW	Adobe Encapsulated PostScript	Requires Ghostscript to read.
EPSI	RW	Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format	Requires Ghostscript to read.
EPT	RW	Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format with TIFF preview	Requires Ghostscript to read.
FAX	RW	Group 3 FAX	Note that FAX machines use non-square pixels which are 1.5 times wider than they are tall but computer displays use square pixels, so FAX images may appear to be narrow unless they are explicitly resized using a resize specification of "150x100%". Please note that this is not a TIFF format.
FIG	R	FIG graphics format	Requires TransFig.
FITS	RW	Flexible Image Transport System
FPX	RW	FlashPix Format	Requires FlashPix SDK.
GIF	RW	CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format	8-bit RGB PseudoColor with up to 256 palette entires. Specify the format "GIF87" to write the older version 87a of the format. The PNG format provides a superior set of features to GIF. Consider using PNG format rather than GIF if clients are able to read PNG.
GRAY	RW	Raw gray samples	Use -size, -depth, and -endian to specify the image width, height, depth, and byte order.
GRAYA	RW	Raw gray samples + alpha	Use -size, -depth, and -endian to specify the image width, height, depth, and byte order.
HEIF	R	High Efficiency Image File Format (with h.265/HEVC encoding)	HEIF is a container format supporting multiple codecs. HEIF with h.265/HEVC encoding is supported via libheif and libde265.
HPGL	R	HP-GL plotter language	Requires hp2xx 3.2.0 or later
HTML	RW	Hypertext Markup Language with a client-side image map	Also known as "HTM". Requires html2ps to read.
ICO	R	Microsoft icon	Also known as "ICON".
JBIG	RW	Joint Bi-level Image experts Group file interchange format	Also known as "BIE" and "JBG". Requires jbigkit 1.0 or later
JNG	RW	JPEG Network Graphics	JPEG in a PNG-style wrapper with transparency. Requires libjpeg and libpng-1.0.2 or later, libpng-1.2.5 or later recommended.
JP2	RW	JPEG-2000 JP2 File Format Syntax	Requires jasper 1.600.0 or later
JPC	RW	JPEG-2000 Code Stream Syntax	Requires jasper 1.600.0 or later
JPEG	RW	Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format	Requires jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz or later
JXL	RW	JPEG XL	Requires JPEG XL 0.7 or later
MAN	R	Unix reference manual pages	Requires that GNU groff and Ghostcript are installed.
MAT	RW	MATLAB image format	Coming from MathWorks for storing matrices. Currently supported types are 2D matrices: byte, word, double, complex and 3D matrices containing RGB [xy3] byte, word.
MIFF	RW	Magick image file format	ImageMagick's lossless image format (with ASCII header) which ensures that no image attributes understood by ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick are lost.
MONO	RW	Bi-level bitmap in least-significant-byte first order
MNG	RW	Multiple-image Network Graphics	Requires libpng-1.0.2 or later, libpng-1.2.5 or later recommended.
MPEG	RW	Motion Picture Experts Group file interchange format (version 1)	Requires mpeg2vidcodec_v12.tar.gz.
M2V	RW	Motion Picture Experts Group file interchange format (version 2)	Requires mpeg2vidcodec_v12.tar.gz.
MPC	RW	Magick Persistent Cache image file format	The native "in-memory" GraphicsMagick uncompressed file format. This file format is identical to that used by Open ImageMagick to represent images in memory and is read in "zero time" via memory mapping. The MPC format is not portable and is not suitable as an archive format. It is suitable as an intermediate format for high-performance image processing. The MPC format requires two files to support one image. When writing the MPC format, a file with extension ".mpc" is used to store information about the image, while a file with extension .cache stores the image pixels. The storage space required by a MPC image (or an image in memory) may be calculated by the equation (QuantumDepthRowsColumns*5)/8.
MSL	RW	Magick Scripting Language	MSL is the XML-based scripting language supported by the conjure utility.
MTV	RW	MTV Raytracing image format
MVG	RW	Magick Vector Graphics.	The native GraphicsMagick vector metafile format. A text file containing vector drawing commands accepted by convert's -draw option.
OTB	RW	On-the-air Bitmap
P7	RW	Xv's Visual Schnauzer thumbnail format
PALM	RW	Palm pixmap
PAM	RW	Portable Arbitrary Map format	Superset of PNM (PPM, PGM, PPM) raw type formats. Supports bilevel, gray, RGB, CMYK, alpha channel.
PBM	RW	Portable bitmap format (black and white)
PCD	RW	Photo CD	The maximum resolution written is 768x512 pixels since larger images require huffman compression (which is not supported).
PCDS	RW	Photo CD	Decode with the sRGB color tables.
PCL	W	HP Page Control Language	For output to HP laser printers.
PCX	RW	ZSoft IBM PC Paintbrush file
PDB	RW	Palm Database ImageViewer Format
PDF	RW	Portable Document Format	Requires Ghostscript to read.
PFA	R	Postscript Type 1 font (ASCII)	Opening as file returns a preview image.
PFB	R	Postscript Type 1 font (binary)	Opening as file returns a preview image.
PGM	RW	Portable graymap format (gray scale)
PICON	RW	Personal Icon
PICT	RW	Apple Macintosh QuickDraw /PICT file
PIX	R	Alias/Wavefront RLE image format
PNG	RW	Portable Network Graphics	Requires libpng-1.0.2 or later, libpng-1.2.5 or later recommended.
PNM	RW	Portable anymap	PNM is a family of formats supporting portable bitmaps (PBM) , graymaps (PGM), and pixmaps (PPM). There is no file format associated with pnm itself. If PNM is used as the output format specifier, then GraphicsMagick automatically selects the most appropriate format to represent the image. The default is to write the binary version of the formats. Use '-quality 0' to write the ASCII version of the formats.
PPM	RW	Portable pixmap format (color)
PS	RW	Adobe PostScript file	Requires Ghostscript to read.
PS2	RW	Adobe Level II PostScript file	Requires Ghostscript to read.
PS3	RW	Adobe Level III PostScript file	Requires Ghostscript to read.
PSD	RW	Adobe Photoshop bitmap file	PSD format is no longer supported since the 1.3.24 release.
PTIF	RW	Pyramid encoded TIFF	Multi-resolution TIFF containing successively smaller versions of the image down to the size of an icon. The desired sub-image size may be specified when reading via the -size option.
PWP	R	Seattle File Works multi-image file
RAS	R	TopoL (GIS)
RAD	R	Radiance image file	Requires that ra_ppm from the Radiance software package be installed.
RGB	RW	Raw red, green, and blue samples	Use -size, -depth, -endian, and -interlace to specify the image width, height, depth, byte order, and interlace.
RGBA	RW	Raw red, green, and blue and matte samples	Use -size, -depth, -endian, and -interlace to specify the image width, height, depth, byte order, and interlace.
RLA	R	Alias/Wavefront image file
RLE	R	Utah Run length encoded image file
SCT	R	Scitex Continuous Tone Picture
SFW	R	Seattle File Works image
SGI	RW	Irix RGB image
SHTML	W	Hypertext Markup Language client-side image map	Used to write HTML clickable image maps based on a the output of montage or a format which supports tiled images such as MIFF.
SUN	RW	SUN Rasterfile
SVG	RW	Scalable Vector Graphics	Requires libxml2 and freetype2. Note that SVG is a very complex specification so support is still not complete.
TGA	RW	Truevision Targa image	Also known as formats "ICB", "VDA", and "VST".
TIFF	RW	Tagged Image File Format	Also known as "TIF". Requires tiff-v3.5.4.tar.gz or later. Note that since the Unisys LZW patent recently expired, libtiff may still require a separate LZW patch in order to support LZW. LZW is included in libtiff by default since v3.7.0.
TIM	R	PSX TIM file
TTF	R	TrueType font file	Requires freetype2. Opening as file returns a preview image.
TXT	RW	Raw text file
UIL	W	X-Motif UIL table
UYVY	RW	Interleaved YUV raw image	Use -size command line option to specify width and height.
VICAR	RW	VICAR rasterfile format
VIFF	RW	Khoros Visualization Image File Format
WBMP	RW	Wireless bitmap	Support for uncompressed monochrome only.
WebP	RW	Google's WebP	Requires libwebp from "https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/". WebP is good for small photos for the web and is supported by Google's Chrome and Firefox.
WMF		Windows Metafile	Requires libwmf. By default, renders WMF files using the dimensions specified by the metafile header. Use the -density option to adjust the output resolution, and thereby adjust the ouput size. The default output resolution is 72DPI so "-density 144" results in an image twice as large as the default. Use -background color to specify the WMF background color (default white) or -texture filename to specify a background texture image.
WPG	R	Word Perfect Graphics File
XBM	RW	X Windows system bitmap, black and white only	Used by the X Windows System to store monochrome icons.
XCF	R	GIMP image
XPM	RW	X Windows system pixmap	Also known as "PM". Used by the X Windows System to store color icons.
XWD	RW	X Windows system window dump	Used by the X Windows System to save/display screen dumps.
YUV	RW	CCIR 601 4:1:1	Use -size command line option to specify width and height.

GraphicsMagick supports a number of image format specifications which refer to images prepared via an algorithm, or input/output targets. The following table lists these pseudo image formats:

Pseudo Image Formats
Tag	Mode	Description	Notes
CAPTION	R	Image caption	Draws text on a canvas image with size specified by -size canvas color as specified by -background' (default white), and text stroke and fill colors as specified by `-stroke and -fill. Capable of supporting multi-line text.
CLIPBOARD	RW	Windows Clipboard	Only available under Microsoft Windows.
FRACTAL	R	Plasma fractal image
GRADIENT	R	Gradual passing from one shade to another	Returns a rendered gradient image using the specified image size. Specify the desired shading as part of the filename. For example: gradient:red-blue or gradient:#F00-#00F
HISTOGRAM	W	Histogram of the image	Generate an RGB histogram of the input image. The output format is always ImageMagick MIFF (regardless of file extension). For example: gm convert file.tiff histogram:file.miff
IDENTITY	R	Hald CLUT identity image	Generate a Hald CLUT identity image of a specified order. The order is specified as an argument like "IDENTITY:8". The default order is eight, producing a 512x512 image.
INFO	W	Image descriptive information and statistics	Writes descriptive information similar to 'identify'
LABEL	R	Text image format	Specify the desired text as the filename (e.g. "label:This is a label").
MAP	RW	Colormap intensities and indices	Set -depth to set the sample size of the intensities; indices are 16-bit if colors > 256.
MATTE	W	MATTE format	Write only.
NULL	RW	NULL image	Useful for creating blank tiles with montage (use "NULL:"). Also useful as an output format when evaluating image read performance.
PLASMA	R	Plasma fractal image	Creates an image using the plasma fractal. For example: gm convert -size 640x480 plasma: file.miff
PREVIEW	W	Show a preview an image enhancement, effect, or f/x	Creates a preview montage of images prepared over a parameteric range in order to assist with parameter selection. Specify the desired preview type via the -preview option). The output file is always written in the ImageMagick MIFF format. For example: gm convert file.tiff -preview gamma preview:file.miff
PRINT	W	Send image to your computer printer	Unix users may set the PRINTER (for 'lp') or LPDEST (for 'lpr') environment variables to select the desired printer.
SCAN	R	Import image from a scanner device	Requires SANE Specify the device name and path as the filename (e.g. "scan:mustek:/dev/scanner").
STEGANO	R	Steganographic image	Use -size command line option to specify width, height, and offset of the steganographic image
TILE	R	Tiled image	Create a tiled version of an image at by tiling a image. Use -size to specify the tiled image size. The image is specified similar to "TILE:image.miff". For example: gm convert -size 800x600 tile:image.jpg out.jpg
VID	RW	Visual Image Directory	Used to create a thumbnailed directory (tiled thumbnails) of a set of images which may be used to select images to view via the display program, or saved to a MIFF or SHTML file. For example: gm convert vid:"*.jpg" index.miff
WIN	RW	Select image from or display image to your computer screen	Only supported under Microsoft Windows. For example: gm convert file.jpg -rotate 90 win:
X	RW	Select image from or display image to your X server screen	Also see the import and display programs. For example: gm convert file.jpg -rotate 90 x:
XC	R	Canvas image of specified color	Useful to create solid color "canvas" images. Use -size and -depth to specify the image width, height, and depth. Example XC color specifications include "XC:red" and "XC:# FF0000". See the color reference for the numeric values used for named colors. For example: gm convert -size 640x480 xc:red red.jpg

GraphicsMagick includes a number of built-in (embedded) images which may be referenced as if they were an image file. The IMAGE: format tag may be used via the syntax "IMAGE:name" to request an embedded image (e.g. IMAGE:LOGO). For backwards compatibility, the image specifications GRANITE:, LOGO:, NETSCAPE:, and ROSE: may also be used to request images with those names.

A new canvas image of a specified size may be created using one of these pattern images using a command similar to:

gm convert -size 640x480 PATTERN:BRICKS bricks.miff

The TILE: virtual image type may also be used similar to:

gm convert -size 640x480 TILE:IMAGE:BRICKS bricks.miff

Built-In Images And Patterns
Name	Description	Notes/Sample
BRICKS	16x16 brick pattern
CHECKERBOARD	30x30 checkerboard pattern
CIRCLES	16x16 circles pattern
CROSSHATCH	8x4 crosshatch pattern
CROSSHATCH30	8x4 crosshatch pattern with lines at 30 degrees.
CROSSHATCH45	8x4 crosshatch pattern with lines at 45 degrees.
FISHSCALES	16x8 fish scales pattern
GRANITE	128x128 granite texture pattern
GRAY0	32x32 0% intensity gray
GRAY5	32x32 5% intensity gray
GRAY10	32x32 10% intensity gray
GRAY15	32x32 15% intensity gray
GRAY20	32x32 20% intensity gray
GRAY25	32x32 25% intensity gray
GRAY30	32x32 30% intensity gray
GRAY35	32x32 35% intensity gray
GRAY40	32x32 40% intensity gray
GRAY45	32x32 45% intensity gray
GRAY50	32x32 50% intensity gray
GRAY55	32x32 55% intensity gray
GRAY60	32x32 60% intensity gray
GRAY65	32x32 65% intensity gray
GRAY70	32x32 70% intensity gray
GRAY75	32x32 75% intensity gray
GRAY80	32x32 80% intensity gray
GRAY85	32x32 85% intensity gray
GRAY90	32x32 90% intensity gray
GRAY95	32x32 95% intensity gray
GRAY100	32x32 100% intensity gray
HEXAGONS	30x18 hexagon pattern
HORIZONTAL	8x4 horizontal line pattern
HORIZONTALSAW	16x8 horizontal saw-tooth pattern
HS_BDIAGONAL	8x8 backward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope)
HS_CROSS	8x8 cross line pattern
HS_DIAGCROSS	8x8 diagonal line cross pattern (45 degrees slope)
HS_FDIAGONAL	8x8 forward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope)
HS_HORIZONTAL	8x8 horizontal line pattern
HS_VERTICAL	8x8 vertical line pattern
LEFT30	8x4 forward diagonal pattern (30 degrees slope)
LEFT45	8x8 forward diagonal line pattern (45 degrees slope)
LEFTSHINGLE	24x24 left shingle pattern
LOGO	640x480, GraphicsMagick Logo
NETSCAPE	216x144 image using colors in Netscape 216 (6x6x6 ) color cube.	Most commonly used with the convert/mogrify -map option to create web safe images.
OCTAGONS	16x16 octagons pattern
RIGHT30	8x4 backward diagonal line pattern (30 degrees)
RIGHT45	8x8 backward diagonal line pattern (30 degrees)
RIGHTSHINGLE	24x24 right shingle pattern
ROSE	70x46, Picture of a rose.
SMALLFISHSCALES	8x8 small fish scales pattern
VERTICAL	8x8 vertical line pattern
VERTICALBRICKS	16x16 vertical brick pattern
VERTICALLEFTSHINGLE	24x24 vertical left shingle pattern
VERTICALRIGHTSHINGLE	24x24 vertical right shingle pattern
VERTICALSAW	8x16 vertical saw-tooth pattern

GraphicsMagick provides a number of format identifiers which are used to add, remove, and save embedded profiles for images which can support embedded profiles. Image types which may contain embedded profiles are TIFF, JPEG, PDF, and PNG.

Supported Embedded Profile Formats
Format	Mode	Description	Notes
8BIM	RW	Photoshop resource format (binary)
8BIMTEXT	RW	Photoshop resource format (ASCII)	An ASCII representation of the 8BIM format.
APP1	RW	Raw application information
APP1JPEG	RW	Raw JPEG binary data	Profile in JPEG wrapper.
ICC	RW	International Color Consortium color profile	Also known as "ICM". To read, use -profile with convert.
IPTC	RW	IPTC Newsphoto (binary)	To read, use -profile with convert
IPTCTEXT	RW	IPTC Newsphoto (ASCII)	An ASCII representation of the IPTC format.

Support for some of the formats are delegated to libraries or external programs. The README describes where to find these distributions and any special configuration options required.

To get a complete listing of the image formats which are supported on your system, type

gm convert -list format

On some platforms, GraphicsMagick automatically processes these extensions: .gz for Zip compression, .Z for Unix compression, and .bz2 for block compression. For example, a PNM image called image.pnm.gz is automatically uncompressed while the image is read.