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ImageMagick Windows Installation

WINDOWS XP/Win2K/98 VISUAL C++ 6.0 AND 7.0 COMPILATION

The Visual C++ distribution targeted at Windows XP, Win2K, or Windows 98 does not provide any stock workspace (DSW) or project files (DSP) except for those included with third party libraries. Instead, there is a `configure' program that must be built and run that creates build environments to satisfy various requirements.

The Visual C++ system provides three different types of "runtimes" that must match across all application, library, and DLL code that is built. The `configure' program creates a set of build files that are consistent for a specific runtime selection.

The three options for runtime support are:

  1. Dynamic Multi-threaded DLL runtimes (VisualDynamicMT).
  2. Static Single-threaded runtimes (VisualStaticST).
  3. Static Multi-threaded runtimes (VisualStaticMT).
  4. Static Multi-threaded DLL runtimes (VisualStaticMTDLL).

In addition to these runtimes, the VisualMagick build environment allows you to select whether to include the X11 libraries in the build or not. X11 DLLs and headers are provided with the VisualMagick build environment. Most Windows users do not use X11 so they will prefer to build without X11 support. Without X11 support, the `animate', `display', and `import' will not work.

This leads to five different possible build options, which should cover almost any particular situation. The default binary distribution is built using #1 from above with the X11 libraries included. This results in an X11 compatible build using all DLL's for everything and multi-threaded support (the only option for DLL's).

To do a build for your requirements, simply go to the configure subdirectory under VisualMagick and open the configure.dsw workspace (for Visual C++ 6.0) or configure.sln (for Visual C++ 7.0). Set the build configuration to "Release" under the

      "Build..., Set Active Configuration..."

menu.

Build and execute the configure program and follow the on-screen instructions. Generally you can accept the configuration defaults.

The configure program provides a button titled

     Edit "magick_config.h"

Clicking this button allows you to edit `magick_config.h' in a Windows Notepad window for optionally changing any preprocessor defines. This file is copied to `magick\magick_config.h'. You may safely open `magick\magick_config.h', modify it, and recompile without re-running the configure program. In fact, using the notepad program to edit the copied file may be preferable since it preserves the original `magick_config.hi' file.

Key user tunables in magick_config.h include:

    QuantumDepth (default 8)

      Specify the size of PixelPacket color Quantums (8, 16, or 32).
      If you need to preserve the fidelity of 16-bit images (gray, png,
      etc), use 16.  If you want to work in remote sensing or if you are
      a mad scientist you might consider 32.  Note, that a quantum-depth
      16 uses 4-times as much memory as the default quantum-depth of 8,
      whereas a quantum-depth of 32 uses 16-times as much memory.

    UseInstalledMagick (default undefined)

      Define to build an ImageMagick which uses registry settings or embedded
      paths to locate installed components (coder modules and configuration
      files).  The default is to look for all files in the same directory
      as the executable.

    ProvideDllMain (default defined)

      Define to include a DllMain() function ensures that the ImageMagick
      DLL is properly initialized without participation from dependent
      applications.  This avoids the requirement to invoke IntializeMagick()
      from dependent applications but only works for DLL builds.

After creating your build environment you can proceed to open the DSW (or SLN) file that was generated in the VisualMagick directory and build everything from there.

In the final DSW file you will find a project call "All". In order to build everything in the distribution, select this project and make it the "active" project. Set the build configuration to the desired one (Debug, or Release) and do a "clean" followed by a "build". You should do the build in a specific way:

  1. Make the "All" project the active project (Bold) Right click on the All project and select "Set As Active Project"
  2. Select "Build..., Clean" 3) Select "Build..., Build" 4) Go get some coffee unless you have a very fast machine!.

The "Clean" step is needed in order to make sure that all of the target support libraries are updated with any patches needed to get them to compile properly under Visual C++.

All of the required files that are needed to run any of the command line tools will be found in the "bin" subdirectory of the VisualMagick subdirectory. This includes EXE, and DLL files. You should be able to test the build directly from this directory without having to move anything to any of the global SYSTEM or SYSTEM32 areas in the operating system installation.

Note #1:

The Visual C++ distribution of ImageMagick comes with the Magick++ C++ wrapper by default. This add-on layer has a large number of demo and test files that can be found in ImageMagick\Magick++\demo, and ImageMagick\Magick++\tests. There are also a variety of tests that use the straight C API as well in ImageMagick\tests.

All of these programs are NOT configured to be built in the default workspace created by the configure program. You can build these demos and test programs to be built by checking the box in configure that says:

    "Include all demo and test programs"

In addition, there is another related checkbox (checked by default) that causes all generated project files to be created standalone so that they can be copied to other areas of you system.

This is the checkbox:

    "Generate all utility projects with full paths rather then relative paths"

Visual C++ uses a concept of "dependencies" that tell it what other components need to be build when a particular project is being build. This mechanism is also used to ensure that components link properly. With this feature enabled, you should be able to nab a copy of...

    VisualMagick\utilities\UTIL_convert_xxx_exe.dsp  (for C)

or

    VisualMagick\Magick++\demo\UTIL_demo_xxx_exe.dsp (for C++)

and pop it into the notepad program, modify it (carefully) to your needs and be on your way to happy compiling and linking.

You can feel free to pick any of the standard utilities, tests, or demo programs as the basis for a new program by copying the project and the source and hacking away.

The choice of what to use as a starting point is very easy.

For straight C API command line applications use something from:

    ImageMagick\tests or ImageMagick\utilities (source code)
    ImageMagick\VisualMagick\tests or ImageMagick\Visualmagick\utilities (project - DSP)

For C++ and Magick++ command line applications use something from:

    ImageMagick\Magick++\tests or ImageMagick\Magick++\demo (source code)
    ImageMagick\VisualMagick\Magick++\tests or ImageMagick\VisualMagick\Magick++\demo (project - DSP)

For C++ and Magick++ and MFC windows applications use:

    ImageMagick\contrib\win32\MFC\NtMagick (source code)
    ImageMagick\VisualMagick\contrib\win32\MFC\NtMagick (project - DSP)

Note #2:

The ImageMagick distribution is very modular. The default configuration is there to get you rolling, but you need to make some serious choices when you wish to change things around.

The default options are all targeted at having all the components in one place (e.g. the "bin" directory of the VisualMagick build tree). These components may be copied to another folder (such as to another computer).

The folder containing the executables and DLLs should contain all the configuration files, *.mgk.

The "bin" folder should contains all EXE's and DLL's as well as the very important "coder.mgk" file.

With this default setup, you can use any of the command line tools and run scripts as normal. You can actually get by quite nicely this way by doing something like "pushd e:\xxx\yyy\bin" in any scripts you write to execute "out of" this directory.

By default the core of ImageMagick on Win32 always looks in the place were the exe program is run from in order to find all of the files as well as the DLL's it needs.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

You can use the "System" control panel to allow you to add and delete what is in any of the environment variables. You can even have user specific environment variables if you wish.

PATH

    This sets the default list of places were Windows looks for EXE's
    and DLL's.  Windows CMD shell seems to look in the "current" directory
    first - no matter what, which may make it unnecessary to update the PATH.
    If you wish to run any of utilities from another location, you must
    add the path to your "bin" directory in. For instance, you might add:

       D:\CVS\ImageMagick\VisualMagick\bin

    to do this for the default build environment like I do.

MAGICK_HOME

    If all you do is modify the PATH variable, the first problem you will run
    into is that ImageMagick may not be able to find any of its "modules".
    Modules are all the IM_MOD*.DLL files you see in the distribution.
    There is one of these for each and every file format that ImageMagick
    supports. This environment variable tells the system were to look for
    these DLL's.  The compiled in "default" is "execution path" - which says
    - look in the same place that the application is running "in".  If you
    are running from somewhere other then "bin" - this will no longer work
    and you must use this variable.  If you elect to leave the modules in
    the same place as the EXE's (a good idea), you can simply set this to
    the same place as you did the PATH variable. In my case:

       D:\\ImageMagick\coders

    This is also the place were ImageMagick expects to find the configuration
    files, *.mgk, including module.mgk, type.mgk, etc.

    One cool thing about the modules build of ImageMagick is that you can
    now leave out file formats and lighten you load.  If all you ever need is
    GIF and JPEG, simply drop all the other DLL's into the local trash
    can and get on with your life.  However, always keep the "xc" format,
    since ImageMagick uses it for internal purposes.

Also. You can elect to changes these things the good old "hard-coded" way. Two #defines are applicable.

defines.h has

      #define MagickConfigurePath  "c:\\ImageMagick\\"

To view any image in a Microsoft window, type

      convert image.ext win:

Make sure Ghostscript is installed, otherwise, you will be unable to convert or view a Postscript document, and Postscript standard fonts will not be available.

You may use any standard web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) to browse the ImageMagick documentation.

The Win2K executables will work under Windows 98.


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