Contents

- Synopsis
- Description
- Examples
- Options
- Environment
- Authors
- Copyright

Synopsis

  combine [ options ... ] image composite [ mask ] combined

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Description

  combine combine images to create new images.

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Examples

  To combine an image of a cockatoo with a perch, use:

    `combine cockatoo.miff perch.ras composite.miff`

  To compute the difference between images in a series, use:

    `combine -compose difference series.1 series.2 difference.miff`

  To combine an image of a cockatoo with a perch starting at location (100,150), use:

    `combine -geometry "+1"00"+1"50 cockatoo.miff perch.ras composite.miff`

  To tile a logo across your image of a cockatoo, use

    `convert +shade 30x60 cockatoo.miff mask.miff`
    `combine -compose bumpmap -tile logo.gif cockatoo.miff mask.miff composite.miff`

  To combine a red, green, and blue color plane into a single composite image, try

    `combine -compose ReplaceGreen red.png green.png red-green.png`
    `combine -compose ReplaceBlue red-green.png blue.png composite.png`

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Options

  Options are processed in command line order. Any option you specify on the command line remains in effect until it is explicitly changed by specifying the option again with a different effect.

  -blend value

    blend the two images a given percent.

  -colors value

    preferred number of colors in the image.

    The actual number of colors in the image may be less than your request, but never more. Note, this is a color reduction option. Images with less unique colors than specified with this option will have any duplicate or unused colors removed. Refer to quantize(9) for more details.

    Note, options -dither, -colorspace, and -treedepth affect the color reduction algorithm.

  -colorspace value

    the type of colorspace: GRAY, OHTA, RGB, Transparent, XYZ, YCbCr, YIQ, YPbPr, YUV, or CMYK.

    Color reduction, by default, takes place in the RGB color space. Empirical evidence suggests that distances in color spaces such as YUV or YIQ correspond to perceptual color differences more closely than do distances in RGB space. These color spaces may give better results when color reducing an image. Refer to quantize(9) for more details.

    The Transparent color space behaves uniquely in that it preserves the matte channel of the image if it exists.

    The -colors or -monochrome option is required for this option to take effect.

  -comment string

    annotate an image with a comment.

    By default, each image is commented with its file name. Use this option to assign a specific comment to the image. Optionally you can include the image filename, type, width, height, or other image attribute by embedding special format characters:

            %b   file size
            %d   directory
            %e   filename extension
            %f   filename
            %h   height
            %m   magick
            %p   page number
            %s   scene number
            %t   top of filename
            %w   width
            %x   x resolution
            %y   y resolution
            \n   newline
            \r   carriage return

    For example,

            -comment "%m:%f %wx%h"

    produces an image comment of MIFF:bird.miff 512x480 for an image titled bird.miff and whose width is 512 and height is 480.

    If the first character of string is @, the image comment is read from a file titled by the remaining characters in the string.

  -compose operator

    the type of image composition.

    By default, each of the composite image pixels are replaced by the corresponding image tile pixel. You can choose an alternate composite operation. How each operator behaves is described below.

    over

      The result will be the union of the two image shapes, with composite image obscuring image in the region of overlap.

    in

      The result is simply composite image cut by the shape of image. None of the image data of image will be in the result.

    out

      The resulting image is composite image with the shape of image cut out.

    atop

      The result is the same shape as image image, with composite image obscuring image where the image shapes overlap. Note this differs from over because the portion of composite image outside image's shape does not appear in the result.

    xor

      The result is the image data from both composite image and image that is outside the overlap region. The overlap region will be blank.

    plus

      The result is just the sum of the image data. Output values are cropped to 255 (no overflow). This operation is independent of the matte channels.

    minus

      The result of composite image - image, with underflow cropped to zero. The matte channel is ignored (set to 255, full coverage).

    add

      The result of composite image + image, with overflow wrapping around (mod 256).

    subtract

      The result of composite image - image, with underflow wrapping around (mod 256). The add and subtract operators can be used to perform reversible transformations.

    difference

      The result of abs(composite image - image). This is useful for comparing two very similar images.

    bumpmap

      The result of image shaded by image.

    replace

      The resulting image is image replaced with composite image. Here the matte information is ignored.

    The image compositor requires a matte, or alpha channel in the image for some operations. This extra channel usually defines a mask which represents a sort of a cookie-cutter for the image. This is the case when matte is 255 (full coverage) for pixels inside the shape, zero outside, and between zero and 255 on the boundary. For certain operations, if image does not have a matte channel, it is initialized with 0 for any pixel matching in color to pixel location (0,0), otherwise 255 (to work properly borderwidth must be 0).

  -compress type

    the type of image compression: None, BZip, Fax, Group4, JPEG, LZW, RunlengthEncoded or Zip.

    Specify +compress to store the binary image in an uncompressed format. The default is the compression type of the specified image file.

  -density <width>x<height>

    vertical and horizontal resolution in pixels of the image.

    This option specifies an image density when decoding a Postscript or Portable Document page. The default is 72 pixels per inch in the horizontal and vertical direction. This option is used in concert with -page

  -displace<horizontal scale>x<vertical scale>

    shift image pixels as defined by a displacement map.

    With this option, composite image is used as a displacement map. Black, within the displacement map, is a maximum positive displacement. White is a maximum negative displacement and middle gray is neutral. The displacement is scaled to determine the pixel shift. By default, the displacement applies in both the horizontal and vertical directions. However, if you specify mask, composite image is the horizontal X displacement and mask the vertical Y displacement.

  -display host:display[.screen]

    specifies the X server to contact; see X(1).

  -dispose method

    GIF disposal method.

    Here are the valid methods:

          0     No disposal specified.
          1     Do not dispose between frames.
          2     Overwrite frame with background color from header.
          3     Overwrite with previous frame.

  -dither

    apply Floyd/Steinberg error diffusion to the image.

    The basic strategy of dithering is to trade intensity resolution for spatial resolution by averaging the intensities of several neighboring pixels. Images which suffer from severe contouring when reducing colors can be improved with this option.

    The -colors or -monochrome option is required for this option to take effect.

    Use +dither to render Postscript without text or graphic aliasing.

  -font name

    This option specifies the font to be used for displaying normal text.

    If the font is a fully qualified X server font name, the font is obtained from an X server (e.g. `-*-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*`). To use a TrueType font, precede the TrueType filename with a `@` (e.g. `@times.ttf`). Otherwise, specify a Postscript font (e.g. `helvetica`).

  -geometry <width>x<height>{+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset>{%}{!}{<}{>}

    the width and height of the image.

    By default, the width and height are maximum values. That is, the image is expanded or contracted to fit the width and height value while maintaining the aspect ratio of the image. Append an exclamation point to the geometry to force the image size to exactly the size you specify. For example, if you specify 640x480! the image width is set to 640 pixels and height to 480. If only one factor is specified, both the width and height assume the value.

    To specify a percentage width or height instead, append %. The image size is multiplied by the width and height percentages to obtain the final image dimensions. To increase the size of an image, use a value greater than 100 (e.g. 125%). To decrease an image's size, use a percentage less than 100.

    Use > to change the dimensions of the image only if its size exceeds the geometry specification. < resizes the image only if its dimensions is less than the geometry specification. For example, if you specify 640x480> and the image size is 512x512, the image size does not change. However, if the image is 1024x1024, it is resized to 640x480.

    By default the images are combined relative to the image gravity (see -gravity). Use <x offset> and <y offset> to specify a particular location to combine the images.

  -gravity type

    direction image gravitates to within the composite: NorthWest, North, NorthEast, West, Center, East, SouthWest, South, SouthEast. See X(1) for details about the gravity specification.

    The direction you choose specifies where to position the image within the composite. For example Center gravity forces the image to be centered within the composite. By default, the image gravity is NorthWest.

  -interlace type

    the type of interlacing scheme: None, Line, Plane, or Partition. The default is None.

    This option is used to specify the type of interlacing scheme for raw image formats such as RGB or YUV. None means do not interlace (RGBRGBRGBRGBRGBRGB...), Line uses scanline interlacing (RRR...GGG...BBB...RRR...GGG...BBB...), and Plane uses plane interlacing (RRRRRR...GGGGGG...BBBBBB...). Partition is like plane except the different planes are saved to individual files (e.g. image.R, image.G, and image.B).

    Use Line, or Plane to create an interlaced GIF or progressive JPEG image.

  -label name

    assign a label to an image.

    Use this option to assign a specific label to the image. Optionally you can include the image filename, type, width, height, or other image attribute by embedding special format character. See -comment for details.

    For example,

            -label "%m:%f %wx%h"

    produces an image label of MIFF:bird.miff 512x480 for an image titled bird.miff and whose width is 512 and height is 480.

    If the first character of string is @, the image label is read from a file titled by the remaining characters in the string.

    When converting to Postscript, use this option to specify a header string to print above the image.

  -matte

    store matte channel if the image has one otherwise create an opaque one.

  -monochrome

    transform the image to black and white.

  -negate

    replace every pixel with its complementary color (white becomes black, yellow becomes blue, etc.).

    The red, green, and blue intensities of an image are negated. Use +negate to only negate the grayscale pixels of the image.

  -page <width>x<height>{+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset>{%}{!}{<}{>}

    size and location of an image canvas.

    Use this option to specify the dimensions of the PostScript page in dots per inch or a TEXT page in pixels. The choices for a Postscript page are:

               11x17         792  1224
               Ledger       1224   792
               Legal         612  1008
               Letter        612   792
               LetterSmall   612   792
               ArchE        2592  3456
               ArchD        1728  2592
               ArchC        1296  1728
               ArchB         864  1296
               ArchA         648   864
               A0           2380  3368
               A1           1684  2380
               A2           1190  1684
               A3            842  1190
               A4            595   842
               A4Small       595   842
               A5            421   595
               A6            297   421
               A7            210   297
               A8            148   210
               A9            105   148
               A10            74   105
               B0           2836  4008
               B1           2004  2836
               B2           1418  2004
               B3           1002  1418
               B4            709  1002
               B5            501   709
               C0           2600  3677
               C1           1837  2600
               C2           1298  1837
               C3            918  1298
               C4            649   918
               C5            459   649
               C6            323   459
               Flsa          612   936
               Flse          612   936
               HalfLetter    396   612

    For convenience you can specify the page size by media (e.g. A4, Ledger, etc.). Otherwise, -page behaves much like -geometry (e.g. `-page letter+43+43>`).

    To position a GIF image, use -page {+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset> (e.g. -page "+1"00+200).

    For a Postscript page, the image is sized as in -geometry and positioned relative to the lower left hand corner of the page by {+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset>. Use `-page 612x792>`, for example, to center the image within the page. If the image size exceeds the Postscript page, it is reduced to fit the page.

    The default page dimensions for a TEXT image is 612x792.

    This option is used in concert with -density.

  -quality value

    JPEG/MIFF/PNG compression level.

    For the JPEG image format, quality is 0 (worst) to 100 (best). The default quality is 75.

    Quality for the MIFF and PNG image format sets the amount of image compression (quality / 10) and filter-type (quality % 10). Compression quality values range from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). If filter-type is 4 or less, the specified filter-type is used for all scanlines:

            0: none
            1: sub
            2: up
            3: average
            4: Paeth

    If filter-type is 5, adaptive filtering is used when quality is greater than 50 and the image does not have a color map, otherwise no filtering is used.

    If filter-type is 6 or more, adaptive filtering with minimum-sum-of-absolute-values is used.

    The default is quality is 75. Which means nearly the best compression with adaptive filtering.

    For further information, see the PNG specification.

  -scene value

    image scene number.

  -size <width>{%}x<height>{%}{+offset}{!}

    width and height of the image.

    Use this option to specify the width and height of raw images whose dimensions are unknown such as GRAY, RGB, or CMYK. In addition to width and height, use -size to skip any header information in the image or tell the number of colors in a MAP image file, (e.g. -size 640x512+256).

  -stegano

    hide watermark within an image.

    Use an offset to start the image hiding some number of pixels from the beginning of the image. Note this offset and the image size. You will need this information to recover the steganographic image (e.g. `display -size 320x256+35 stegano:image.png`).

  -stereo

    combine two image to create a stereo anaglyph.

    The left side of the stereo pair is saved as the red channel of the output image. The right sife is saved as the green channel. Red-blue stereo glasses are required to properly view the stereo image.

  -tile

    repeat composite operation across image.

  -treedepth value

    Normally, this integer value is zero or one. A zero or one tells combine to choose an optimal tree depth for the color reduction algorithm.

    An optimal depth generally allows the best representation of the source image with the fastest computational speed and the least amount of memory. However, the default depth is inappropriate for some images. To assure the best representation, try values between 2 and 8 for this parameter. Refer to quantize(9) for more details.

    The -colors option is required for this option to take effect.

  -verbose

    print detailed information about the image.

    This information is printed: image scene number; image name; combined image name; image size; the image class (DirectClass or PseudoClass); the total number of unique colors; and the number of seconds to read and combine the image.

  By default, the image format is determined by its magic number. To specify a particular image format, precede the filename with an image format name and a colon (i.e. ps:image) or specify the image type as the filename suffix (i.e. image.ps). See convert(1) for a list of valid image formats.

  When you specify X as your image type, the filename has special meaning. It specifies an X window by id, name, or root. If no filename is specified, the window is selected by clicking the mouse in the desired window.

  Specify image as - for standard input, combined as - for standard output. If image has the extension .Z or .gz, the file is uncompressed with uncompress or gunzip respectively. If combined has the extension .Z or .gz, the file size is compressed using with compress or gzip respectively. Finally, precede the image file name with | to pipe to or from a system command.

  Use an optional index enclosed in brackets after a file name to specify a desired subimage of a multi-resolution image format like Photo CD (e.g. img0001.pcd[4]) or a range for MPEG images (e.g. video.mpg[50-75]). A subimage specification can be disjoint (e.g. image.tiff[2,7,4]). For raw images, specify a subimage with a geometry (e.g. -size 640x512 image.rgb[320x256+50+50]).

  The optional mask can be used to provide matte information for composite when it has none or if you want a different mask. A mask image is typically grayscale and the same size as composite. If the image is not grayscale, it is converted to grayscale and the resulting intensities are used as matte information.

  If combined already exists, you will be prompted as to whether it should be overwritten.

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Environment

DISPLAY

  To get the default host, display number, and screen.

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Authors

  John Cristy, magick@wizards.dupont.com E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Incorporated.

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Copyright

  Copyright 1999 E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company

  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files ("ImageMagick"), to deal in ImageMagick without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of ImageMagick, and to permit persons to whom the ImageMagick is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of ImageMagick.

  The software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement.In no event shall E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with ImageMagick or the use or other dealings in ImageMagick.

  Except as contained in this notice, the name of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings in ImageMagick without prior written authorization from the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.

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Image manipulation software that works like magic.