# Basic image process suggestion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 22, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473 "2007-02-22T16:02:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/1 "2007-02-22T16:02:38Z")
I need 1. upload image (JPG/GIF/BMP/etc) to pre-designated path 2. auto resize the image and generate thumb image based on the pre-defined width or length, keep ratio 3. best performance Thanks for any recommendation. ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/2 "2007-02-22T16:54:03Z")
Surfman J. wrote: > I need > > 1. upload image (JPG/GIF/BMP/etc) to pre-designated path > 2. auto resize the image and generate thumb image based on the > pre-defined width or length, keep ratio > 3. best performance > > Thanks for any recommendation. Investigate the acts\_as\_attachment plugin which has RMagick integration. ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/3 "2007-02-22T16:09:47Z")
Take a look at RMagic. Good for what your looking for. ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/4 "2007-02-22T19:43:34Z")
Another recommendation would be the file\_column plug-in (http:// [wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseFileColumn](http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseFileColumn)). It is lighter (though not necessarily better) than acts\_as\_attachement and also uses RMagick for image manipulation. ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/5 "2007-02-22T20:35:39Z")
Do NOT use RMagick for image manipulation. Using RMagick in a rails process will cause the memory usage of each process to skyrocket. You will run into a lot of trouble later on (from personal experience). Delegate image manipulation to a seperate process. The easiest thing to do in this case is simply run `convert` (imagemagick’s command line tool) on the image to generate a thumbnail. -carl On 2/22/07, Jeff [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Another recommendation would be the file\_column plug-in (http:// > [wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseFileColumn](http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToUseFileColumn)). It is lighter > (though not necessarily better) than acts\_as\_attachement and also uses > RMagick for image manipulation. > > > – EPA Rating: 3000 Lines of Code / Gallon (of coffee) ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 2:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/6 "2007-02-23T14:04:36Z")
Which rules out the memory problem and proves the use of actually reading documentation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/7 "2007-02-23T02:50:19Z")
The RMagick documentation is clear on this - you must invoke the Garbage collector manually after RMagick processing, as Ruby doesn’t track the RMagick memory used. file\_column does this, but if you do your own RMagick code, you must call GC.start once your processing is complete. ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/8 "2007-02-24T14:44:59Z")
Tim H. wrote: > Tom F. wrote: > > > The RMagick documentation is clear on this - you must invoke the > > Garbage collector manually after RMagick processing, as Ruby doesn’t > > track the RMagick memory used. > > > > file\_column does this, but if you do your own RMagick code, you must > > call GC.start once your processing is complete. > > Thanks for saying this, Tom. I’m glad to see that this information is > getting out. It makes me sad when people say that RMagick “leaks” memory > when judicious use of GC.start would’ve solved their problem. If they > had emailed me I would’ve tried to help. Tim speaks the truth on both counts. RMagick doesn’t leak memory if you remember to call GC.start after each image-processing operation. AND he’s a very helpful person. I’ve got an all-RMagick application at > **[psitsnot.alevans.com is almost here!](http://psitsnot.alevans.com)** > > The owner of this domain has not yet uploaded their website. It’s been running for almost a year, on a shared host, and has no memory issues. –Al Evans ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-image-process-suggestion/86473/9 "2007-02-24T01:02:32Z")
Tom F. wrote: > The RMagick documentation is clear on this - you must invoke the > Garbage collector manually after RMagick processing, as Ruby doesn’t > track the RMagick memory used. > > file\_column does this, but if you do your own RMagick code, you must > call GC.start once your processing is complete. Thanks for saying this, Tom. I’m glad to see that this information is getting out. It makes me sad when people say that RMagick “leaks” memory when judicious use of GC.start would’ve solved their problem. If they had emailed me I would’ve tried to help. Not that I’m saying that it’s impossible for RMagick to have a memory leak. That would just be asking for trouble! I am saying that anybody who thinks that RMagick has a memory leak should email me at rmagick AT rubyforge DOT org to complain, or open a bug track on RubyForge. If I know about a problem and can reproduce it, then I can fix it. I’d even thank you for reporting the problem! P.S. The RMagick documentation that Tom is referring to is a thread in the RMagick Hints and Tips Forum on RubyForge: [http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?thread\_id=1374&forum\_id=1618](http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1374&forum_id=1618). If you have a suggestion about a better way for me to promulgate this information please let me know. Thanks!