# Is there anything easier than ImageMagick/ImageScience?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 14, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536 "2008-05-14T01:17:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miken700)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536/1 "2008-05-14T01:17:22Z")

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I for some of my current projects, I want to scale and crop photos for  
avatars. Installing ImageMagick/ImageScience and making it work is such  
a pain in the butt.

Isn’t there some easier way?

Is there any web service that will do things like scale, crop or make  
thumbnails?

There has to be something easier.

Thanks,  
Mike

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**Author:** ![miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miken700)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536/2 "2008-05-14T20:45:12Z")

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Based on another post, I’m using “convert” as a system command  
(RMagick is notorious for memory leaks).

`convert -resize 200x40 -quality 70 public/images/catalog/#{@item.id}- #{c}.jpg public/images/catalog/thumbs/#{@item.id}-#{c}.jpg`

This works for me. It’s not necessarily easier, but it shouldn’t be  
leaky.

I saw a mention of an alternative called something like mini-magick,  
but I can’t remember for sure.

-Kyle

On May 13, 6:17 pm, Mike Nicholaides \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-

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**Author:** ![miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miken700)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536/3 "2008-05-14T20:55:59Z")

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I have found ImageScience to be a lightweight way to do it actually. The  
install was quick and easy. Install FreeImage and then install the  
image\_science gem. There were many tutorials online and it was like a 4  
command process. What issues did you encounter? I am on Mac OS but I  
also did it on Ubuntu and it works equally as well on windows.

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**Author:** ![miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miken700)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536/4 "2008-05-14T21:21:41Z")

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Just to clarify RMagick does not leak memory.  
[http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?thread\_id=1374&forum\_id=1618](http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1374&forum_id=1618) and  
[http://redhanded.hobix.com/inspect/theFullyUpturnedBin.html](http://redhanded.hobix.com/inspect/theFullyUpturnedBin.html). That’s not  
to  
say that RMagick doesn’t _use_ a lot of memory and if you’re just  
thumbnailing there might indeed be better ways. But I had to set the  
record  
straight about the “notorious” memory leaks. I wonder which lie will die  
first? RMagick’s leaks or Rails can’t scale. 😉

RSL

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miken700)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536/5 "2008-05-14T21:49:30Z")

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Paperclip is new. It depends on ImageMagick (which I found easy to  
install on Mac OS X, anyway), and it claims to be simpler to use than  
some other approaches. I only know one person who’s used it, and it  
worked well (after he submitted a few patches).

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Regards,  
Craig

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@miken700](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miken700)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-anything-easier-than-imagemagick-imagescience/137536/6 "2008-05-18T18:31:07Z")

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Russel,

Thanks for the clarification. I spoke with too much [false] certainty  
and am glad to be corrected.

-Kyle

On May 14, 2:48 pm, “Craig D.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)