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The MagickCore API is a low-level interface between the C programming language and the ImageMagick image processing libraries and is recommended for wizard-level programmers only. Unlike the MagickWand C API which uses only a few opaque types and accessors, with MagickCore you almost exlusively access the structure members directly. A description of the MagickCore public methods are found here:

• Initialize or Destroy the ImageMagick Environment
• Constitute an Image
• Composite an Image
• Image Methods
• Count the Colors in an Image
• Dealing with Image Colorspaces
• Dealing with Image Profiles
• Reduce the Number of Unique Colors in an Image
• Segment an Image with Thresholding Fuzzy c-Means
• Resize an Image
• Transform an Image
• Shear or Rotate an Image by an Arbitrary Angle
• Enhance an Image
• Add an Effect
• Add a Special Effect
• Decorate an Image
• Set Text Attributes
• Annotate an Image
• Paint on an Image
• Draw on an Image
• Create an Image Thumbnail
• Compare an Image to a Reconstructed Image
• Interactively Display and Edit an Image
• Interactively Animate an Image Sequence
• Get or Set Image Pixels
• Working with Image Lists
• Working with Cache Views
• The Pixel FIFO
• Read or Write Binary Large OBjects
• Compute a Message Digest for an Image
• The Registry
• Dealing with Exceptions
• Memory Allocation
• Monitor or Limit Resource Consumption
• Monitor the Progress of an Image Operation
• Get the Version and Copyrights

After you write your MagickCore program, compile it like this:

  cc `Magick-config --cflags --cppflags` core.c `Magick-config --ldflags --libs`

Here is a example program that utilizes the MagickCore API to get you started, core.c. It reads a GIF image, creates a thumbnail, and writes it to disk in the PNG image format.

  #include <stdio.h>
  #include <stdlib.h>
  #include <string.h>
  #include <time.h>
  #include <magick/ImageMagick.h>

  int main(int argc,char **argv)
  {
    ExceptionInfo
      exception;

    Image
      *image,
      *images,
      *resize_image,
      *thumbnails;

    ImageInfo
      *image_info;

    /*
      Initialize the image info structure and read an image.
    */
    InitializeMagick(*argv);
    GetExceptionInfo(&exception);
    image_info=CloneImageInfo((ImageInfo *) NULL);
    (void) strcpy(image_info->filename,"image.gif");
    images=ReadImage(image_info,&exception);
    if (exception.severity != UndefinedException)
      CatchException(&exception);
    if (images == (Image *) NULL)
      exit(1);
    /*
      Turn the images into a thumbnail sequence.
    */
    thumbnails=NewImageList();
    while ((image=RemoveFirstImageFromList(&images)) != (Image *) NULL)
    {
      resize_image=ResizeImage(image,106,80,LanczosFilter,1.0,&exception);
      if (resize_image == (Image *) NULL)
        MagickError(exception.severity,exception.reason,exception.description);
      (void) AppendImageToList(&thumbnails,resize_image);
      DestroyImage(image);
    }
    /*
      Write the image as MIFF and destroy it.
    */
    (void) strcpy(thumbnails->filename,"image.png");
    WriteImage(image_info,thumbnails);
    thumbnails=DestroyImageList(thumbnails);
    image_info=DestroyImageInfo(image_info);
    DestroyExceptionInfo(&exception);
    DestroyMagick();
    return(0);
  }