Preview vs ImageMagick

Struggling to choose between Preview and ImageMagick? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

Preview is a Office & Productivity solution with tags like pdf, images, documents, viewer, macos, opensource.

It boasts features such as View PDFs, images, text files and more, Annotate PDFs with shapes, text boxes, signatures, Basic image editing tools, Fill out and sign PDF forms, Combine PDFs and export as PDF or other formats, Tabbed interface to view multiple files, Quick Look support to preview files, Built-in screen capture tool and pros including Free and included with macOS, Fast and lightweight, Supports many common file formats, Useful annotation and editing tools, Easy to use interface.

On the other hand, ImageMagick is a Photos & Graphics product tagged with image-processing, conversion, editing, graphics.

Its standout features include Image format conversion, Resize, rotate, flip, mirror, crop and trim images, Merge multiple images, Add text, shapes and frames to images, Apply filters, effects and image enhancements, Batch process images, Create image montages and collages, Extract or remove image channels, Adjust colors, brightness, contrast, gamma, Blur, sharpen, despeckle and reduce noise, and it shines with pros like Free and open source, Cross-platform availability, Extensive image manipulation capabilities, Fast and efficient, Support for a wide variety of image formats, Can be used via command line, APIs and GUIs, Active development community.

To help you make an informed decision, we've compiled a comprehensive comparison of these two products, delving into their features, pros, cons, pricing, and more. Get ready to explore the nuances that set them apart and determine which one is the perfect fit for your requirements.

Preview

Preview

Preview is a free and open-source document viewer application for macOS. It allows quick viewing of multiple file formats including images, PDFs, Markdown files, Office documents, and more. Preview has basic editing capabilities and annotation tools for PDFs.

Categories:
pdf images documents viewer macos opensource

Preview Features

  1. View PDFs, images, text files and more
  2. Annotate PDFs with shapes, text boxes, signatures
  3. Basic image editing tools
  4. Fill out and sign PDF forms
  5. Combine PDFs and export as PDF or other formats
  6. Tabbed interface to view multiple files
  7. Quick Look support to preview files
  8. Built-in screen capture tool

Pricing

  • Free

Pros

Free and included with macOS

Fast and lightweight

Supports many common file formats

Useful annotation and editing tools

Easy to use interface

Cons

Limited functionality compared to paid alternatives

Lacks advanced PDF editing features

No OCR for scanning text in images

No collaboration tools


ImageMagick

ImageMagick

ImageMagick is an open-source software suite for creating, editing, composing, and converting bitmap images. It can resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.

Categories:
image-processing conversion editing graphics

ImageMagick Features

  1. Image format conversion
  2. Resize, rotate, flip, mirror, crop and trim images
  3. Merge multiple images
  4. Add text, shapes and frames to images
  5. Apply filters, effects and image enhancements
  6. Batch process images
  7. Create image montages and collages
  8. Extract or remove image channels
  9. Adjust colors, brightness, contrast, gamma
  10. Blur, sharpen, despeckle and reduce noise

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Free and open source

Cross-platform availability

Extensive image manipulation capabilities

Fast and efficient

Support for a wide variety of image formats

Can be used via command line, APIs and GUIs

Active development community

Cons

Steep learning curve

Command line interface not user friendly

Limited native GUI options

Difficult for beginners to use

Documentation can be technical

Requires coding/scripting for automation