Is it possible to use ImageMagick for creating GIMP?

[RyanBram]

Hi All.
As an ImageMagick user I just wonder why it seems there aren't developers who interest to use ImageMagick as base for their image manipulation program.
There are very few GUI program for ImageMagick. Even GIMP use GEGL for their image manipulation engine.

Can anybody share to me, is it possible to use ImageMagick for creating application like GIMP?
If yes, why I feel more programmers not interest for using it more than just a batch processing tools? Is it just personal preference, technical problem, or political obstacle?

Regards,

RyanBram

[fmw42]

I believe it is just a large scale project that not many want to undertake. There are a few who have done so. See https://github.com/jcupitt/nip2.
Also if you search the forum, some Windows developers had undertaken a GUI front end for IM. Perhaps one of the Windows users can point you to the post.

[Bonzo]

This is Alan Hadley's website and it mentions IM version 6 but I believe he is now working on IM version 7 but I do not have a link to anything.

http://hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZIM_Intro.htm

[snibgo]

Gimp with an IM backend would be great.

The technical difficulty is that Gimp works with 8 bits/channel/pixel, and there would be no point in a Gimp-IM interface with this limitation. (The nip2-IM interface is fairly simple because nip2 doesn't have an 8-bit limitation.)

So a good Gimp-IM interface couldn't be built incrementally. Someone would need to rip the guts out of Gimp and replace it with IM. This is a major task, probably no easier than converting Gimp to arbitrary bit-length, or writing a brand new GUI for IM.

[Digit]

twould be lovely though.
i'd chip in money to help see it become a reality.

[snibgo]

Beta versions of Gimp now have higher bit depths. It's only beta-test, but seems entirely usable. So a back-end interface from Gimp to IM would be feasible. If images were interchange via files, it wouldn't be fast.

For my own purposes, I built a Windows program that takes skeleton IM commands and automatically creates sliders and other controls for editing image tone, colour balance and so on. But Gimp can now do this quite well, at good bit-depths.