Questions and postings pertaining to the usage of ImageMagick regardless of the interface. This includes the command-line utilities, as well as the C and C++ APIs. Usage questions are like "How do I use ImageMagick to create drop shadows?".
As dlemstra mentioned, IM 6 will need memory for 5 channels even for a gray level image. But in IM 7 a gray level image only needs memory for one channel. So you might consider upgrading to IM 7.
Thanks fred, I will upgrade at some point. My follow up was just offered as 'way around' the 'issue' by just allocating more memory, than ideal, for grayscale images only.
I assume the default limit for memory is set at the physical limit, by increasing it to some sensible amount above the amount of RAM, you can avoid the use of disk, as I assume the pages for the 4 unused channels are never or hardly actually used.
For a grayscale to grayscale processing in IM 6, you will need to allocate at least RAM for 10 times the image size (5 channels for the input and 5 channels for the output), plus any clones or mpr: copies for intermediate processing. In IM 7 you would only need 2 times the image size (1 for input and 1 for output), etc.