Gmagick Image Editor

=== Gmagick Image Editor === Contributors: superdav42 Tags: gmagick, graphicsmagick, image, webp, avif, performance Requires at least: 5.3 Tested up to: 7.1 Requires PHP: 7.4 Stable tag: 1.0.1 License: GPL-3.0-or-later License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html

Use GraphicsMagick (Gmagick) as the WordPress image editor. Faster than Imagick with full WebP and AVIF support.

== Description ==

Registers a WP_Image_Editor_Gmagick class that uses the Gmagick PHP extension (GraphicsMagick) for image manipulation in WordPress.

GraphicsMagick is a fork of ImageMagick focused on stability and performance. It is typically faster for common web operations like resize, crop, and thumbnail generation.

Features:

• Drop-in replacement for the built-in Imagick editor
• Full support for JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and AVIF
• Pre-sampling optimization for large image resizes
• Post-resize sharpening for JPEGs
• Progressive JPEG support via image_save_progressive filter
• Metadata stripping via image_strip_meta filter
• Compatible with make_subsize() (WordPress 5.3+)
• Works as a regular plugin or mu-plugin

How it works:

The plugin registers WP_Image_Editor_Gmagick as the highest-priority image editor. WordPress will use it for all image operations when the Gmagick extension is available, falling back to GD otherwise.

== Installation ==

= Requirements =

The php-gmagick extension must be installed on your server.

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install php8.4-gmagick

Note: The Gmagick and Imagick PHP extensions cannot be loaded at the same time. Installing Gmagick will typically disable Imagick. GD remains available as a fallback.

= Plugin Installation =

1. Upload the wp-image-editor-gmagick folder to /wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu
3. That's it — no configuration needed

= mu-plugin Installation =

Copy gmagick-image-editor.php and class-wp-image-editor-gmagick.php to /wp-content/mu-plugins/.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= How do I verify it's working? =

Use WP-CLI:

wp eval '$e = apply_filters("wp_image_editors", []); print_r($e);'

WP_Image_Editor_Gmagick should appear first in the list.

= Can I use this alongside Imagick? =

No. The gmagick and imagick PHP extensions are mutually exclusive — only one can be loaded at a time. The plugin automatically removes WP_Image_Editor_Imagick from the editor list.

= What happens if Gmagick is not installed? =

The plugin does nothing. WordPress falls back to its default editors (Imagick or GD).

= Is GraphicsMagick really faster? =

For typical WordPress operations (resize, crop, thumbnail), yes. GraphicsMagick uses less memory and processes images faster than ImageMagick in most benchmarks. The difference is most noticeable on sites that generate many image sizes on upload.

== Changelog ==

= 1.0.1 = Version 1.0.1 - Released on 2026-08-19

• Improved: WordPress compatibility metadata now reflects testing through WordPress 7.1.

= 1.0.0 =

• Initial release
• Full WP_Image_Editor implementation for Gmagick
• Support for JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF
• Pre-sampling, post-resize sharpening, metadata stripping
• Compatible with WordPress 5.3+ make_subsize() API