Here are some instructions for installing Imagick for PHP 8 on Windows 10.
If you’re running PHP 8 on Windows and you want to use the Imagick PHP extension then you may want to refer to this post for some download and installation instructions.
Background
In 2016 I had a need for the Imagick PHP Extension to correct the orientation of images uploaded to WordPress. Finding that the installation wasn’t a doddle, I wrote a blog post entitled Installing Imagick for PHP 7 on Windows 10. It appears that this post is quite popular. 6 years later on I’ve decided that it might be a good idea to write a more up to date post. This time it’s for PHP 8.0 and Windows 10; it may also work on Windows 11.
The secret to the installation was finding the correct hint for the location of the ImageMagick binary files upon which the Imagick PHP extension is dependent.
I hope that you’ll find these notes to be useful.
Overview
- Imagick is a native PHP extension to create and modify images using the ImageMagick API.
- It provides a DLL that you need to install as an extension to your PHP installation.
For my PHP 8 installation…
- I followed my own instructions and picked the versions I needed for my current version of PHP.
- I had to modify the instructions slightly.
- I didn’t have as many problems.
- It appears you no longer need to install ImageMagick for the Imagick PHP extension to work.
Installation
- Determine your version of PHP, whether or not it’s Thread Safe, and the architecture.
- Download the Imagick extension you need.
- Extract the .dll files from the Imagick extension zip file.
- Change
php.inito enable thephp_imagickextension. - Reboot.
- Test.
If you want to be able to use ImageMagick’s programs, such as IMDisplay.exe
- Download the compatible version of ImageMagick.
- Install ImageMagick to a directory of your choice.
- Set the environment to enable the ImageMagick DLLs to be found.
Determine your version of PHP
Use php -i to run phpinfo() and look at the first few lines of the output
phpinfo() PHP Version => 8.0.2 System => Windows NT SB 10.0 build 19043 (Windows 10) AMD64 Build Date => Feb 3 2021 18:29:02 Build System => Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard [10.0.14393] Compiler => Visual C++ 2019 Architecture => x64 ... Debug Build => no Thread Safety => enabled Thread API => Windows Threads ...
Download the Imagick extension you need
- Visit http://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/releases/imagick/
- Download a version compatible with your version of PHP.
- eg
php_imagick-3.7.0-8.0-ts-vs16-x64.zipwhich is the Thread Safe version for x64 architecture.
Extract the .dlls from the Imagick extension .zip file
Since PHP extensions are loaded dynamically, you need to tell PHP where to find them. It doesn’t use the PATH for this. You either need to fully qualify the file name or define the extension_dir directive.
For php_imagick.dll to be loadable all the DLLs upon which it is statically dependent also need to be accessible.
When ImageMagick is installed then you will be using its DLLs. In the mean time you need to extract all of them, ensuring that they are in a directory that’s in your PATH.
You have several options:
- Copy the files into a directory that’s already in your PATH,
- add the directory to your PATH,
- or both.
I chose to install all the .dll files into C:\Imagick and added that directory to my PATH, after the entry for C:\php.
Change php.ini to enable the php_imagick extension
Determine the directory for extensions by checking for the extension_dir directive in your phpinfo output.
... Directive => Local Value => Master Value ... extension_dir => C:\php\ext => C:\php\ext ...
If the top level directory doesn’t match that from which PHP is run then you should either correct the local value or fully qualify the file name of the extension.
Since I’d extracted the DLLs into C:\Imagick, I fully qualified the entry in the php.ini file.
extension=c:\Imagick/php_imagick.dll
Reboot
Rebooting is the simplest way of ensuring that your system notices the changes you have made.
If you’re just running PHP from the Command Prompt you should be able to get away with closing one and opening a new Command Prompt.
Or you may choose to use ApacheMonitor to stop and restart your web server. But this may not pick up system environment changes.
Test
- Check your phpinfo() output shows a non-zero value for
ImageMagick number of supported formats. You should see something like this
ImageMagick number of supported formats: => 263
- Also test phpinfo from your browser. Expect the same result.
- Try some code.
Test in WordPress Site Health
Use the WordPress Site Health tool ( Dashboard > Tools > Site Health > Info tab ) to confirm the Active editor for Media Handling.
Active editor: GD
Initially, before installing Imagick, the value could be WP_Image_Editor_GD.
Active editor: Imagick
With Imagick correctly configured the Active editor becomes WP_Image_Editor_imagick.
Download the compatible version of ImageMagick
With the extension installed it is now possible to determine the version of ImageMagick upon which php_imagick.dll is dependent.
Run php -i and check the output.
imagick imagick module => enabled imagick module version => 3.7.0 imagick classes => Imagick, ImagickDraw, ImagickPixel, ImagickPixelIterator, ImagickKernel Imagick compiled with ImageMagick version => ImageMagick 7.1.0-18 Q16 x64 2021-12-14 https://imagemagick.org Imagick using ImageMagick library version => ImageMagick 7.1.0-18 Q16 x64 2021-12-14 https://imagemagick.org ImageMagick copyright => (C) 1999-2021 ImageMagick Studio LLC ImageMagick release date => 2021-12-14 ImageMagick number of supported formats: => 263 ImageMagick supported formats => 3FR, 3G2, 3GP, AAI, AI, APNG, ART, ARW, ASHLAR, AVI, AVIF, AVS, BGR, BGRA, BGRO, BIE, BMP, BMP2, BMP3, BRF, CAL, CALS, CANVAS, CAPTION, CIN, CIP, CLIP, CLIPBOARD, CMYK, CMYKA, CR2, CR3, CRW, CUBE, CUR, CUT, DATA, DCM, DCR, DCRAW, DCX, DDS, DFONT, DJVU, DNG, DOT, DPS, DPX, DXT1, DXT5, EMF, EPDF, EPI, EPS, EPS2, EPS3, EPSF, EPSI, EPT, EPT2, EPT3, ERF, EXR, FARBFELD, FAX, FF, FILE, FITS, FL32, FLIF, FLV, FPX, FRACTAL, FTP, FTS, G3, G4, GIF, GIF87, GRADIENT, GRAY, GRAYA, GROUP4, GV, HALD, HDR, HEIC, HEIF, HISTOGRAM, HRZ, HTM, HTML, HTTP, HTTPS, ICB, ICO, ICON, IIQ, INFO, INLINE, IPL, ISOBRL, ISOBRL6, J2C, J2K, JBG, JBIG, JNG, JNX, JP2, JPC, JPE, JPEG, JPG, JPM, JPS, JPT, JSON, JXL, K25, KDC, KERNEL, LABEL, M2V, M4V, MAC, MAP, MASK, MAT, MATTE, MEF, MIFF, MKV, MNG, MONO, MOV, MP4, MPC, MPEG, MPG, MRW, MSL, MSVG, MTV, MVG, NEF, NRW, NULL, ORA, ORF, OTB, OTF, PAL, PALM, PAM, PANGO, PATTERN, PBM, PCD, PCDS, PCL, PCT, PCX, PDB, PDF, PDFA, PEF, PES, PFA, PFB, PFM, PGM, PGX, PHM, PICON, PICT, PIX, PJPEG, PLASMA, PNG, PNG00, PNG24, PNG32, PNG48, PNG64, PNG8, PNM, POCKETMOD, PPM, PS, PS2, PS3, PSB, PSD, PTIF, PWP, RADIAL-GRADIENT, RAF, RAS, RAW, RGB, RGB565, RGBA, RGBO, RGF, RLA, RLE, RMF, RSVG, RW2, SCR, SCREENSHOT, SCT, SFW, SGI, SHTML, SIX, SIXEL, SPARSE-COLOR, SR2, SRF, STEGANO, SUN, SVG, SVGZ, TEXT, TGA, THUMBNAIL, TIFF, TIFF64, TILE, TIM, TM2, TTC, TTF, TXT, UBRL, UBRL6, UIL, UYVY, VDA, VICAR, VID, VIFF, VIPS, VST, WBMP, WEBM, WEBP, WMF, WMV, WPG, X3F, XBM, XC, XCF, XPM, XPS, XV, YAML, YCbCr, YCbCrA, YUV Directive => Local Value => Master Value imagick.allow_zero_dimension_images => 0 => 0 imagick.locale_fix => 0 => 0 imagick.progress_monitor => 0 => 0 imagick.set_single_thread => 1 => 1 imagick.shutdown_sleep_count => 10 => 10 imagick.skip_version_check => 0 => 0
The version of ImageMagick you will need is shown in “Imagick compiled with ImageMagick version”.
Now you won’t find what you’re looking for at www.imagemagick.org.
You need to go to https://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/deps/
The file I downloaded was ImageMagick-7.1.0-18-vc15-x64.zip
Install ImageMagick to a directory of your choice
- Extract the whole of the
bindirectory from the ImageMagick zip file to a directory of your choice. I choseC:\ImageMagick\bin.
Set the environment to enable the ImageMagick DLLs to be found
Use “Edit the system environment variables” to edit the System variables section.
- From the command prompt run
SystemPropertiesAdvanced. - Add an entry to the
PATHfor ImageMagick ensuring it is before the entry for the PHP extensions. - Add an entry for
MAGICK_HOMEsetting it to the ImageMagick home directory.
Basic problem determination
If you get the following when running php -i
Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'C:\Imagick/php_imagick.dll' (tried: C:\Imagick/php_imagick.dll (The specified module could not be found), C:\php\ext\php_C:\Imagick/php_imagick.dll.dll (The specified module could not be found)) in Unknown on line 0
then you will need to make sure the dependent DLLs are correctly installed.
In phpinfo output, if you do not have the correct version of ImageMagick installed and configured then you will probably see
ImageMagick number of supported formats: => 0 ImageMagick supported formats =>
Summary of downloads
| Component | URL | Version required |
|---|---|---|
| PHP 8.0.18 is the latest version | https://windows.php.net/download/ | VS16 x64 Non Thread Safe (2022-Apr-13 08:25:56)php-8.0.18-nts-Win32-vs16-x64.zip |
| Imagick extension | https://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/releases/imagick/ | php_imagick-3.7.0-8.0-ts-vs16-x64.zip |
| ImageMagick runtime | https://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/deps/ | ImageMagick-7.1.0-18-vc15-x64.zip |
My local installation
| Directory/File | Contains |
|---|---|
| C:\php | PHP 8.0.2 thread safe x64 |
| C:\php\php.ini | PHP Configuration file |
| C:\php\ext | PHP extensions. |
| C:\Imagick | php_imagick.dll and associated files (.DLL and .PDB) |
| C:\ImageMagick\bin | ImageMagick runtime. This folder includes the same DLLs as in C:\Imagick with the exception of php_imagick.dll |
Environment variables
| Variable | Purpose | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| PATH | System path | Includes C:\ImageMagick\bin, C:\php, C:\php\ext and C:\Imagick in that order |
| MAGICK_HOME | ImageMagick home | C:\ImageMagick\bin |
References
See also Installing Imagick for PHP 7 on Windows 10
- ImageMagick
- PHP Image Processing and Generation
- Imagick PHP extension Imagick/imagick