- Unix Commands Reference
- Unix - Tutorial Home
animate Command in Linux
animate is a Linux command that you can use to create animations from images or image sequences on any X server. This command is used to display a series of images, you only have to provide a set of input images in JPEG, GIFs, and PNGs and the animate command will display them as an animation. It supports several options to control animation speed, looping and other parameters.
Table of Contents
- How to Install animate Command in Linux?
- Syntax for animate Command in Linux
- Available Options for animate Command in Linux
- Examples of animate Command in Linux
How to Install animate Command in Linux?
The animate command is a part of the ImageMagick suite that provides powerful tools for image manipulation and conversion. The ImageMagick tool is available in the official Linux repository and can be installed from the built-in Linux package manager.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, and Debian, the ImageMagick utility can be installed from the apt package manager using the following command −
sudo apt install imagemagick
The Red HAT and CentOS users can install ImageMagick tools on their system from the below-given command −
sudo yum install imagemagick
On Arch Linux, you can install the ImageMagick utility through the below-given command −
sudo pacman -S imagemagick
Once, you installed the ImageMagick utility, confirm whether animate command is working by running the following command −
animate --version
Syntax for animate Command in Linux
The basic syntax to use the animate command on Linux is given below −
animate [options] input-file
Here, the keyword animate will invoke the animate command on Linux. The [options] are flags or parameters that will customize the behavior of the animation. The input-file is the image file or a sequence of image files that you want to animate on your Linux system.
Available Options for animate Command in Linux
Following are the available options for animate command −
Image Settings
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -authenticate value | Decrypt an image using the specified password. |
| -backdrop | Display the image or image sequence centered on a specified backdrop color. |
| -channel type | Apply specific options to select image channels. |
| -colormap type | Specify whether the colormap is shared or private. |
| -colorspace type | Specify an alternate color space for your image or animation. |
| -decipher filename | Transform cipher pixels to plain pixels. |
| -define format:option | Specify one or multiple image format options. |
| -delay value | Specify the time delay of centiseconds between the animation frames. |
| -density geometry | Specify the vertical and horizontal density of the image. |
| -depth value | Specify the depth of the image. |
| -display server | Display the image or animation to the specified X server. |
| -dispose method | Determine how each animation frame is handled after display. |
| -dither method | Perform error diffusion on the image. |
| -format "string" | Allows you to output formatted image characteristics. |
| -gamma value | Controls the level of gamma correction applied to the animation. |
| -geometry geometry | Allows you to specify the dimension and position of the animation window. |
| -gravity type | Specify vertical and horizontal backdrop placement. |
| -identify | Server to identify the characteristics and format of the image or animation. |
| -immutable | Prohibit any edits or modifications to the image. |
| -interlace type | Indicate the type of image interlacing scheme. |
| -interpolate method | Indicate the method used for pixel color interpolation. |
| -limit type value | Set a pixel cache resource limit. |
| -loop iterations | Loop images and then exit. |
| -matte | Enables the preservation of the matte channel in the image when available. |
| -map type | Display the image using a Standard Colormap. |
| -monitor | Provide real-time monitoring during animation. |
| -pause seconds | Specify the duration to pause before reanimating. |
| -page geometry | Set the location and size of an image canvas (setting). |
| -quantize colorspace | Minimize the number of colors within the specified color space. |
| -quiet | Prevents all warning messages from being displayed during animation. |
| -regard-warnings | Carefully check the warning messages and pay attention to them. |
| -remote command | Run a command in a remote display process. |
| -sampling-factor geometry | Set the vertical and horizontal sampling factor for image processing. |
| -scenes range | Specify the range of scenes (frames) within an image or animation. |
| -seed value | Seed a new sequence of pseudo-random numbers. |
| -set attribute value | Set specific attributes for an image, such as resolution, color profile, or compression quality. |
| -size geometry | Set the height and width of the image. |
| -support factor | Resize support (values greater than 1.0 are blurry, less than 1.0 are sharp). |
| -transparent-color color | Define a transparent color. |
| -treedepth value | Set the color tree depth. |
| -verbose | Provide detailed information about the image processing steps. |
| -visual type | Specify the visual type to use when displaying an image. |
| -virtual-pixel method | Specify the method for accessing virtual pixels. |
| -window id | Display the image in the background of the specified window. |
Image Operators
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -colors value | Specify the preferred color count for the image. |
| -crop geometry | Set the desired location and size of the cropped image. |
| -extract geometry | Extract an area from the image. |
| -monochrome | Convert the image to black and white. |
| -repage geometry | Adjust the size and position of the image canvas. |
| -resample geometry | Alter the image resolution. |
| -resize geometry | Change the image dimensions. |
| -rotate degrees | Apply rotation to the image. |
| -strip | Remove all profiles and comments from the image. |
| -trim | Trim the image edges. |
Image Sequence Operators
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -coalesce | Merge an image sequence into a single animation. |
| -flatten | Combine multiple layers or frames into a single image. |
Miscellaneous Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -debug events | Displays detailed debugging information during image processing. |
| -help | Prints program options and usage instructions. |
| -log format | Specify the debugging information format. |
| -list type | Display a list of available option arguments. |
| -version | Output the version details. |
Additional Options
You can also use standard X resources as command-line options, for example, -background, -borderwidth, -bordercolor, -foreground, -font, -iconic, -iconGeometry, -name, -mattecolor, -shared-memory, or -title.
Image Format
Typically, a file’s image format is identified by its unique magic number (file signature). To explicitly specify an image format, prefix the filename with the format name followed by a colon (e.g., ps:image) or provide the format explicitly.
Examples of animate Command in Linux
Let’s discuss a few examples of animate command on Linux −
- Animate an Image
- Animate a Directory of Images
- Control the Animation Speed
- Resize Image in the Animation
- Animate Images with a Specific Background Color
- Animate Images with a Specific Geometry
- Animate Images with Progress Monitoring
- Animate Images with Transparency
Animate an Image
One of the basic operations of the animate command is to simply animate an image. You can do this by using the animate command with the name of the image file, including the format. For example, let’s animate an image file image.png on Linux by using the following command −
animate image.png
Animate a Directory of Images
Besides animating a single image, you can also use the animate command to simultaneously animate multiple images on your Linux system. For that purpose, you must use the wild card * option with the image format you want to animate. For example, if you want to animate png images on your Linux system, you can use the following command −
animate *.png
Note − Ensure multiple png files are there at the same location. It will animate only those images that are placed at the current location.
Control the Animation Speed
You can also control the animation speed of your image to make the animation more enjoyable or easier to understand for viewers. You can do this using the animate command followed by the -delay option, your desired delay value and the image name with the format.
For example, let’s add a delay between frames in hundredths of a second for the image named image.png using the below-given command −
animate -delay 20 image.png
Resize Image in the Animation
To optimize performance and increase the image loading time, you can also resize your image in the animation using the animate command. For that purpose, use the -resize option with the resize percentage followed by the image name you want to animate. As an example, let’s resize (reduce) the image named image.png to 50% on Linux from the following command −
animate -resize 50% image.png
Animate Images with a Specific Background Color
You can also animate the images with a specific background color on your Linux system with the animate command. This requires the use of -background option followed by the background color and the name of the image file you want to animate. For example, let’s animate the image named image.png with a specific background color ‘skyblue’ using the following command −
animate -background 'skyblue' image.png
Animate Images with a Specific Geometry
To ensure your image fits precisely within a particular area of the screen, you can animate it with a specific geometry using the animate command. For that, you must use the -geometry option followed by the animation window and desired coordinates positions, and image name you want to animate. Let’s animate the image name image.png with a specific geometry with the size of the animation window to 800x600 and positions it at coordinates (150,250) using the following command −
animate -geometry 800x600+150+250 image.png
Animate Images with Progress Monitoring
For immediate feedback and troubleshooting purposes, you can animate the image with the progress monitoring using the animate command with -monitor option. We will take the same image file named image.png and monitor progress on the terminal with the -monitor option −
animate -monitor image.png
Animate Images with Transparency
To provide a visual appeal and professional finish to your image, you can also animate an image with transparency using the -matte option with the animate command. The following example will animate the image named image.png with transparency on your Linux system −
animate -matte image.png
That’s how you can animate your images with the animate command on your Linux system.
Conclusion
animate is a powerful command that you can use by installing the ImageMagick utility on your Linux systems. There are tons of options you can use with the animate command to customize your image according to your desired need.
We have explored 8 different examples of animate command on Linux to help you better understand how to use different options of this command. You can explore more options according to your need, animate your image and give it a professional look right from the Linux terminal.