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libvips — high-throughput image processing

libvips is a streaming image-processing library tuned for large and many images: low memory, partial reads, parallel pipelines. Where ImageMagick loads each image fully into RAM, libvips streams pixels through the operations it actually needs. At ~1k+ images or for any image bigger than a few hundred MB, it's the right tool. Bundled here under installMediaTools=true together with ffmpeg, ImageMagick, and ExifTool.

  • Install:
  • macOS — Homebrew (brew install vips), managed by dot_ansible/roles/media_tools/tasks/main.yml when installMediaTools=true.
  • Linux — apt (sudo apt install libvips-tools), same role / same flag. The -tools package ships the CLIs (vips, vipsthumbnail, vipsedit, vipsheader); the bare libvips42 package is library-only.
  • Verify: vips --version and vipsthumbnail --version.
  • Status in this repo: opt-in via installMediaTools=true. No automation calls into it yet — it's there for when ImageMagick chokes.

When to pick libvips over ImageMagick

Situation Pick
Single image, complex composite / annotate ImageMagick
One-off resize / crop Either; ImageMagick is more familiar
Batch of 1k+ images libvips (often 5–10× faster, 1/10 the RAM)
Image > 500 MB / gigapixel scans libvips (ImageMagick may OOM)
Server-side thumbnail pipeline libvips (vipsthumbnail is purpose-built)
Interactive ad-hoc tweaks ImageMagick (better one-liners)

The two complement each other — having both installed is the default here.

vipsthumbnail — the killer app

Generate thumbnails from large images without ever loading the full pixel buffer:

# Single image — max 1280px on the long edge
vipsthumbnail input.jpg --size 1280 -o output.jpg

# Pin a width (height auto)
vipsthumbnail input.jpg --size '1280x'

# Pin a height (width auto)
vipsthumbnail input.jpg --size 'x720'

# Output template — write next to source as <name>_tn.jpg
vipsthumbnail *.jpg --size 320 -o '%s_tn.jpg'

# Custom output dir
vipsthumbnail *.jpg --size 320 -o 'thumbs/%s.jpg[Q=85]'

%s in the output template expands to the input basename (without extension). The [Q=85] suffix sets JPEG quality.

For raw camera files / TIFFs / WebP / HEIC — vipsthumbnail picks the right loader automatically and only decodes the region needed for the target size.

vips — the operation runner

# Resize (preserves aspect)
vips resize input.jpg output.jpg 0.5     # half size

# Crop — left, top, width, height
vips crop input.jpg output.jpg 100 50 800 600

# Rotate
vips rot input.jpg output.jpg d90        # 90° clockwise; d180 / d270

# Flip
vips flip input.jpg output.jpg horizontal

# Strip ICC + metadata on save (smaller files)
vips copy input.jpg output.jpg[strip,Q=85]

Saver options (Q=..., strip, interlace, optimize_coding, subsample_mode=...) go in [brackets] after the output path. Loaders use the same syntax (input.tif[page=2] for multi-page TIFFs).

Format-specific savers

# JPEG with custom quality
vips copy input.png output.jpg[Q=80,optimize_coding,strip]

# WebP (smaller, modern)
vips copy input.png output.webp[Q=80,strip,effort=4]

# AVIF (smallest, slowest encode)
vips copy input.png output.avif[Q=50,effort=6]

# Tiled / pyramid TIFF (zoomable on viewers like OpenSeadragon)
vips copy input.jpg output.tif[tile,pyramid,compression=jpeg,Q=85]

vips --vips-help-loaders and --vips-help-savers enumerate the full list.

Inspect

vipsheader input.jpg                     # one-line header
vipsheader -a input.jpg                  # all tags
vipsheader -f width input.jpg            # single field
vipsheader -f vips-loader input.jpg      # which loader was picked

Pipelines

libvips' streaming model means pipelines stay memory-bounded:

# Resize then jpeg → smaller file, never loads full image
vips resize input.tif output.jpg[Q=85] 0.25

# Sequential mode for huge files — reads top-to-bottom, can't seek backwards
vipsthumbnail huge_scan.tif --size 2000 -o thumb.jpg --intent perceptual

For Python (and other binding) usage see https://www.libvips.org/API/current/python.html. The CLI covers most batch needs.

Watch out

  • No convert input output — every operation has a verb (resize, crop, rot, …). Run vips list classes to enumerate.
  • Saver options live in brackets — output.jpg Q=85 does not work; output.jpg[Q=85] does. Easy to miss.
  • Color profiles — by default vips preserves embedded ICC profiles. Pass [strip] if downstream consumers don't handle them, or convert with vips icc_transform first.
  • Sequential mode lock-in — --intent perceptual etc. on vipsthumbnail switch to streaming mode. Random-access ops like center crop won't work in that mode; use vips for those.

See also