Home/ Questions/Q 7444727
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-29T11:34:32+00:00

How can you use imagemagick from python without opening a new command line window

  • 0

How can you use imagemagick from python without opening a new command line window and losing focus?

This loop show the problem; the system becomes unusable while working on images because you lose focus with every system call:

for i in range(0,100,1):
    image = 'convert -background '+'black'+' -fill '+'white'+' -font '+'arial'+' -size '+'50'+'x50'+' -encoding utf8'+' -gravity center caption'+':'+'"just stole your focus"'+' '+'C:/'+'testFile.png'
    os.system(image)

‘start /min’ or ‘/b’ only minimize the window quickly, so you still lose focus. And for some reason I don’t get an output file if I put these before ‘image’.

Is there some way to use os.system, os.spawnv, subprocess.Popen or another system command to call imagemagick in the background?

I read about PythonMagickWand but only found install directions for nix: Python bindings for ImageMagick’s MagickWand API

Can I install/compile these bindings under windows? If so, how?

Edit: MRAB’s solution:

import os
import subprocess

# Start all the processes.
processes = []
# Define directories
convertDir = 'C:/Program Files/ImageMagick-6.7.5-Q16/convert.exe'
outputDir = 'C:/test/'
outputFileName = 'testFile_look_ma_no_windows_'
if not os.path.exists(outputDir):
    os.makedirs(outputDir)

for i in range(100):
    outputDirFile = outputDir+outputFileName+str(i)+'.png'
    image = convertDir+' '+'-background'+' '+'blue'+' '+'-fill'+' '+'white'+' '+'-font'+' '+'arial,'+' '+'-size '+' '+'50x50'+' '+'-encoding'+' '+'utf8'+' '+'-gravity'+' '+'center'+' '+'caption:"did not steal your focus"'+' '+outputDirFile
    #CREATE_NO_WINDOW Flag: 0x08000000
    p = subprocess.Popen(image, creationflags=0x08000000)
    processes.append(p)

# Wait for all the processes to finish.
# Some may finish faster, so the files are out of order before all are done;
# if you need the files immediately, put p.wait after p = subprocess.Popen
# and comment out lines 5,18,24 and 25
for p in processes:
    p.wait()

print 'Done, created ',str(i+1),' images in ',outputDir
Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    subprocesses.Popen is the recommended way to do it:

    # Start all the processes.
processes = []
for i in range(100):
    p = subprocess.Popen(['convert', '-background', 'black', '-fill', 'white', '-font', 'arial', '-size', '50x50', '-encoding', 'utf8', '-gravity', 'center', 'caption:"just stole your focus"', 'C:/testFile.png'])
    processes.append(p)

# Wait for all the processes to finish.
for p in processes:
    p.wait()
    • 0