[wp-hackers] [GSoC Proposal] ImageMagick Support

[scribu]

Thought I'd try out for GSoC this year. Here's the first part of my
proposal. Let me know what you think:

 Motivation

WordPress uses the GD library to generate thumbnails of uploaded images, as
well as allow users to edit these images directly from the admin area.

The problem is that if the GD library is missing, these features will not be
available. Even worse, there’s no easy way for plugins to replace the GD
library dependency with something else.

ImageMagick <http://www.php.net/manual/en/intro.imagick.php> is an
alternative to GD library, with similar capabilities. Having support for
both would make WordPress fully compatible with a wider range of server
configurations.
Technical Approach

I plan to use the same pattern as the excellent WP_Http class: An interface
class that defines the required functionality and a separate child class for
each library.

GD library would be the primary one, while ImageMagick would be a fallback.

Users would be able to choose which library they want to use, when both are
available.

More importantly, plugins could easily extend the available functionality
and even add support for other libraries.


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