Posted by Russell Eberhardt on 19/03/2021 09:31:10:
Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 18/03/2021 16:34:23:
The easiest way on Linux to convert images to different formats is with the imagemajick package. On ubuntu,
- open a terminal with ctrl-alt-t
- Type:
- sudo apt update
- sudo apt upgrade
- sudo apt install imagemagick
Then:
convert filename.bmp filename.jpg
does what's expected – convert
Not sure that's the easiest way for beginners! Yes Imagemagick is a very versatile bit of software but is command line only. Perhaps an easier way would be to install Converscreen which acts as a graphical front end ti Imagemagick and will convert and resize almost any image format. Even works on Windows as well!
Russell
It's the great debate Russel. The advantage of a GUI is the operator doesn't have to remember a shower of options, and instead chooses menus, selects from lists, sets radio buttons, and fills in a form. And any decent implementation will provide good online help too.
Nonetheless, provided you know what you're doing, command line methods often faster to invoke and more efficient in operation. They do away with a multitude of overheads, but unfortunately the command line does require the operator to understand the manual, which is often hard work. The big advantage of commands is they can be scripted, making it possible to fully automate complex processes. For example, from the command line, it's quite easy to select and convert groups of files. For example, creating a thumbnail gif of every jpeg on my computer would take weeks of manual pointing and clicking with a GUI, and minutes with the command line.
Like all other tools, horses for courses, and ust as one wouldn't buy a lathe just to make one M4 sctew it would be daft to learn command line methods for occassional tweaks, But for many puropses the command line usefully powerful, and not as scary as it first appears. Lots of people still love MS-DOS…
Dave