gmic-qt/STANDALONE.md

G'MIC-Qt standalone version HOWTO

The G'MIC-Qt GUI accepts several options on its command line, thus allowing simple batch processing. In short, command line usage is as follows:

• gmic_qt [OPTIONS ...] [INPUT_FILES ...]

More than basic single input file name specification, options allow batch processing using the G'MIC filters, with or without the help of the GUI.

Command line parameters

Option -o --output FILE

Instead of displaying the output image in a dialog with a "Save as..." button, the application will save the filter output in the specified file. If multiple input files are provided, it is suggested to include one of the %b or %f placeholders in the specified filename so that all output images will be written to distinct files :

• %b is the input file basename, that is the filename with no extension and no path.
• %f is the input file filename (without path).

If, on the other hand, multiple layers are expected as output, the %l placeholder will be replaced by the layer number in each output file (0 is top layer).

Examples

# Launch the GUI, save output to output.png
$ ./gmic_qt --output output.png input.png
# Select a filter and its parameters twice (i.e. once for each input), save each output to a distinct file.
$ ./gmic_qt --output processed-%f input1.png input2.png
# Save the expected output layers in layer_0.png, layer_1.png, ...
$ ./gmic_qt -o /tmp/layer_%l.png -p "Layers/Tiles to Layers" gmicky.png

Option -q --quality N

Set the quality of JPEG output files to N (N in 0..100).

Example

# Select a filter through the GUI and save the result using 85 quality factor.
$ ./gmic_qt --quality 85 --output blured-gmicky.jpg gmicky.png
# Select a filter through the GUI, do not ask for JPEG quality when "Saving as..."
$ ./gmic_qt --quality 85  gmicky.png

Option -r --repeat

Use last applied filter and parameters.

Example

# Select a filter & its parameters from GUI, then apply.
$ ./gmic_qt gmicky.png
# Call the GUI with previously applied filter & parameters, output will be written to result.png
$ ./gmic_qt --repeat --output result.png  hat.png

Option -p --path FILTER_PATH|FILTER_NAME

• Select filter from a full path in the filter tree or from its name (if unique). A filter path begins with /, like for example /Black & White/Charcoal.

Example

# Launch GUI with selected filter
$ ./gmic_qt --path "/Black & White/Charcoal" gmicky.png
# Apply Charcoal filter with default parameters to image, then
# save result to charcoal-gmic.png
$ ./gmic_qt --path Charcoal --ouput charcoal-%f gmicky.png

Option -c --command "GMIC COMMAND"

Run the gmic command on input image(s).

If a filter name/path is provided (option -p) and the command matches with this filter, or no filter name/path is provided and the command matches with some filter, then the parameters are completed using the filter's defaults.

If the command does not match with a filter, the option --apply (see below) is highly recommended as the GUI will not be of any help. Of course, batch processing is possible through the extra option --output.

Examples

# Launch GUI with filter "/Black & White/Charcoal", using 30 as its first parameter and default values otherwise.
$ ./gmic_qt -c "fx_charcoal 30" input.png
# Batch process to blur several images, showing each output with a "Save as..." option
$ ./gmic_qt -c "blur 10" images/*.png
# Batch process to blur several images, writing output images in distinct files
$ ./gmic_qt -o output/%b-blurred.jpg -c "blur 10" images/*.png

Option --apply

Apply filter or command without showing the main plugin dialog for filter & parameters selection. One of the following options must therefore be present: --path, --command or --repeat.

Examples

# Shows up the resulting image dialog (image to be saved).
$ ./gmic_qt --apply -c "blur 10"  input.png
# Just do the processing, no question asked
$ ./gmic_qt --apply --path "Black & White/Charcoal" --output output.jpg input.jpg
# Select a filter and parameters through GUI, than batch process
$ ./gmic_qt --output test.png inputs/input1.png
$ ./gmic_qt --repeat --apply --ouput output/%f input/*.png

In fact, there is a command dedicated to the latter sample use case: --first

Option --reapply-first -R

Launch the GUI once for the first input file, then reapply selected filter and parameters to all other files like --repeat --apply would do.

Examples

# Select a filter and parameters through GUI, than batch process to all input files
$ ./gmic_qt --reapply-first --output output/%f input/*.png
# Tune the Charcoal filter's parameters through the GUI, than batch process to all input files
$ ./gmic_qt -R -p "Charcoal" -o output/%f input/*.png

Option --show-last

Print last applied plugin parameters

Example

$ ./gmic_qt --apply -p "Charcoal" -c "fx_charcoal 56" input.png
$ ./gmic_qt --show-last
Path: /Black & White/Charcoal
Name: Charcoal
Command: fx_charcoal 56,70,170,0,1,0,50,70,255,255,255,0,0,0,0,0,50,50
InputMode: 1
OutputMode: 0

Option --show-last-after

Print last applied plugin parameters after filter execution. (Indeed, some filters may change the value of their parameters.)

Option --layers

Consider multiple input files as layers of the same image (first image is the top layer).

$ ./gmic_qt -p "Blend [Average All]" --layers --apply -o output.png toplayer.png middlelayer.png bottomlayer.png