Getting ImageMagick (Imagick) installed on XAMPP 1.7.3

I have a nifty virtual app server in-house that I like to write off and have one VM of XP running on, so for development I put out a quick Xampp 1.7.3 deploy. Alas I was shocked and horrified, well surprised, to find that Imagick was not pre-compiled (ya, xampp is compiled in case you didn’t know). No biggie I hoped over to the nice folks at http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php and grabbed the latest binary for ImageMagick-6.6.4-9-Q16-windows-dll.exe Installed and restarted Apache, service crashed out. Some quick reads and I discovered php compiled in VC 6 and 9 mismatches had been creating quite a few headaches for the good folks out there. Here is a Fix:

• Head over to http://image_magick.veidrodis.com/image_magick/binaries/ and grab 6.5.4.6-Q16 (excellent mirror, THANKS!)
• Install on XAMPP machine to directory /XAMPP/ImageMagick/
• Ensure you have add path selected during install, or manually add path)
• Grab a matching DLL which you can find HERE (Linked to php_imagick.dll, TS on http://www.sk89q.com/2010/03/vc6-windows-binaries-for-imagick-2-3-0/)
• Edit your PHP.INI, uncomment or add-> extension=php_imagick.dll (php.ini found in xampproot/php/
• Stop apache, save work, restart machine
• You should have no error upon boot, if version mismatch ensure you have not had a prior version of Imagick installed
• Create a test script to ensure your running right

<?php

$im = new Imagick();

$im->newPseudoImage(1000, 1000, “magick:rose”);

$im->setImageFormat(“png”);

$im->roundCorners(12,8);

$type=$im->getFormat();

header(“Content-type: $type”);

echo $im->getimageblob();

?>

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Now back to some actual work….