# \[ANN\] SmartImage 0.0.4 - simple yet powerful cross-platform thumbnail generation and image manipulation in Ruby

**URL:** <https://rubytalk.org/t/ann-smartimage-0-0-4-simple-yet-powerful-cross-platform-thumbnail-generation-and-image-manipulation-in-ruby/59135>\
**Category:** ruby-talk\
**Created:** [10 July 2010 04:13 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/ann-smartimage-0-0-4-simple-yet-powerful-cross-platform-thumbnail-generation-and-image-manipulation-in-ruby/59135 "2010-07-10T04:13:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tony\_Arcieri4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c77e96/32.png) [@Tony\_Arcieri4](https://rubytalk.org/u/Tony_Arcieri4)\
**Post date:** [10 July 2010 04:13 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/ann-smartimage-0-0-4-simple-yet-powerful-cross-platform-thumbnail-generation-and-image-manipulation-in-ruby/59135/1 "2010-07-10T04:13:05Z")

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"It's like a Swiss Army Knife for images, but one of those tiny ones you can  
keep on your keychain" AND YES, it works with Rails!

SmartImage is an image processing/compositing/thumbnailing Ruby with the  
following design goals:

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Completely seamless installation and usage across all Ruby  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;implementations, with an emphasis on MRI and JRuby  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Expose a small but powerful and easy-to-understand API  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Easy to extend with support for multiple image compositing backends  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(presently RMagick and Java Graphics2D)

That's cool, so what can it do?

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Create thumbnails (even in your Ruby on Rails application!)  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Scale images  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Composite multiple images into a single image  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Convert between various image formats (.png, .jpg, and .gif presently  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;supported)  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Apply alpha masks to an image

Why should I use SmartImage instead of RMagick, ImageScience, etc?

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- You want a more powerful and more cross-platform library than  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ImageScience  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- You want a library with a less mind-bogglingly bloated API than RMagick  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- You're considering a move to an alternative Ruby implementation like  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;JRuby and want an image library that works seamlessly between MRI, JRuby,  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and other Ruby implementations

> **···**
>
> --
> 
> v0.0.4 release notes:
> 
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Fixed bug in processing alpha channel of JRuby canvas objects when  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;saving .jpgs, causing color channel corruption.  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Fixed bug in SmartImage.thumbnail\_file where images are always saved as  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.pngs regardless of the specified file extension.
> 
> --  
> Tony Arcieri  
> Medioh! A Kudelski Brand