Get Image Dimensions from Command Line

By  on  

The command line is a gold mine if you come from the perspective of a UI lover.  Getting information from the shell instead of opening an app, finding a file or directory, etc...what a novel concept.  Opening different image files opens up different apps on my Mac and, as the kids say, "ffs" -- I just want to know the image dimensions.

Using ImageMagick you can find the dimensions of an image from command line:

# Get the size of a JPG
convert photo.jpg -print "Size: %wx%h\n" /dev/null
# Size: 600x872

# Get the size of a PSD
convert website-design.psd -print "Size: %wx%h\n" /dev/null
# Size: 990x1200

You can get the image dimensions of any image type from PNG to JPG to GIF to even PSDs.  And the resulting text is as plain as it could be.  Dimensions...here you are.

Recent Features

  • By
    Being a Dev Dad

    I get asked loads of questions every day but I'm always surprised that they're rarely questions about code or even tech -- many of the questions I get are more about non-dev stuff like what my office is like, what software I use, and oftentimes...

  • By
    Responsive Images: The Ultimate Guide

    Chances are that any Web designers using our Ghostlab browser testing app, which allows seamless testing across all devices simultaneously, will have worked with responsive design in some shape or form. And as today's websites and devices become ever more varied, a plethora of responsive images...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Telephone Link Protocol

    We've always been able to create links with protocols other than the usual HTTP, like mailto, skype, irc ,and more;  they're an excellent convenience to visitors.  With mobile phone browsers having become infinitely more usable, we can now extend that convenience to phone numbers: The tel...

  • By
    Create WordPress Page Templates with Custom Queries

    One of my main goals with the redesign was to make it easier for visitors to find the information that was most popular on my site. Not to my surprise, posts about MooTools, jQuery, and CSS were at the top of the list. What...

Discussion

  1. I like to use ImageMagick’s identify command. Easy to remember and gives the size along with some other helpful info:

    identify photo.jpg
    
  2. ennkay

    but that means having ImageMagick installed.

    on a mac you have the native sips command that returns info and modifies image files.
    ex. to get all sorts of info on an image just do:

    sips -g all  /Users/your_account/image_path.mime

    more info on sips available at:
    https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/sips.1.html

    • Wow, thanks for the heads up! I didn’t know about sips!

  3. Jose Miguel Pérez

    Wow! I always wonder why the command file is so unknown on the Mac?

    $ file test.psd
    test.psd: Adobe Photoshop Image, 918 x 445, RGB, 3x 8-bit channels
    

    No need to install anything! Use man file for more information. Works for every kind of files, not just images:

    $ find . -print0 | xargs -0 file
    .:                                     directory
    ./.DS_Store:                           Apple Desktop Services Store
    ./Designs:                             directory
    ./Designs/.DS_Store:                   Apple Desktop Services Store
    ./Designs/Web Structure.txt:           UTF-8 Unicode text
    ./Designs/WebContents.docx:            Microsoft Word 2007+
    ./Designs/WebContents.rar:             RAR archive data, v1d, os: Win32
    ./Designs/OCMWeb02:                    directory
    ./Designs/OCMWeb02/.DS_Store:          Apple Desktop Services Store
    ./Designs/OCMWeb02/OcmWeb07Copy.png:   PNG image data, 973 x 984, 8-bit/color RGB, non-interlaced
    ./Designs/OCMWeb02/OcmWeb10Backup.png: PNG image data, 975 x 877, 8-bit/color RGB, non-interlaced
    ./Designs/Logos - Testing 2.ai:        PDF document, version 1.5
    ./Designs/Testing Cards.ai:            PDF document, version 1.5
    [...]
    

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!