What is FreeImage ?

FreeImage is an Open Source library project for developers who would like to support popular graphics image formats like PNG, BMP, JPEG, TIFF and others as needed by today's multimedia applications. FreeImage is easy to use, fast, multithreading safe, and cross-platform (works with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X).

This GitHub Fork/Patch of FreeImage

• Numerous Sub-Dependancy patches (Security/Bugs/Latest)
• With patches applied from nVidia Devs and OpenSource additions
• CMake Build ability allowing compiling easily for all targets and platforms

Thanks to it's ANSI C interface, FreeImage is usable in many languages including C, C++, VB, C#, Delphi, Java and also in common scripting languages such as Perl, Python, PHP, TCL, Lua or Ruby. The library comes in two versions: a binary DLL distribution that can be linked against any WIN32/WIN64 C/C++ compiler and a source distribution. Built with CMake for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and other systems - see Building this fork below, including generating Visual Studio project files.

Why use FreeImage instead of linking each format library yourself?

Loading a PNG, a GIF and a JPEG from scratch in C++ means three different APIs (libpng, giflib-or-hand-rolled-LZW, libjpeg), three different error-handling conventions, and three sets of build flags to get right across platforms. FreeImage wraps all of the libraries below behind one API - one FreeImage_Load()/FreeImage_Save() pair, one pixel format model (FIBITMAP), one metadata API (EXIF/IPTC/XMP) - so format-specific code doesn't leak into the rest of your application. Swapping a PNG for a WebP, or reading a RAW file the same way you read a BMP, is a one-line change rather than a new dependency.

This fork additionally builds the whole stack (FreeImage plus every bundled library) from one CMakeLists.txt, so find_package(FreeImage) is the only thing a consuming CMake project needs - see Using compiled binaries below.

Supported formats & bundled libraries

Formats implemented directly in FreeImage's own plugin code (no external library): BMP, ICO, TARGA/TGA, PCX, DDS, GIF, PSD, PICT, PFM, RAS/Sun Raster, SGI, XBM, XPM, Amiga IFF/LBM, Kodak PCD, PNM/PBM/PGM/PPM, CUT, and WBMP.

Everything else is backed by a bundled, patched copy of the format's reference library - each can also be linked against a system copy instead via the matching USE_SYSTEM_*/BUILD_* CMake option (see CMakeLists.txt):

Formats	Library	Bundled version
PNG	libpng (+ zlib)	1.6.58 (zlib 1.3.2)
JPEG	libjpeg (IJG)	10
TIFF	libtiff	4.7.1
JPEG 2000 (J2K/JP2)	OpenJPEG	2.5.4
OpenEXR (HDR)	OpenEXR (+ Imath)	3.3.13 (Imath 3.1.12)
WebP	libwebp	current (see Source/LibWebP)
Camera RAW	LibRaw	0.22.1
JPEG-XR (Windows by default, see Building this fork)	jxrlib	-

Original Source Code Upstream

https://sourceforge.net/projects/freeimage Original library can be found : https://freeimage.sourceforge.io

Status

Building this fork

By default, JPEG-XR support is only included on Windows, but not on other platforms.

Simply build it

cmake . -B cmake-build
cmake --build cmake-build # On Linux, add -j$(nproc) for multicore build

Platform-specific examples

Linux (gcc) / macOS (clang)

cmake -S . -B build -DBUILD_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build -- -j$(nproc)   # macOS: -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

Windows (MSVC, Visual Studio toolchain)

cmake -S . -B build -DBUILD_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=17
cmake --build build --config Debug

See Generate Visual Studio project files below for opening the solution directly in the IDE.

Windows (MinGW, e.g. a toolchain already on PATH)

cmake -S . -B build -DBUILD_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -G "MinGW Makefiles"
cmake --build build

Windows (MinGW-w64 via MSYS2, see #30)

From an MSYS2 MINGW64 shell:

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-x86_64-ninja
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DBUILD_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build

Plain make (Linux, no CMake)

make -j$(nproc)

Generate Visual Studio project files

cmake --preset vs2022   # or: cmake --preset vs2026

Generates a full solution under build-vs2022/ (or build-vs2026/) - open FreeImage.sln from there in Visual Studio. See CMakePresets.json for the exact generator/options used.

Build and install Debug and Release configuration

cmake . -B cmake-build-debug -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=install_dir
cmake --build cmake-build-debug --config Debug --target install # Linux: -j$(nproc)

cmake . -B cmake-build-release -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=install_dir
cmake --build cmake-build-release --config Release --target install # Linux: -j$(nproc)

Now install_dir contains the compiled binaries for debug and release, as well as the header file and the CMake Config files.

Using compiled binaries

First, build and install it like explained above.

Then, in another project add the following CMake code:

set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH <freeimage_install_location>)
find_package(FreeImage CONFIG REQUIRED)
...
target_link_libraries(<your_target> PRIVATE FreeImage::FreeImage)

For find_package to work, simply set CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to the directory where the compiled binaries are installed (the install_dir folder from above).

Running tests

cmake . -B cmake-build-debug -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DBUILD_TESTS=ON
cmake --build cmake-build-debug --config Debug # Linux: -j$(nproc)
ctest --test-dir cmake-build-debug -C Debug # Optionally --rerun-failed --output-on-failure

This ctest command only works with CMake 3.20 or higher. For earlier versions, you must cd into cmake-build-debug and call ctest without --test-dir cmake-build-debug.