Imagick PHP extension error

[HenriParticipant]

Hi!

I had previous Symbiostock theme in my test WordPress site and it worked just fine. When I now tried to install Symbiostock plugin to my WordPress site I got following error message: “Symbiostock requires the Imagick PHP extension to run. Please install or enable Imagick.” I have a shared hosting account in OVH and I am not sure if I am able to install that extension. So is there something that I am able to do now?

My server configuration: http://cluster013.ovh.net/infos/ (I use php version 5.6.6)

Best regards,
Henri

Henri Pero Photography | My Symzio profile | My Facebook page

[RobinKeymaster]

Hey there Henri – I will look into your server config to see if OVH supports installing extensions on your behalf.

As it is, the new Symbiostock required Imagick for all image processing: http://www.symbiostock.org/docs/2015/05/01/installing-symbiostock/

This is because the built in processor, GD, does not process many image types (no TIFF, for example) and is also inferior in rendering colors.

[RobinKeymaster]

Hey Henri – I can’t find any information on OVH shared hosting and how they deal with special requests. I suggest you email them to see if they can install the imagick PHP extension for you.

If they aren’t able to help you, you can alternatively stay with your legacy install for the time being, or if you really want to use the new version, you can move to another host or use our PLUS hosting service.

Unfortunately, building the plugin with GD support would almost be like creating two different plugins, as you wouldn’t be able to process a myriad of different image types, the least of which are vectors.

[NandoPhotoParticipant]

Hi Robin,

Thank you for making the Legacy Importer available. I’m not sure what to do.

I’ve installed and activated it, but nothing seemed to change. Then I installed and activated the Symbiostock plugin, and I was asked to install WooCommerce (done) but still get the same message Henri about Imagick. I then installed and activated “ImageMagick Sharpen Resized Images” (is this what I should install?), but the message is still there…

Please can you help?

Nando.

[NandoPhotoParticipant]

Sorry, just ignore the previous email. I got in touch with my server people and they’ll pass the request to their engineers. In case they can’t help, is that the end of the line for me and Symbiostock? Is there a way around it?

[RobinKeymaster]

Hi Nando,

Here is some information I should share so you understand why a choice was made to go with Imagick.

Supported formats:

Imagick (over 100)
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/formats.php

GD (5)
http://php.net/manual/en/function.imagetypes.php

Most pertinently, GD has no support for vectors. This means all our illustrator and vector artist peers would not be able to use Symbiostock if I used GD.

Here is another article that explains that Imagick is faster at processing larger images, and the output quality is superior:

http://old.webasyst.net/support/help/gd-vs-imagick.html

To rework the plugin to only work with GD would involve a lot of coding. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the resources to do this. I think the best option for anyone who does not have access to Imagick on their current server would be to rent a low cost shared space with a host that does support it, or if you have a lot of websites, consider a dedicated server where you can install Imagick yourself.

If I can help in any other way, let me know.

[NandoPhotoParticipant]

Thank you Robin – I’m not a coder (I’m a full-time photographer), so most of that is well above my comprehension.

Hopefully my host will be able to add Imagick to my server. Otherwise I’ll have to drop it, which would be a shame, as I was quite excited about the project.

[HenriParticipant]

Robin wrote:

Hey Henri – I can’t find any information on OVH shared hosting and how they deal with special requests. I suggest you email them to see if they can install the imagick PHP extension for you.

If they aren’t able to help you, you can alternatively stay with your legacy install for the time being, or if you really want to use the new version, you can move to another host or use our PLUS hosting service.

Unfortunately, building the plugin with GD support would almost be like creating two different plugins, as you wouldn’t be able to process a myriad of different image types, the least of which are vectors.

Hi Robin,

Thank you for answering my question. I will contact to OVH on Monday and ask if they can install Imagick PHP extension for me.

Best regards,
Henri

Henri Pero Photography | My Symzio profile | My Facebook page

[NandoPhotoParticipant]

Just heard back from my host – they can’t use Imagick with my package. End of the line for me 🙁

[Author]

Posts