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

Security and bug fixes on top of upstream FreeImage, plus a CMake build that compiles FreeImage and every bundled library from one CMakeLists.txt. This repository is the source tree. GitHub releases are tags, not prebuilt DLLs. Build a static library or a DLL with the commands in Building this fork.

This tree is FreeImage 3.19.18. FreeImage_GetVersion() prints FREEIMAGE_MAJOR_VERSION, FREEIMAGE_MINOR_VERSION, and FREEIMAGE_RELEASE_SERIAL from Source/FreeImage.h. CMake takes the version from the latest numeric git tag (git describe) and falls back to 3.19.18 when the archive has no .git history.

The ANSI C API is usable from C, C++, VB, C#, Delphi, Java, and from scripting languages such as Perl, Python, PHP, TCL, Lua, and Ruby.

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 is a one-line change rather than a new dependency. Camera RAW uses the same FreeImage_Load() call. It is included unless the build passes -DBUILD_LIBRAWLITE=OFF.

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 copy of the format's reference library. Turn a format off with its BUILD_* option, or link a system copy with USE_SYSTEM_* (or FREEIMAGE_USE_SYSTEM_LIBS, which turns every USE_SYSTEM_* default on). See CMakeLists.txt.

PixarLog and OJPEG inside the bundled libtiff include the integer-overflow hardening from libtiff 4.7.2. The rest of that library, including TIFFLIB_VERSION_STR, is still 4.7.1. OpenEXR is included when CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD is unset or 17 or newer, and left out for an older standard.

Formats	Library	Bundled version	Default
PNG	libpng (+ zlib)	1.6.58 (zlib 1.3.2)	on
JPEG	libjpeg (IJG)	10 (25 Jan 2026)	on
TIFF	libtiff	4.7.1	on
JPEG 2000 (J2K/JP2)	OpenJPEG	2.5.4	on
OpenEXR (HDR)	OpenEXR (+ Imath, libdeflate)	3.3.14 (Imath 3.2.3, libdeflate 1.18)	on for C++17+
WebP	libwebp	1.6.0	on
Camera RAW	LibRaw	0.22.2	on
JPEG-XR	jxrlib	unversioned snapshot	Windows only

Original Source Code Upstream

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

Status

Building this fork

JPEG-XR is included only on Windows (BUILD_JXR defaults to WIN32). Camera RAW is included by default (-DBUILD_LIBRAWLITE=OFF leaves it out).

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 solution under build-vs2022/ (or build-vs2026/). Open FreeImage.sln from there. Both presets are Windows-only and turn BUILD_TESTS on. vs2026 needs CMake 4.2 or newer.

cmake --preset ninja-msvc builds with cl.exe and Ninja under build-ninja-msvc/. Run it from a Developer Command Prompt, or after vcvarsall.bat, so cl.exe is on PATH. See CMakePresets.json.

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.