Legacy ImageMagick Discussions Archive

What factors should be taken into consideration when choosing between a static and dynamic build of ImageMagick? Are there differences in performance of processing? Are there differences in the images produced?

There should be no differences in the images produced.

If you run multiple IM processes at the same time, the DLL versions may use memory more efficiently because (as I understand it) different programs can share the same DLL in memory, but each needs its own EXE in memory. In these days of computers with multiple GB of memory, I doubt this is significant.

There may also be performance differences for the loading of the 6MB static versions. The first time I use "convert" after a boot, there is a noticeable delay. But subsequent uses have no delay, due to caching, I suppose.

For servers, differences may be more significant, and you might need to conduct tests. For workstations, I don't think it matters.

Personally, I use the static builds.