Inspect Image Properties with ImageMagick identify
Print an image's format, pixel dimensions, color depth, DPI, and metadata from the terminal — the fast way to answer 'what exactly is this file?'
Run identify photo.jpg for a one-line summary, or identify -verbose photo.jpg for the full attribute dump including EXIF and color profile details.
01Command
Command
$ identify -verbose photo.jpg | head -3002What it does
identify reads the image header and prints geometry, format, color space, and file size; adding -verbose reveals everything else — EXIF tags, ICC profiles, compression type, histogram counts. It accepts many files or wildcards at once, and identify *.png gives you a dimension list you can pipe into sort or awk. It works on any format ImageMagick supports, including PDFs and SVGs.
03Risk
!Warning: Don't confuse identify with the file command: file only reads magic bytes at the start of the file, while identify actually parses the image structure.
04Undo
✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.
05Sources
- ImageMagick identify Command DocumentationEvidence: Official identify reference: 'describe the format and characteristics of one or more image files' with -verbose for full attribute dump.
Last verified: 2026-09-17 · Category: Media