ImageMagick is developed for use in a commercial environment so the emphasis is on stability and speed. We maintain one release and one beta distribution rather than the traditional stable/unstable branches so we can utilitize all our development efforts toward reducing bugs and enhancing performance of the unified ImageMagick distribution. We emphasize a stable API and ABI making ImageMagick suitable as a base for other open source (and proprietary) applications. The objectives of the ImageMagick project are to: Use an open development model. Encourage new developers to join the project. Avoid unnecessary source code churn. Establish and preserve both a stable API and ABI. Use efficient coding practices which result in fast code. Improve memory efficiency. Use a release process which assures a working product. Prioritize bug-fixes over new feature enhancements. Maintain an accurate change log. Value, and respect the contributions of developers, and observe and respect the copyrights of other projects. Patches, bug fixes, and enhancements are encouraged from the developer and user community. Post them to either the magick-developers mailing list or to the ImageMagick Discourse Server. If you plan on contributing on a on-going basis, let us know and we will give you writable CVS access. "Image manipulation software that works like magick"