Install XCode + the Command-Line Tools. (CL tools are not bundled with Xcode 4.3 by default anymore and should contain build tools such as gcc (confirm with whatever version you are using). XCode app (found on the AppStore) is easy to install but the CL Tools can only be installed within XCode as an optional install on the Components tab of the Downloads preferences panel.

Install Homebrew which will be used to install libs/components as well as manage the dependencies for us.

$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

Install ImageMagick.

$ brew install imagemagick

Installing a PHP53 compatible version of Imagick … first let Homebrew search the formula for you

$ brew search php53-imagick

… OR …

$ brew search imagick

The above searches should return something like ‘josegonzalez/php/php53-imagick’ … use this for the next step:

$ brew install josegonzalez/php/php53-imagick

If you get “No formula & taping” errors …

Error: No available formula for XYZ
Please tap it and then try again: brew tap XYZ

… do as you’ve been told, and run the ‘brew tap’ … command exactly as the error told you. After that, repeat the step which caused that error.

Now edit MAMP config & add the extension to MAMP Pro’s php.ini. In MAMP Pro go to the menubar, and choose File > Edit Templates > PHP > PHP x.x.x php.ini. A simple editor window will popup where you can edit the ini file. A search for the term ‘extension=’, will lead you to a block with various lines of ‘extension=…’. Now simply ad the following one and save the file:

$ extension="/usr/local/Cellar/php53-imagick/3.1.0RC2/imagick.so"

Copy libfreetype to MAMP lib (freetype version in path may vary)

$ cp /usr/local/Cellar/freetype/2.4.11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/

Fix library version incompatibilities by open the file /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/envvars in the editor, and comment out the following lines:

$ cDYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/Applications/MAMP/Library/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"
$ export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

Restart MAMP and check the phpinfo tab: a search for the term imagick should bring you to a section reading like so:

imagick module version                    3.1.0RC2
imagick classes                           Imagick, ImagickDraw, ImagickPixel, ImagickPixelIterator
ImageMagick version                       ImageMagick 6.7.7-6 2012-09-18 Q16 http://www.imagemagick.org
ImageMagick copyright                     Copyright (C) 1999-2012 ImageMagick Studio LLC
ImageMagick release date                  2012-09-18
ImageMagick number of supported formats:  191

Ps: Original post - see footnote #4, has extra’s on enabling tiff support

Update ^7th/05/2013 :

After installing Imagemagick using Homebrew on Lion, everything is fine except that it doesn’t work at all when being called from php.

exec ('/usr/local/bin/convert') // works, but
exec ('which convert') // doesn't

Turns out, for php to work convert should be in /usr/bin/ so this solved it:

$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/convert /usr/bin/convert

Update ^25th/12/2013 :

This article was originally linked to this … which is now broken. I’ve also update Homebrew links which seem to have moved. Thanks to @CreativityKills for the heads up.

1. This was done on MacOSX 10.8.3 (other versions may vary)
2. Tested with MAMP Pro 2.1.2 (other versions may vary)
3. Image Magick & Imagick are two very different things. The former is the core library and the latter is a PHP Wrapper that uses the API of the former, so you do need to install the former before the latter
4. Xcode 4.3 and Homebrew: Where did my command line tools go?
5. Resolved: MAMP Php can’t exec (‘convert’) after Homebrew ImageMagick install
6. Installing PHP PEAR and PECL extensions on MAMP for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)