# Mission Statement

In November, 2002, the GraphicsMagick project was formed as a branch from ImageMagick 5.5.2. The project was formed in order to develop a more "stable" form of ImageMagick which is suitable to be use as a base for other open source (and proprietary) applications. It was perceived that ImageMagick provided tremendous value, but also proved to be difficult to rely on as a stable application component since the ImageMagick interfaces often changed between releases, and there was no concept of shared library ABI stability. GraphicsMagick intends to resolve these issues while providing an appealing development environment to attract the best available developers.

The objectives of the GraphicsMagick 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 stable ABI, making GraphicsMagick a stable component in Linux and BSD distributions.
- 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.

Copyright (C) 2002 - 2008 GraphicsMagick Group

This program is covered by multiple licenses, which are described in Copyright.txt. You should have received a copy of Copyright.txt with this package; otherwise see http://www.graphicsmagick.org/www/Copyright.html.