ImageMagick/History

ImageMagick Genesis (history)
- https://imagemagick.org/script/history.php
  In 1987, monitors that could display 24-bit true color images were rare and quite expensive. There were a plethora of chemists and biologists at DuPont, but very few were computer scientists to confer with. Instead, I turned to Usenet for help, and posted a request for an algorithm to reduce 24-bit images to 256 colors. Paul Raveling of the USC Information Sciences Institute responded, with not only a solution, but one that was already in source code and available from USC's FTP site. Over the course of the next few years, I had frequent opportunities to get help with other vexing computer science problems I encountered in the course of doing my job at DuPont. Eventually I felt compelled to give thanks for the help I received from the knowledgeable folks on Usenet. I decided to freely release the image processing tools I developed to the world so that others could benefit from my efforts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageMagick#History
ImageMagick was created in 1987 by John Cristy when working at DuPont, to convert 24-bit images (16 million colors) to 8-bit images (256 colors), so they could be displayed on most screens at the time. It was freely released in 1990 when DuPont agreed to transfer copyright to ImageMagick Studio LLC, still currently the project maintainer organization.

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http://www.graphicsmagick.org/FAQ.html#what-is-the-meaning-of-magick
What is the meaning of "magick"?

According to the infamous British occultist Aleister Crowley, the definition of magick is "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will".