memeMaker

Add text to any side of an image — as a bordered caption or overlaid directly onto the image — using ImageMagick.

Installation

Run the install script to get ImageMagick on macOS or Linux:

./install.sh

This installs via Homebrew on macOS, or your distro's package manager on Linux (apt, dnf, yum, pacman, zypper).

Usage

./memeMaker <input_image> <output_image> <text> [side] [border_percentage] [font]

Parameter	Required	Description
input_image	Yes	Path to the source image
output_image	Yes	Path for the output image
text	Yes	Caption text — quote it if it contains spaces
side	No	Where to place the caption: top, bottom, left, right (default: bottom)
border_percentage	No	25–50 adds a solid black border (default: 25 top/bottom, 50 left/right); 0 overlays text directly onto the image
font	No	Font name — defaults to system font

To see available fonts:

magick -list font

Examples

# Caption on the bottom with defaults
./memeMaker input.jpg output.jpg "This is my caption"

# Left side with a custom border size
./memeMaker input.jpg output.jpg "Left side caption" left 30

# Top caption with a specific font
./memeMaker input.jpg output.jpg "Custom font" top 40 Arial

# Overlay text directly onto the image (no border added)
./memeMaker input.jpg output.jpg "Overlay caption" bottom 0
./memeMaker input.jpg output.jpg "Top-left overlay" top 0

Testing

A test suite is included that runs the script against monkey-test-image.jpg across all four sides, two text lengths, and a couple of custom border sizes:

./test.sh

Output images are written to test-output/ so you can inspect them visually.

Notes

• Text is automatically scaled to fit the caption box — longer text will appear smaller.
• If an invalid side is given, it defaults to bottom.
• If an invalid border percentage is given, it defaults to 25%.
• If a specified font is not found, the system default is used.