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Common operation mapping across bindings

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The same product intent has different API names and parameter units across bindings and interfaces. govips is the handbook’s reference implementation; the sharp, pyvips, and CLI equivalents are for comparison and do not imply identical semantics.

Comparison boundary: the govips column below is based on the v2.19.0 source. The sharp / pyvips / CLI columns are currently marked comparison-pending; check each project’s documentation for exact default behaviour.

Loading and export

Section titled “Loading and export”
Intent govips (v2.19.0) sharp pyvips vips CLI
Load from file vips.NewImageFromFile sharp(path) pyvips.Image.new_from_file vips ... file
Load from buffer LoadImageFromBuffer sharp(buf) new_from_buffer via stdin or file
Load all pages/frames importParams.NumPages.Set(-1) sharp(input, { pages: -1 }) n=-1 argument via loader arg [n=-1]
Export to buffer/stream ExportWebp(params) / ExportJpeg(params); streaming SaveToWriter* .toBuffer() write_to_buffer driven by output format options

Geometry

Section titled “Geometry”
Intent govips (v2.19.0) sharp pyvips vips CLI
Thumbnail to target size NewThumbnailWithSizeFromFile / LoadThumbnailFromFile .resize(w, h, { fit }) thumbnail / thumbnail_image vips thumbnail
Relative-scale resize Resize(scale, kernel) / ResizeWithVScale(h, v, kernel) .resize(...) (pixel dimensions) resize(scale) vips resize
Fixed-angle rotate (90°/180°/270°) Rotate(angle) (Angle enum) .rotate(90 | 180 | 270) rot(angle) vips rot
Arbitrary-angle rotate Similarity(scale, angle, ...) .rotate(angle) similarity(angle=...) / rotate(angle) vips similarity
Flip (vertical / horizontal) Flip(DirectionVertical | DirectionHorizontal) .flip() (vertical) / .flop() (horizontal) flip(axis) / flipver() / fliphor() vips flip
Rectangular crop ExtractArea(left, top, width, height) .extract({ left, top, width, height }) crop(left, top, width, height) vips crop

Composition and colour

Section titled “Composition and colour”
Intent govips (v2.19.0) sharp pyvips vips CLI
Layer overlay / composite Composite / CompositeMulti .composite([...]) composite / composite2 vips composite / vips composite2
Multi-image grid join ArrayJoin create canvas + .composite() arrayjoin vips arrayjoin
Colourspace & ICC transform TransformICCProfile (+ TransformICCProfileWithFallback) .toColourspace() / .withIccProfile() colourspace() / icc_transform() vips colourspace / vips icc_transform
Import / decode parameters ImportParams built into sharp(input, options) loader keyword arguments [option=value] suffix on filename

Notes

Section titled “Notes”
  • Unit difference: Resize in govips and libvips takes a relative scale factor (1.0 = 100%), while Thumbnail* and sharp.resize(w, h) take target pixel dimensions. Do not read govips Resize with sharp.resize(w, h) semantics.
  • Rotation entry points: in govips, 90°-multiple orthogonal rotations use the enum-based Rotate, whereas arbitrary angles use Similarity; sharp unifies both under .rotate(angle).
  • Load vs thumbnail path: Thumbnail* uses libvips’ shrink-on-load path by target size, which has different memory and latency characteristics from decoding a full image first and then calling Resize.
  • Animation: transform an animation only after loading all pages with NumPages=-1; see animation keeps one frame or becomes a tall image.

Sources and evidence boundary

Section titled “Sources and evidence boundary”
  • govips v2.19.0 source (NewImageFromFile, LoadImageFromBuffer, NumPages, NewThumbnailWithSizeFromFile, Resize / ResizeWithVScale, Rotate, Similarity, Flip, ExtractArea, Composite, ArrayJoin, TransformICCProfile, ExportWebp).
  • The sharp / pyvips / CLI columns are currently marked comparison-pending.

Treat this mapping as product-intent-first; see each binding’s documentation for exact parameter defaults, and trust the handbook’s locked reference baseline.