Omeka without Image Magic

I am trying to install an Omeka site using a host that does not permit access through SSH. It seems that without that access I cannot properly install ImageMagick. Is it reasonable to attempt to install Omeka without it, or are there alternative image editing programs that can be used? We will have a finite number of images, so I wouldn't be against modifying them prior to upload, but I don't know if that's feasible with how omeka is set up.

Omeka uses ImageMagick to automatically create thumbnails for images (and other files) that you upload to the site.

Those thumbnails get used throughout the themes and the admin interface, and by plugins like the Exhibit Builder. Omeka will work without ImageMagick, but you won't get any of those thumbnails. You could rewrite a theme to use the original images in places, or you could theoretically do the thumbnailing yourself and edit the database to reflect that, but I wouldn't recommend either of those courses of action.

Are you sure your host doesn't already have ImageMagick? It's not everywhere, but it's a fairly common install.

I checked if the host had ImageMagick first off and it doesn't appear to. I'll have to see if I can get SSH access somehow.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Even without SSH, sometimes hosts will install a package for you, depending on the kind of system they have set up. If ImageMagick isn't there, it might be worth pressing them to see if there is a way to have them install it.

I tried that and it seems that the answer is no. Would it be possible to develop the site on a virtual server and move it afterwards? Obviously this would make any future changes extremely difficult, but it might make for a temporary solution until I can figure out a better hosting situation.

I think you could do that, then migrate the site, files and database and all. It would be safest and easiest to make the switch to a different host, though.

First of all , excuseme for the troll , but when i see posts like this i become green.

i'm just eval the CMS , and seems right for the usage , but the developemnt is very poor .

i was wandering around for the "problem" , better call it issue of imagemagik , in 2013 still call extrnal binaries to do image manipulations ? thumbnails ?
the access to /usr/bin , that is a mess to restrict to just the imagemagick binaries ( because are more than one ) is dangerous .
the usr bin directory contains :
all scripts that you dream to make a system administrator mad.
the omeka is developed on zend framework , with an artistic tree of MVC , why not use the standrd gdlib that are supported by the 99,9% of linux web hosters ?
a VPS or dedicated server just to setup a probable "will be used product" ?

We are aware of the limitations. However, our user base needs to have thumbnails for many different kinds of files in addition to images, and so GD does not meet the requirements.