R: new animation package bug: convert.exe is no longer in Imagemagick

Starting with version 2.5 of the animation, it seems that the error with the path to invoke the ImageMagick convert.exe utility in Windows 7 is still present. This can be fixed by adding the convert option to ani.option. However, now new version 7 (.0.6.Q16) does not contain covert.exe (both dynamic and static assemblies). The list of EXE files in ImageMagick gives

Directory of C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.6-Q16

11/Jun/17  12:10 PM           828,416 dcraw.exe
11/Jun/17  12:08 PM        33,351,680 ffmpeg.exe
11/Jun/17  12:08 PM           113,664 hp2xx.exe
11/Jun/17  12:14 PM        16,340,480 imdisplay.exe
11/Jun/17  12:14 PM        16,471,552 magick.exe
20/Jun/17  11:22 AM         1,202,385 unins000.exe
6 File(s)     68,308,177 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.6-Q16\uninstall

11/Jun/17  12:07 PM           122,279 PathTool.exe
1 File(s)        122,279 bytes

Total Files Listed:
7 File(s)     68,430,456 bytes

      

        
        
        
      

    

Hence the R commands to create an animated GIF with the normals below fail with an error

Executing: 
""C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.6-Q16\convert.exe" -loop 0 -delay 12 Rplot1.png Rplot2.png Rplot3.png
    Rplot4.png Rplot5.png Rplot6.png Rplot7.png Rplot8.png Rplot9.png Rplot10.png Rplot11.png Rplot12.png
    Rplot13.png Rplot14.png Rplot15.png Rplot16.png Rplot17.png Rplot18.png Rplot19.png Rplot20.png
    "Normals1_Ani.gif""
'"C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.6-Q16\convert.exe"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
an error occurred in the conversion... see Notes in ?im.convert
[1] FALSE

      

        
        
        
      

    

The im.convert help does not mention the possibility of losing the convert.exe file.

The R commands that I ran are

 library(animation)
 donorm = function(k){
   require(ggplot2)
   Ns = matrix(0, 1000, k)
   X = matrix(0, 1000, k)
   for (i in 1:k){
     X[, i] = sort(rnorm(1000, mean = ifelse(i<11,0,2), sd = 0.5*ifelse(i<11,sqrt(i), sqrt(i -10))))
     Ns[, i] = dnorm(X[,i], mean = ifelse(i<11,0, 2), sd = 0.5*ifelse(i<11,sqrt(i), sqrt(i -10)))
   }
   mx = c(min(X), max(X))
   my = max(Ns)
   dat = data.frame(x = rep(0, 1000), y = rep(0, 1000))
   for (i in 1:k){
     dat$x = X[,i]; dat$y = Ns[,i]
     pl = ggplot2::ggplot(dat, aes(x = x, y= y)) + geom_line(color = i%%5 + 1, size = 1.5) + 
     coord_cartesian(xlim = mx, ylim = c(0, my)) +
     annotate("text", x = mx[1]+0.25, y = my[2]-0.25, label = 
                paste("mean = ", round(ifelse(i<11,0,2),1),"//st.dev = ", round(0.5*ifelse(i<11,sqrt(i), sqrt(i -10)), 1))) +
       theme_bw()
     print(pl)
   }
 }

## this is suggested solution for calling convert.exe but it fails on my system
# path_to_convert <- paste0(shortPathName("C:\\Program Files\\ImageMagick-7.0.6-Q16\\"), "convert.exe")

## this would work were the exe there
path_to_convert = "\"C:\\Program Files\\ImageMagick-7.0.6-Q16\\convert.exe\""

animation::ani.options(interval = 0.12, ani.width = 480, ani.height = 320, convert=path_to_convert)
animation::saveGIF(donorm(20), movie.name = paste0("Normals",1,"_Ani.gif"))

      

        
        
        
      

    

The commands are correct and the expected image (generated with my laptop with ImageMagick embedded in LyX - not sure which build of ImageMagick, but convert.exe is version 6) as shown.

I cannot install Imagemagick version 6 because the website only has binaries for version 7, the changelog does not mention uninstalling the convert.exe utility. I would rather not have LyX installed.

Can anyone suggest a solution?

UPDATE with solution

As mentioned in @ fnw42's answer, in ImageMagick release 7

The "magick" command is the new primary Shell API command, replacing the old "convert" command.

So, to use it saveGif

, you need to reflect this change in the conversion command option. For example, in the above code, you need to replace convert.exe

with magick.exe

, as in

path_to_convert = "\"C:\\Program Files\\ImageMagick-7.0.6-Q16\\magick.exe\""

      

        
        
        
      

    

You can also use an old conversion utility like "magick convert". Some parameters are now deprecated and some are new. Learn more about the porting explanation .

I also found that older versions of Imagemagick are available at sourceforge .