# ImageScript benchmark

How [ImageScript](https://github.com/matmen/ImageScript) compares to other image libraries for Node.js: speed, file
sizes and what installing each takes. ImageScript is plain JavaScript with no dependencies, so it runs wherever
JavaScript does; sharp and @napi-rs/canvas wrap native libraries (libvips, Skia), Photon and ImageScript 1 are
WebAssembly.

<img src="charts/install.svg" alt="Install size of each library">

<img src="charts/codecs.svg" alt="Decoding and encoding speed">

<img src="charts/operations.svg" alt="Speed of image operations">

<img src="charts/rendering.svg" alt="Text and SVG rendering speed">

<img src="charts/animation.svg" alt="Animated GIF decoding and encoding speed">

<img src="charts/sizes.svg" alt="Encoded file sizes">

## Numbers

Operations per second (more is faster), measured 2026-10-16 with Node.js v24.21.0 on AMD EPYC 9V74 80-Core Processor, ImageScript 3.2.0.

| | **ImageScript 3** | **ImageScript 1** | **Jimp** | **image-js** | **Photon** | **sharp** | **@napi-rs/canvas** |
|---|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| decode JPEG | **16.5** | 7.83 | 8.11 | 7.46 | 26.2 | 83.6 | 57.2 |
| decode PNG | **36.2** | 36.5 | 20.0 | 11.5 | 49.5 | 63.3 | 63.5 |
| decode WebP (lossy) | **13.1** | – | – | – | 13.6 | 43.6 | 80.4 |
| encode JPEG (quality 80) | **15.4** | 22.6 | 3.04 | 11.3 | 11.2 | 67.0 | 44.8 |
| encode PNG | **9.77** | 4.76 | 5.10 | 3.76 | 11.7 | 8.83 | 2.41 |
| encode WebP (lossless) | **1.30** | – | – | – | 28.7 | 0.83 | 2.56 |
| resize to half | **30.6** | 463 | 87.1 | 13.7 | 21.4 | 71.3 | 411 |
| rotate by 30° | **12.9** | 8.47 | 2.22 | 1.47 | 6.10 | 18.1 | 41.1 |
| blur (radius 5) | **8.72** | – | 0.01 | 1.56 | 7.46 | 39.6 | 77.1 |
| composite an overlay | **534** | 780 | 40.2 | 158 | 206 | 123 | 608 |
| crop | **942** | 944 | 62.6 | 79.6 | 223 | 1,505 | 1,721 |
| clone | **1,265** | 1,248 | 1,728 | 1,159 | 530 | 1,995 | 678 |
| render text | **1,315** | 72.7 | – | – | – | 3,162 | 3,614 |
| render SVG | **8.77** | fails | – | – | – | 31.8 | 122 |
| decode animated GIF | **12.6** | 9.59 | – | – | – | 19.6 | – |
| encode animated GIF | **6.31** | 1.47 | – | – | – | 1.10 | – |

Encoded sizes:

| | **ImageScript 3** | **ImageScript 1** | **Jimp** | **image-js** | **Photon** | **sharp** | **@napi-rs/canvas** |
|---|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| photo PNG | 2.2 MB | 3.0 MB | 2.7 MB | 2.8 MB | 2.8 MB | 2.8 MB | 2.1 MB |
| photo JPEG | 217 kB | 257 kB | 260 kB | 260 kB | 257 kB | 218 kB | 218 kB |
| photo WebP | 1.4 MB | – | – | – | 1.7 MB | 1.2 MB | 1.4 MB |
| graphic PNG | 1.1 MB | 802 kB | 2.0 MB | 736 kB | 2.2 MB | 718 kB | 1.0 MB |
| graphic JPEG | 275 kB | 314 kB | 315 kB | 315 kB | 314 kB | 275 kB | 276 kB |
| graphic WebP | 580 kB | – | – | – | 856 kB | 239 kB | 631 kB |
| animation GIF | 825 kB | 1.3 MB | – | – | – | 720 kB | – |

| | **ImageScript 3** | **ImageScript 1** | **Jimp** | **image-js** | **Photon** | **sharp** | **@napi-rs/canvas** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| kind | JavaScript | WebAssembly | JavaScript | JavaScript | WebAssembly | native (libvips) | native (Skia) |
| package | `imagescript@3.2.0` | `imagescript@1.3.1` | `jimp@1.6.1` | `image-js@1.7.1` | `@silvia-odwyer/photon-node@0.3.4` | `sharp@0.35.5` | `@napi-rs/canvas@1.0.11` |
| install size | 660 kB | 6.7 MB | 26.7 MB | 47.8 MB | 2.3 MB | 20.3 MB | 35.0 MB |
| packages | 1 | 1 | 64 | 55 | 1 | 6 | 2 |

## Method

- Inputs (in `inputs/`, sources in [inputs/SOURCES.md](inputs/SOURCES.md)): a 1920×1080 photo (JPEG, and made from it
  when the benchmark starts, PNG and lossy WebP), a 1434×1434 graphic with transparency (PNG), a 445×445 diagram with
  transparency placed on the photo (PNG), a 300×300 GIF with 101 frames.
- Rendering: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, 0123456789" in Source Sans 3 at 64px, and `tests/svgs/features.svg` (gradients, clipping,
  CSS) at 1920 pixels wide. Jimp and Photon can't render TrueType/OpenType fonts or SVGs; ImageScript 1 crashes
  on this SVG; @napi-rs/canvas (Skia's SVG module) ignores its CSS, so it draws a little less.
- Every operation starts from the same decoded image and returns a new one: libraries that change images in place
  clone first, sharp runs a pipeline from raw pixels back to raw pixels, @napi-rs/canvas draws into a new canvas.
- Where the library lets you choose, resizing is bilinear (ImageScript 1 only has nearest neighbor), blurring is
  gaussian with a radius or sigma of 5, rotating grows the image to fit. Each library uses its own defaults
  otherwise, e.g. its PNG compression level.
- [tinybench](https://github.com/tinylibs/tinybench), at least 1.5 seconds and 3 runs per measurement, every library
  in its own process.
- The release workflow runs the benchmark for every release and commits the results, on a GitHub Actions runner;
  runners vary, so compare libraries within one run rather than between runs.
- Install sizes: `npm install <library>` in an empty project, the apparent size of `node_modules`.

Run it: `npm install` in this directory, then `node run.js` (on an idle machine; `IMAGESCRIPT=local` measures
this checkout after `npm run build` instead of the version from npm), `node installs.js` and `node report.js`.