Let's Skip Preview and Just Use ImageMagick

Same problem, one tool… (this would be a great time to set up an S3 media bucket to show results). In addition to ImageMagick, I installed ghostscript with brew install ghostscript to enable working with eps vector images.

Starting with a square profile photo:

identify nhoag-bw-sq.jpg
/path/to/nhoag-bw-sq.jpg JPEG 480x480 480x480+0+0 8-bit sRGB 65.5KB 0.000u 0:00.000

Generate a black rectangle to match the width of the profile photo:

convert -size 480x100 xc:black black.jpg

Reduce the opacity of the new rectangle:

convert black.jpg -alpha on -channel alpha -evaluate set 25% shade-25.png

Overlay the modified rectangle on the photo:

composite -gravity center shade-25.png nhoag-bw-sq.jpg nhoag-shade.jpg

Convert black text eps file to png:

convert -colorspace RGB -density 300 black_text.eps -resize x95 black_text.png

Reduce the opacity of the black text png:

convert black_text.png +flatten -alpha on -channel A -evaluate set 10% +channel black_text_opac.png

Create a slightly larger canvas for the black text png (to accommodate blur):

convert -size 475x110 xc:transparent black_text_canvas.png

Overlay the black text png on the new canvas:

composite -gravity center black_text_opac.png black_text_canvas.png black_text_opac_canvas.png

Blur the black text png:

convert black_text_opac_canvas.png -blur 0x4 black_text_opac_canvas_blur.png

Overlay the black text png on the profile photo:

composite -gravity center black_text_opac_canvas_blur.png nhoag-shade.jpg nhoag-shade-black_text.jpg

Convert white text eps file to png:

convert -colorspace RGB -density 300 white_text.eps -resize x95 white_text.png

Overlay white text png on the profile photo:

composite -gravity center white_text.png nhoag-shade-black_text.jpg nhoag-shade-black_text-white_text.jpg

Generate a new png with the text ‘profile’:

montage -background none -fill white -font Courier \
	-pointsize 72 label:'Profile' +set label \
	-shadow  -background transparent -geometry +5+5 \
	profile_text.png

Overlay the ‘profile’ text on the profile photo:

composite -gravity center -geometry +0+90 profile_text.png nhoag-shade-black_text-white_text.jpg nhoag-shade-black_text-white_text-profile.jpg

You can view the finished product on my Acquia Google+ profile.