We only have a useraccount so we download and compile in ~/temp/ and install to ~/tools/:

$> mkdir ~/temp
$> mkdir ~/tools

We start with GhostScript - it's needed by ImageMagic to handle eps files. Get it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/. Then unpack, configure, build and install - pretty easy.

$> cd ~/temp
$> wget http://mesh.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ghostscript/ghostscript-8.15.tar.bz2
$> tar -xjvf ghostscript-8.15.tar.bz2
$> cd ghostscript-8.15
$> ./configure --prefix=$HOME/tools
$> make
$> make install

Ghostscript needs some fonts. They are not included in the usual download so get them from http://sourceforge.net/projects/gs-fonts/ and install them to ~/tools/share/ghostscript

$> cd ~/temp
$> wget http://mesh.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gs-fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
$> cd ~/tools/share/ghostscript
$> tar -xzvf ~/temp/ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz

Okay now we can continue with ImageMagick. Get it from www.imagemagick.org

$> cd ~/temp
$> wget ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/unix/X11/graphics/ImageMagick/ImageMagick-6.2.5-4.tar.bz2
$> tar -xjvf ImageMagick-6.2.5-4.tar.bz2

Before we continue we need to set the $PATH envrinment variable to make sure the configure script detects our GhostScript install correctly:

$> export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/tools/bin

Now we can configure ImageMagick. Disable the Perl bindings and Magick++ if you don't need them. I had to disable the the TrueTypeFont support aswell to avoid a compile error. Configure, compile and install:

$> ./configure --with-ttf=no --without-magick-plus-plus --without-perl --prefix=$HOME/tools
$> make
$> make install

That's it – ImageMagick is ready.

If you want to use the tool from within PHP and it complains about not finding gs use the following in your script to fix the PATH:

putenv('PATH='.getenv('PATH').':/path/to/your/home/tools/bin');