diff --git a/.rspec b/.rspec
index 4e1e0d2..83e16f8 100644
--- a/.rspec
+++ b/.rspec
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 --color
+--require spec_helper
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index e24a4fd..1d39ad9 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -6,68 +6,73 @@ PATH
       addressable (~> 2.2)
       dragonfly (~> 0.9.14)
       httparty (~> 0.13)
+      rmagick (~> 2.15.4)
       sinatra (~> 1.2)
 
 GEM
   remote: https://rubygems.org/
   specs:
-    activesupport (4.1.8)
-      i18n (~> 0.6, >= 0.6.9)
+    activesupport (4.2.5.1)
+      i18n (~> 0.7)
       json (~> 1.7, >= 1.7.7)
       minitest (~> 5.1)
-      thread_safe (~> 0.1)
+      thread_safe (~> 0.3, >= 0.3.4)
       tzinfo (~> 1.1)
-    addressable (2.3.6)
-    crack (0.4.2)
+    addressable (2.4.0)
+    crack (0.4.3)
       safe_yaml (~> 1.0.0)
     diff-lcs (1.2.5)
-    dotenv (1.0.2)
+    dotenv (2.1.0)
     dragonfly (0.9.15)
       multi_json (~> 1.0)
       rack
-    fastimage (1.6.6)
+    fastimage (1.8.1)
       addressable (~> 2.3, >= 2.3.5)
-    httparty (0.13.3)
+    hashdiff (0.2.3)
+    httparty (0.13.7)
       json (~> 1.8)
       multi_xml (>= 0.5.2)
-    i18n (0.6.11)
-    json (1.8.1)
-    minitest (5.4.3)
-    multi_json (1.10.1)
+    i18n (0.7.0)
+    json (1.8.3)
+    minitest (5.8.4)
+    multi_json (1.11.2)
     multi_xml (0.5.5)
-    newrelic_rpm (3.9.8.273)
-    rack (1.5.2)
-    rack-cache (1.2)
+    newrelic_rpm (3.14.2.312)
+    rack (1.6.4)
+    rack-cache (1.6.0)
       rack (>= 0.4)
     rack-protection (1.5.3)
       rack
-    rack-test (0.6.2)
+    rack-test (0.6.3)
       rack (>= 1.0)
-    rake (10.4.2)
-    rspec (3.1.0)
-      rspec-core (~> 3.1.0)
-      rspec-expectations (~> 3.1.0)
-      rspec-mocks (~> 3.1.0)
-    rspec-core (3.1.7)
-      rspec-support (~> 3.1.0)
-    rspec-expectations (3.1.2)
+    rake (10.5.0)
+    rmagick (2.15.4)
+    rspec (3.4.0)
+      rspec-core (~> 3.4.0)
+      rspec-expectations (~> 3.4.0)
+      rspec-mocks (~> 3.4.0)
+    rspec-core (3.4.2)
+      rspec-support (~> 3.4.0)
+    rspec-expectations (3.4.0)
+      diff-lcs (>= 1.2.0, < 2.0)
+      rspec-support (~> 3.4.0)
+    rspec-mocks (3.4.1)
       diff-lcs (>= 1.2.0, < 2.0)
-      rspec-support (~> 3.1.0)
-    rspec-mocks (3.1.3)
-      rspec-support (~> 3.1.0)
-    rspec-support (3.1.2)
+      rspec-support (~> 3.4.0)
+    rspec-support (3.4.1)
     safe_yaml (1.0.4)
-    sinatra (1.4.5)
-      rack (~> 1.4)
+    sinatra (1.4.7)
+      rack (~> 1.5)
       rack-protection (~> 1.4)
-      tilt (~> 1.3, >= 1.3.4)
-    thread_safe (0.3.4)
-    tilt (1.4.1)
+      tilt (>= 1.3, < 3)
+    thread_safe (0.3.5)
+    tilt (2.0.2)
     tzinfo (1.2.2)
       thread_safe (~> 0.1)
-    webmock (1.20.4)
+    webmock (1.22.6)
       addressable (>= 2.3.6)
       crack (>= 0.3.2)
+      hashdiff
 
 PLATFORMS
   ruby
@@ -82,3 +87,6 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   rake
   rspec
   webmock
+
+BUNDLED WITH
+   1.11.2
diff --git a/lib/dragonfly/data_storage/remote_data_store.rb b/lib/dragonfly/data_storage/remote_data_store.rb
index 578d6b2..3aceaeb 100644
--- a/lib/dragonfly/data_storage/remote_data_store.rb
+++ b/lib/dragonfly/data_storage/remote_data_store.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 require 'httparty'
 require 'uri'
 
+# TODO figure out how to automatically set cert path
+HTTParty::Basement.default_options.update(verify: false)
+
 module Dragonfly
   module DataStorage
     #class Forbidden < StandardError; end
diff --git a/lib/magickly.rb b/lib/magickly.rb
index ff29695..24db9a8 100644
--- a/lib/magickly.rb
+++ b/lib/magickly.rb
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 require 'sinatra/base'
 require 'addressable/uri'
 require 'dragonfly'
+require 'rmagick'
 Dir["#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/dragonfly/**/*.rb"].each {|file| require file }
 Dir["#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/magickly/*.rb"].each {|file| require file }
 
diff --git a/lib/magickly/rmagick_helper.rb b/lib/magickly/rmagick_helper.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..661569c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/magickly/rmagick_helper.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+module Magickly
+  module RmagickHelper
+    # http://blog.kellishaver.com/image-color-analysis-with-rmagick/
+    def self.to_hex_val(color_int)
+      sprintf('%02x', color_int / 256).upcase
+    end
+
+    def self.to_hex(pixel)
+      [
+        to_hex_val(pixel.red),
+        to_hex_val(pixel.green),
+        to_hex_val(pixel.blue)
+      ].join
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/shortcuts.rb b/lib/shortcuts.rb
index a1b7d1e..b13b109 100644
--- a/lib/shortcuts.rb
+++ b/lib/shortcuts.rb
@@ -84,13 +84,16 @@
 
   c.analyser.add :color_palette do |temp_object, num_colors|
     num_colors = num_colors.blank? ? Magickly::DEFAULT_PALETTE_COLOR_COUNT : num_colors.to_i
-    output = `convert #{temp_object.path} -resize 600x600 -colors #{num_colors} -format %c -depth 8 histogram:info:-`
 
-    palette = []
-    output.scan(/\s+(\d+):[^\n]+#([0-9A-Fa-f]{6})/) do |count, hex|
-      palette << { :count => count.to_i, :hex => hex }
+    img = Magick::Image.from_blob(temp_object.data).first
+    histogram = img.quantize(num_colors).color_histogram
+
+    histogram.map do |pixel, frequency|
+      {
+        :count => frequency,
+        :hex => Magickly::RmagickHelper.to_hex(pixel)
+      }
     end
-    palette
   end
 
   c.job :output do |val|
diff --git a/magickly.gemspec b/magickly.gemspec
index 2ea2890..4b760c2 100644
--- a/magickly.gemspec
+++ b/magickly.gemspec
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
 
   s.add_dependency('sinatra', ['~> 1.2'])
   s.add_dependency('dragonfly', ['~> 0.9.14'])
+  s.add_dependency('rmagick', ['~> 2.15.4'])
   s.add_dependency('addressable', ['~> 2.2'])
   s.add_dependency('httparty', ['~> 0.13'])
   s.add_dependency('activesupport', ['>= 2.0.0', '< 5'])
diff --git a/spec/requests/magickly_app_spec.rb b/spec/requests/magickly_app_spec.rb
index b321ce7..4b75c12 100644
--- a/spec/requests/magickly_app_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/magickly_app_spec.rb
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ def get_image(uri)
 
       expect(a_request(:get, @image_url)).to have_been_made.once
       expect(last_response.status).to eq(200)
-      expect(FastImage.size(file)[0]).to eq(width)
+      expect(file).to have_width(width)
     end
 
     it "outputs an image in a new format" do
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ def get_image(uri)
       file = get_image "/?src=#{@image_url}&#{shortcut}=true"
 
       expect(last_response.status).to eq(200)
-      expect(FastImage.size(file)[0]).to eq width
+      expect(file).to have_width(width)
     end
 
     it "should use my Dragonfly shortcut with one argument" do
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def get_image(uri)
       file = get_image "/?src=#{@image_url}&#{shortcut}=#{width}x"
 
       expect(last_response.status).to eq(200)
-      expect(FastImage.size(file)[0]).to eq width
+      expect(file).to have_width(width)
     end
   end
 
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ def get_image(uri)
 
       expect(a_request(:get, @image_url)).to have_been_made.once
       expect(last_response.status).to eq(200)
-      expect(FastImage.size(file)[0]).to eq width
+      expect(file).to have_width(width)
     end
 
   end
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ def get_image(uri)
 
       expect(a_request(:get, @image_url)).to have_been_made.once
       expect(last_response.status).to eq(200)
-      expect(FastImage.size(file)[0]).to eq width
+      expect(file).to have_width(width)
     end
 
   end
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index f3df994..6fa9928 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 # Requires supporting files with custom matchers and macros, etc,
 # in ./support/ and its subdirectories.
-# Dir["#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/support/**/*.rb"].each {|f| require f}
+Dir["#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/support/**/*.rb"].each {|f| require f}
 
 set :environment, :test
 
diff --git a/spec/support/matchers.rb b/spec/support/matchers.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..78d6b48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/support/matchers.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+RSpec::Matchers.define :have_width do |expected|
+  match do |file|
+    expect(FastImage.size(file)[0]).to eq(expected)
+  end
+end
+
+RSpec::Matchers.define :have_height do |expected|
+  match do |file|
+    expect(FastImage.size(file)[1]).to eq(expected)
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/unit/magickly_spec.rb b/spec/unit/magickly_spec.rb
index daf6cc4..1d01775 100644
--- a/spec/unit/magickly_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/magickly_spec.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-require 'spec_helper'
-
 describe Magickly do
   describe ".process_src" do
     it "retrieves an image with no options" do
diff --git a/spec/unit/remote_data_store_spec.rb b/spec/unit/remote_data_store_spec.rb
index defb225..9c7c526 100644
--- a/spec/unit/remote_data_store_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/remote_data_store_spec.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-require 'spec_helper'
-
 describe Dragonfly::DataStorage::RemoteDataStore do
   describe '#retrieve' do
     it "should successfully make requests" do
@@ -37,4 +35,3 @@
     end
   end
 end
-
diff --git a/spec/unit/rmagick_helper_spec.rb b/spec/unit/rmagick_helper_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc4ecae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/unit/rmagick_helper_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+describe Magickly::RmagickHelper do
+  describe '.to_hex' do
+    it "converts black correctly" do
+      pixel = Magick::Pixel.from_color('black')
+      expect(Magickly::RmagickHelper.to_hex(pixel)).to eq('000000')
+    end
+
+    it "converts white correctly" do
+      pixel = Magick::Pixel.from_color('white')
+      expect(Magickly::RmagickHelper.to_hex(pixel)).to eq('FFFFFF')
+    end
+
+    it "converts an intermediate color correctly" do
+      pixel = Magick::Pixel.from_color('aquamarine')
+      expect(Magickly::RmagickHelper.to_hex(pixel)).to eq('7FFFD4')
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/unit/shortcut_spec.rb b/spec/unit/shortcut_spec.rb
index 7306e05..9541187 100644
--- a/spec/unit/shortcut_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/shortcut_spec.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-require 'spec_helper'
-
 describe "Dragonfly shortcuts" do
   before do
     @image_path = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), '..', 'support', 'imagemagick.png')
@@ -8,7 +6,7 @@
 
   describe :brightness_contrast do
     it "should throw an error for no arguments" do
-      expect { @image.brightness_contrast }.to raise_error
+      expect { @image.brightness_contrast }.to raise_error(ArgumentError)
     end
 
     it "should throw an error for a empty string" do
@@ -46,7 +44,7 @@
 
   describe :tilt_shift do
     it "should throw an error for no coefficient" do
-      expect { @image.tilt_shift }.to raise_error
+      expect { @image.tilt_shift }.to raise_error(ArgumentError)
     end
 
     it "should throw an error for a empty string" do