To get started making our first image, we'll issue the command

convert -size 320x240 xc:white -font Helvetica -pointsize 50 -draw "text 20,140 'Hello Stencil'" test.gif

which produces an image like this . Most of the parameters are self explanatory. I have just picked up "xc:white" parameter from examples on the internet, but as best as I can tell it is just a way to specify a default blank canvas with a specific color. The "pointsize" parameter is the point size for the specified font. The "draw" parameter specifies the x and y coordinates and the text to draw in the chosen font.