diff --git a/imageapi_imagemagick.module b/imageapi_imagemagick.module
index 3171d0b..6516895 100644
--- a/imageapi_imagemagick.module
+++ b/imageapi_imagemagick.module
@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ function imageapi_imagemagick_settings_form() {
     '#element_validate' => array('imageapi_imagemagick_validate_path'),
   );
 
+  $form['imageapi_imagemagick_binary']['imageapi_imagemagick_nice'] = array(
+    '#type' => 'checkbox',
+    '#title' => t('Set the priority level to idle for the convert process.'),
+    '#default_value' => variable_get('imageapi_imagemagick_nice', FALSE),
+  );
+
   $form['imageapi_imagemagick_binary']['imageapi_imagemagick_debugging'] = array(
     '#type' => 'checkbox',
     '#title' => t('Display debugging information'),
@@ -189,6 +195,9 @@ function _imageapi_imagemagick_convert_exec($command_args, &$output, &$errors) {
     // file paths don't have to be absolute.
     $convert_path = 'start "window title" /D'. escapeshellarg($drupal_path) .' /B '. escapeshellarg($convert_path);
   }
+  elseif (variable_get('imageapi_imagemagick_nice', FALSE)) {
+    $convert_path = 'nice -n 19 ' . $convert_path;
+  }
 
   $descriptors = array(
     0 => array('pipe', 'r'), // stdin