Since the launch of its first pre-operational model, the Meteosat system has evolved as one of the most well-known Earth observation satellite projects. In particular through its imagery mission it has become an indispensable tool for a large user community. Both the quality of the images produced by Meteosat satellites and their processing onground have been continuously improved in recent years. This paper is a short review of the present capabilities and applications of the Meteosat image processing at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC, Darmstadt). It starts with a brief overview on available hardware tools for real-time and offline processing of Meteosat images. Geometrical image restoration and radiometric quality control are the main tasks in this area. But in addition a number of dedicated (software) tools and test setups had to be developed for special testing of the satellite performance, for instance during the commissioning of a new spacecraft. Finally, a short summary on current studies and new developments related to the Meteosat imagery mission concludes this review.