Scriptable Java app for scientific image processing
ImageJ is a Java-based graphic design program dedicated to analyzing images that you can install free of charge on your compatible Windows desktops. It can either run as an online applet or as a downloadable application. More importantly, this photography tool enables you to display, edit, analyze, process, save, and print 8-bit, 16-bit as well as 32-bit pictures.
Not to mention, it also supports the most common image file types including TIFF, GIF, JPEG, BMP, PGM, DICOM, ASCII, FITS, and raw data files in text formats like spreadsheets. ImageJ can be a notable alternative to Meesoft's Image Analyzer and Calvin Hass' JPEGsnoop.
What is ImageJ used for?
ImageJ's main purpose is to calculate area and pixel values that will extremely be useful for graphic designers. It does however go a little beyond that too, allowing you to measure distances and angles, create density histograms, and also line profile plots. Moreover, it provides other standard image processing functions as well such as contrast manipulation, sharpening, smoothing, edge detection, and median filtering, to mention a few. Geometric transformations like scaling, rotation, and flips can also be done using this digital photo utility.
ImageJ's color processing feature is powerful and versatile, allowing you to perform a range of color-based analyses and modifications on images. In particular, it supports several color spaces, including RGB, HSB, and CIE Lab, which enable you to handle images with precision depending on their analysis needs. This software allows for color separation, letting you split an image into individual color channels, which can then be modified separately.
The Java-based image processing software can handle image stacks—a multithreaded series of images that share a single window. With this, you can perform time-consuming operations in parallel on multi-CPU hardware. Automate tasks and create custom tools through its pre-installed macros. It can generate macro code using the command recorder while employing a macro debugger will authorize you to debug it. There are more than 300 macros that you can enjoy within the app and over 500 plugins available.
ImageJ vs. Fiji
For the record, Fiji is just like ImageJ but it's based on ImageJ2—a complete rewrite of the first installment for multidimensional image data—instead. The development of Fiji aims to provide a distribution of ImageJ2 with many bundled plugins. It integrates an updating system that generates an orderly menu structure and pervasive documentation by supplying detailed algorithm descriptions and tutorials. Many recommend Fiji over ImageJ, especially for users dealing with life sciences as it is equipped with the Bio-Formats plugin.
Bio-Formats will greatly help you open the majority of the proprietary file formats that microscope vendors use to store images. For instance, the 3D viewer that implements registration, segmentation, and other advanced image processing algorithms through light microscopy can visualize data better. The TrakEM2 component that it contains was successfully used and enhanced to analyze neuronal lineages in larval Drosophila brains. Fiji empowers you to avoid the need to install multiple components from different sources.
Good image analyzer
ImageJ is a decent and slimmer image analysis solution. It loads and runs much faster as well as easier for non-programmer users to operate. Since it consists of the ‘Compile and Run’ feature for plugins without requiring you to learn a code-management system. But, if you crave better processing that also grants more built-in macros and plugins, Fiji will be a finer option particularly if you are in the field of life sciences.
