ImageJ (Image Processing and Analysis in Java)

ImageJ is a public domain Java image processing program inspired by NIH Image for the Macintosh. It runs, either as an online applet or as a downloadable application, on any computer with a Java 1.4 or later virtual machine. Downloadable distributions are available for Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X and Linux. It can display, edit, analyze, process, save and print 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit images. It can read many image formats including TIFF, GIF, JPEG, BMP, DICOM, FITS and “raw”. It supports “stacks”, a series of images that share a single window. It is multithreaded, so time-consuming operations such as image file reading can be performed in parallel with other operations. It can calculate area and pixel value statistics of user-defined selections. It can measure distances and angles. It can create density histograms and line profile plots. It supports standard image processing functions such as contrast manipulation, sharpening, smoothing, edge detection and median filtering. It does geometric transformations such as scaling, rotation and flips. Image can be zoomed up to 32:1 and down to 1:32. All analysis and processing functions are available at any magnification factor. The program supports any number of windows (images) simultaneously, limited only by available memory. Spatial calibration is available to provide real world dimensional measurements in units such as millimeters. Density or gray scale calibration is also available.

ImageJ was designed with an open architecture that provides extensibility via Java plugins. Custom acquisition, analysis and processing plugins can be developed using ImageJ’s built in editor and Java compiler. User-written plugins make it possible to solve almost any image processing or analysis problem. It is being developed on Mac OS X using its built in editor and Java compiler, plus the BBEdit editor and the Ant build tool. The source code is freely available. The author, Wayne Rasband, is at the Research Services Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

ImageJ 1.x, often shortened to ImageJ1 or IJ1, is a stable version of ImageJ which has been under continuous development since 1997. It has always been, and continues to be, a one-developer project of Wayne Rasband originally developed in 1997 as a cross-platform version of NIH Image. ImageJ grew organically over time as more features were added, according to user requests. As a result it is currently suppported by many hundreds of plugins created by a diverse community of developers.

The current version of ImageJ is often referred to as ImageJ2, to differentiate it from ImageJ 1.x. The ImageJ2 distribution actually includes the latest version of ImageJ1 as well, along with a legacy layer for backwards compatibility, which transparently converts between IJ1 and IJ2 data structures as needed. ImageJ2 is a new version of ImageJ for the next generation of multidimensional image data, with a focus on scientific imaging. Its central goal is to broaden the paradigm of ImageJ beyond the limitations of ImageJ 1.x, to support the next generation of multidimensional scientific imaging. To ensure backwards compatibility, ImageJ2 has been designed to fully integrate into the existing ImageJ user interface. This allows users to keep using ImageJ in familiar ways, while providing the ability to migrate toward more powerful new features as needed.