ImageJ is a program for processing, analyzing, and editing images. It supports the installation of external plug-ins to extend its functionality. The application is mainly used in specific fields of science and disciplines, requiring the analysis of numerous images, such as biomedicine, astronomy, and geography. ImageJ is free and open-source software. The program is multiplatform and has a version for Mac, and we will tell you about it.

What are the purposes of this program?

ImageJ for Mac is designed to open, edit, analyze, save in various formats, and print 8-, 16-, and 32-bit images. It supports multiple image formats, from the standard JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and GIF to forms such as DICOM (used in medicine) or FITS (used in astronomy). The application also works with RAW images captured by digital cameras but not formatted. The list of supported formats can be expanded by installing plug-ins.

Multi-threaded mode

ImageJ works in a multi-threaded mode, so time-consuming operations, such as processing high-resolution images, can be performed in parallel with other functions. The program opens each image in a separate window. You can open any number of photos simultaneously, depending on your device's memory capacity.

In addition to the standard essential image processing functions, ImageJ for Mac can perform some specific operations, such as:

• Calculating area statistics and pixel values of selected image fragments;

• Measuring distances and angles;

• Creating density histograms and profile graphs;

• Median filtering.

ImageJ allows you to perform various geometric transformations, such as scaling, rotation, flipping, etc. Images can be zoomed in up to 32 times, and all analysis and processing functions are available at any value.

Advanced functionality

ImageJ was developed with an open architecture so that users can extend the editor's functionality with Java plug-ins. Plug-ins can download from the official program page or various third-party sites. They can also be developed using the built-in ImageJ plug-in editor and the Java compiler. Plug-ins can solve almost any image processing task:

• Applying various graphic filters to images, such as Gaussian Blur, Kuwahara Filter, Granulometric Filter, Kalman Filter, and more;

• Graphic plug-ins, adding standard and highly-specialized tools for editing and creating graphics, such as drawing geometric shapes, working with highlighting, brushes, creating animated images, splitting images into fragments, tools for building various 2D and 3D graphs and charts based on photos, etc.;

• Image analysis plug-ins, such as Image Correlation, Texture Analyzer, 3D Noise Calculator from Image Sequence, Fractal Surface Measurement, etc.;

• Plug-ins for working with various digital devices, such as cameras, scanners, etc., or with the images of specific formats generated by them;

• Plug-ins for managing color models, converting one color model to another, counting pixels of specific colors, performing color analysis of images, color extraction, etc.;

• Plug-ins are used to open, edit, analyze common and specific image formats, convert images into graphical and video formats, and create graphic content based on data from tabular and text files;

• Plug-ins for making changes to the program interface or the operation of its essential interface-related functions. For example, the Stack Splitter plug-in allows you to merge opened images into groups, and the 3D Viewer plug-in adds a 3D image viewer using hardware acceleration (i.e., it directly works with the computer's graphic card).

These and many other plug-ins can be added to ImageJ for Mac.