In article <CFz90D.5o9 at usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>, I wrote:
> Does anyone have suggestions for digitizing software for Macintoshes
> (using a CalComp? digitizer board) that would record measurements
> of plant parts (projected from slides onto the digitizer pad)?
Turns out that NIH Image will do the job nicely. For those of you
needing it, this fine software written by Wayne Rasband of NIH is
available freely by anonymous ftp to zippy.nimh.nih.gov.
Peter Kristensen pointed me to an archive of NIH Image discussion. From
that I found enough answers to know that Image can do the kind of measuring
and recording of data to do what the biologist here wants.
> From: pekr at research.novo.dk (Peter Kristensen)
>> Consider raising your question on digitisers and NIH Image on the NIH Image
> mailing list, or you may find answers in the old files from this list - se
> details below.
> sincerely
>> -- Peter Kristensen
> <pekr at research.novo.dk>
>> NIH Image Mailing List
> ----------------------
> Subscribing to the new NIH Image mailing list is good way to get in contact
> with other Image users and to get questions answered. It was set up by a
> group in the Soil Science Department at the University of Minnesota. To
> subscribe, send a message containing the line
>> subscribe nih-image Firstname Lastname
>> to listproc at soils.umn.edu.>> The archived messages from the NIH Image mailing list are available
> /pub/nih-image/documents directory. (*)
>> If you have access to gopher, you can connect to gopher.soils.umn.edu
> at port 70 and look under:
>> Computer Information/
> General Information/
> Search Nih-Image Mailing List Archives <?>
>> to search the archived messages for keywords, or
>> Computer Information/
> General Information/
> Selected Electronic Mailing List Archives/
> Nih-image*/
>> for the actual archived messages.
>
Kevin Ramer told me about MacMeasure, which in fact we have on our file
server, but I had forgotten. This is also available at the NIH Image
FTP site.
> From: ramer at nrc-iris.nrc.uab.edu (Kevin W. Ramer)
>> There is (I have) a program MacMeasure that does input from tablets.
> I don't recall where I obtained it. However, it can measure distances,
> lengths, areas. In its basic incarnation it is limited in the number
> of measurements (i.e. sample points).
..
Doug Eernisse also added some other suggestions to Image and MacMeasure:
> From: Doug Eernisse <Doug_Ee at um.cc.umich.edu>
..
> I had the author of PhotoShop add something similar for saving
> coordinates from digitized images to an Excel format, but that
> was before Adobe bought it and they yanked the "digitizing" tool.
> Image will work fine if you can get your images to a digital form
> without a tablet. If you need outlines or line segment measurements
> saved directly from a tablet, and need to use a Mac, you may need
> to go to more expensive digitizing systems, or write a custom
> program.
>> I bought Sigma-Scan (for pcs) and their tablet years ago,
> but was not at all impressed. I disliked it enough that I throw
> away the frequent mailings I get from them wanting more $ for
> an upgrade fee. If you can use a pc, I think there are a variety of
> programs that are cheaper.
>> As for digitizers that act like a mouse device,
> many of the drawing tablets, like a Wacom tablet that I also have,
> can do that, but these are intended more for drawing, as in pressure-
> sensitive capabilities. Programs like PhotoShop and Illustrator
> support this tablet automatically.
>> A student here has done a lot of leaf area measurements with his
> Mac, but I don't think he is concerned with coordinates.
>> Doug
--
-- d.gilbert--biocomputing--indiana u--bloomington--gilbertd at bio.indiana.edu
