Preferences

Overview

This dialog allows you to view and edit the settings which control the initial appearance and behavior of an image window. Once the image window is started, its controls and the Display Attributes application can be used to customize it.

You can have different versions of the image window settings and switch between them using the selection widget near the top of the dialog. Each version is referred of the settings is referred to as a profile. For more information on profiles and their management see Managing Profiles.

To view and edit a subset of the settings, use the Show preferences menu to select a category of related parameters. After selecting a category, a dialog will appear in which you can examine and change the values. Changes are not saved and will not affect new image windows until the Save button is pressed; you can remove any changes made since the last save by using the Restore button.

Topics

Overview | Managing profiles | Settings (by category)

Related Priism Topics

Priism | Image windows | Display Attributes

Managing Profiles

Each profile is a complete set of the parameters available for controlling an image window. The profiles currently defined are listed in the selection box near the top of the dialog and the one currently in use is shown below the dialog (unfortunately the item highlighted in the selection box may not always correspond to the one in use so don't rely on which one is highlighted). The following paragraphs describe how to use the Preferences dialog to switch, create, and delete profiles.

To switch profiles, simply choose one of the other choices in the selection box. If you made any changes to the current profile, you will be asked if you want to do the switch and discard the changes. A switch takes effect immediately and affects all windows launched after the switch.

Use the Create button to make a new profile. You will be prompted for the name of the profile (this can not be the same as the name of an existing profile), whether to use the current profile as the starting values for the new one (otherwise the unmodified system defaults are used), and, if changes have been made to the current profile, whether or not to save those changes before switching to the new one. Profiles are saved as text files with the .ivepref extension in the .iveprefs subdirectory of your home directory.

Use the Delete button to delete the current profile and the associated disk file. The new current profile will be the system defaults.

Topics

Overview | Managing profiles | Settings (by category) |

Settings by Category

Image color
Display mode
Specifies whether images are in color or levels of grey.
Wave X
Specifies the color used for wave X when displaying in color.
Background
Specifies the color for regions not covered by the image.
Zoom / resolution
Zoom factor
Scales the size of the displayed images.
Interpolate zoomed images
For zoom factors greater than one, specifies whether to bilinearly interpolate the image.
Resolution level
When multiple resolutions are available, selects the resolution used by default when the zoom factor is one. One is the highest resolution; each higher value lowers the resolution in x and y by a factor of two.
Scale bar
Display mode
Selects whether to display a line to demonstrate the physical scale of the image; the Label option adds a label for the length of the line.
Color
Selects the color of the scale bar line and label. The color options are set by the current set of graphics' colors.
Direction
Selects whether the scale bar line should be oriented vertically or horizontally.
Thickness
Specifies the width of the scale bar line in pixels.
Length
Specifies the length of the scale bar in physical units (typically microns for optical microscopy data and angstroms for electron microscopy).
Position
Specifies the location (of the center of the left edge for horizontal scale bars and of the middle of the bottom edge for vertical scale bars) of the scale bar relative to lower lefthand corner of the image window.
Window graphics
Show graphics
Specifies whether or not graphics are overlayed on the image. This does not affect the section number display.
Display range
Specifies what set of sections are candidates for the overlay of graphics. The first two values are the first and last z sections for which graphics are drawn. The third and fourth values are the first and last time indices for which graphics are drawn.
Color list
Specifies the set of graphics' colors used. These sets can be created or modified using Change Colors.
Window geometry
Size
Specifies the size of image portion of the monitor window. This differs from Display Attributes where the size of the entire monitor window is set.
Decorations
Specifies the border drawn around the monitor window.
Show tools
Specifies whether or not to show the controls displayed along the left side of the monitor window.
Multiple image display / step
# columns
Specifies the number of columns of images to be displayed at once in each monitor window.
# rows
Specifies the number of rows of images to be displayed at once in each monitor window.
Order
When multiple images are displayed in a monitor, specifies the order in which the grid of images is filled. With the Bottom to top option (also referred to as the data format, the current section is displayed in the lower lefthand corner and the grid is filled from left to right and from bottom to top. With the Top to bottom option (also referred to as the text format, the current section is displayed in the upper lefthand corner and the grid is filled from left to right and from top to bottom. In either case as the grid is filled, the next section is determined on the basis of the step parameters.
Increment
Specifies the number of sections to jump when scrolling though sections in the monitor window or when displaying multiple sections at once.
Dimension
Specifies the dimension along which the user can move when scrolling through sections or along which the user can view the data set when displaying multiple sections at once. The Section option specifies that the data be scrolled through in the order in which it is stored in the data file; the other options specify to use the z, time, or wave dimension of the data for scrolling.
Wave synching
Specifies what happens when a user scrolls through sections in one (or more) waves and then switches to view a wave that wasn't in view. The Same Z Sec option specifies that when waves are switched, the z and time indices for the section do not change. With the Independent option, the next section to view in a wave is not changed by scrolling through the other waves: when waves are switched the last section viewed in the new wave is the one that is displayed. With the Coupled option, scrolling in a wave or waves causes the next section to view in all other waves to be changed by the same amount; it differs from the Same Z Sec option in that it does not force the next section to be the same (only changes are coupled).
Miscellaneous settings
Show image
Specifies whether or not images are shown in monitor windows (this may be useful if you want to see the overlayed graphics more clearly).
Buffer image
Controls whether or not the scaled data used to draw images is buffered. When on, monitor windows can typically respond faster when redisplaying an image at the expense of increased memory usage.
Complex data as
Specifies how to convert complex data to a single value per pixel so it can be displayed as an image. The options include using the magnitude, phase, real component, or imaginary component as the displayed quantity.
Scaling method
Specifies which algorithm to use when scaling data for an image. The Fast method is about twice as fast as the Accurate one, but with floating point or complex data, the Fast method is subject to increasingly severe rounding problems (missing intensity levels in the image) as the scaling becomes more nonlinear. For linear scales and non-complex integer data, there is no difference between the two methods.

Topics

Overview | Managing Profiles | Settings (by category)