Pixel Inspection Tool

Authors: Michael Schmid
Wayne Rasband (wsr at nih.gov)
History: 2007/12/14: Original release
2012/02/14: Converted to a plugin tool
Requires ImageJ 1.46f or later
Source: Pixel_Inspection_Tool.java
Installation: This tool is built into ImageJ 1.46h and later. To add it to the ImageJ toolbar, select Pixel Inspection Tool from the toolbar's >> menu.
Description: This is a version of Michael Schmid's Pixel Inspector plugin that has been converted to a plugin tool.

[pixel inspector panel]

What it does is display, in a window, the values of the pixels in a small square neighborhood (outlined in red) as the mouse is dragged over the image. The arrow keys nudge the red square if the Pixel Values window is in the foreground. This tool can be used to examine how a filter changes the pixel data (also during with Preview). If the Pixel Values window is in the foreground, pressing "c" (or ctrl-c) copies the current table of pixel values into the clipboard (tab-delimited). In the Pixel Values table, the center position (current cursor) is printed in red (x, y and the value). The direction of the y axis is determined by Analyze>Set Measurements>Invert Y Coordinates).

Press the "Prefs" button in the top left corner of the Pixel Values window to display the preferences dialog box.

[dialog box]

Radius determines the size of the table, 3×3 for radius=1, 5×5 for radius=2 etc. The display of grayscale pixels values (Grayscale readout) can be raw, calibrated or hexadecimal. The display of RGB pixel values (RGB readout) can be R,G,B triples, gray value or hexadecimal. When copying the pixel values to the clipboard, the current position (x,y) is not not written at all, written in the first line or in the same way as the header lines of the Pixel Values window.