Brief Introduction to NIH Image

NIH Image uses tools selected from a toolbar that is generally kept on the left side of the monitor, but can be moved if necessary. The graphic below describes each of the tools. More detailed descriptions are available from the NIH WWW site.

The left side of the screen also displays the following boxes:

• LUT (stands for Lookup Up Table) which demonstrates the range of color values depicted in the image
• Map which is used to change the contrast and the brightness of the image
• Info which presents information about the current cursor location and pixel value

In order to use NIH Image with satellite imagery, the images need to be either TIFF or PICT files. Most graphics programs will be able to convert files found on the Internet into either of those two formats.