Creating Composite Images

Composite 2 or more images creates a larger image into which the source images are pasted at specified locations.

Set the x and y size of the new composite image, select ``Composite 2 or more images'', then click Accept. A message box will be displayed allowing the image numbers of the source images to be specified; for example, 1 2 5-7 19 . All the source images must have the same bits/pixel.

A small spreadsheet will then appear. Type the x and y coordinates in the left and right columns, respectively, for each image. (Note that 0,0 is in the upper left corner of the new composite image). The subimages will be copied to the new composite image, at these coordinates. Make sure the x and y size values for the new image are large enough, otherwise the subimages will be cropped. (X and y size are specified on the Create Image dialog).

Notes:

1. All the images must have the same bits/pixel before creating a composite image.
2. The subimages can be any size.
3. The new image takes on the properties of the first subimage in the list. For example, if the first subimage is grayscale, the composite will also be grayscale.

Creating composite image from a list of coordinates

Copying a large number of rectangular regions from one image to another can be tedious, and it can be difficult to line the areas up manually. This option allows composites to be created using a file from disk.

Select ``Spot listpanel'' and click Accept to create a new composite image based on a list of coordinates. The list should be a text file in the format created by imal's Image Registration function (sec 8.6.4), containing coordinates of regions in the currently-selected image which are to be copied into a new image.

If ``Fixed spot size'' is selected, the bounding box in the coordinate file will be ignored, and the specified fixed x and y sizes will be used. Otherwise, regions specified by the xmin, ymin, xmax, and ymax columns in the file will be copied into the new image. The spacing between the boxes (in pixels), and an margin of extra pixels around the bounding box which should also be copied, can be specified in the dialog box.

For example, below are two lines from an unwarped spot list from a 2D acrylamide gel, created in Image Registration.

  #Label orig.x orig.y Size  Signal  xmin ymin xmax ymax  Identity
  1      430    75     374   1103    424  74   450  108   1
  2      604    91     32    39      603  90   610  99    2

If this file were used, regions between (424, 74) and (450, 108) and between (603, 90) and (610, 99) would be copied from the current image and lined up in a new image, providing documentation of the two areas.

Create image from selected area

A new image is created containing the currently-selected area. Areas larger than the size of the screen can be selected by the shift-click method (Sec. 4.4.1 ), which selects points on the image.