Fw: Bio-formats in ImageJ unable to open older IPLab Mac format file

[Lawrence B Kramer]

Hi,

I sent the following message to the developer email contact address listed on the bioformats web site.  However, I might be mistaken and it is really more of an ImageJ issue.  I searched the older messages and failed to find any thing specific to my problem so I am posting this here also.  If anyone happens to have any ideas they would be appreciated.  

I removed the zip file that was attached to the original message, but can email anyone who wanted it.

Thanks for your time.

Larry

----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence B Kramer
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 2:23 PM
Subject: Bio-formats in ImageJ unable to open older IPLab Mac format file


Hi,

I am a graduate student working in a biology lab in which we used Mac IPLab and more recently IVision to capture images on our microscope and do some initial processing.  I need to be able to easily open and quantify data in many of these images at home using ImageJ and as you likely know ImageJ is not able to natively open Ivision files.  However, after downloading loci_tools.jar and dropping it into my ImageJ/plugins folder as directed I was able to open IVision images (extension .ipm) which has been great.

However, I also have a large number of older Mac IPlab format files (also file extension .ipm) which do not open successfully.  When I open Ivision files I see several informational status messages in the ImageJ status area including "Looking for XML metadata", followed in rapid succession by a few other messages and the file opening. However, when I attempt to open one of these older Mac IPlab format .ipm images the processing stops at this message and the image never opens.

Have you encountered this before and do you know if there is a way to readily open these images using your library?

There is a macro in ImageJ ( OpenMacIPLab ) that can enable ImageJ to open these older format images, but it involves opening a macro dialog window every time and then selecting the image, multiple steps per image in place of simply double-clicking on the image which I am now able to do with ImageJ for IVision images thanks to the loci tools library.  Multiplied over thousands of images these extra steps make a big difference, so if there is a way to open these older format images with your library I would really appreciate you letting me know.

I have attached a zipped version of one of the files that will not open in hopes it is useful to you in replicating my problem.

Thanks for any help you can give,

Larry