diff --git a/docs/getting_started.rst b/docs/getting_started.rst index e970aa475..95383bc82 100644 --- a/docs/getting_started.rst +++ b/docs/getting_started.rst @@ -281,8 +281,8 @@ Any of the frames of such an image are accessed by adding a ``frame=`` format=large_image.constants.TILE_FORMAT_NUMPY) # nparray will contain data from the middle channel image -Channels, Bands, Samples, and Axes ----------------------------------- +Channels, Bands, Samples, Axes, and Frames +------------------------------------------ Various large image formats refer to channels, bands, and samples. This isn't consistent across different libraries. In an attempt to harmonize the geospatial and medical image terminology, large_image uses ``bands`` or ``samples`` to refer to image plane components, such as red, green, blue, and alpha. For geospatial data this can often have additional bands, such as near infrared or panchromatic. ``channels`` are stored as separate frames and can be interpreted as different imaging modalities. For example, a fluorescence microscopy image might have DAPI, CY5, and A594 channels. A common color photograph file has 3 bands (also called samples) and 1 channel. @@ -292,6 +292,10 @@ The ``z`` and ``t`` are common enough that they are sometimes considered as prim Other axes are supported provided their names are case-insensitively unique. +Many image formats (such as TIFF) can contain multiple images within a single file. A single image within the file can have multiple bands. Channels, time series, and other axes are stored as separate images. + +By default, the ``getTile``, ``getRegion``, and ``tileIterator`` methods will return all of the bands of a single frame. The specific bands returned can be modified using the ``style`` parameter. The specific frame, including any channel or other axes, is specified with the ``frame`` parameter. + Styles - Changing colors, scales, and other properties ------------------------------------------------------