Scan settings

If you are acquiring an image with brightfield illumination, the time delay is used to allow time for the stage in XY to stop moving and any vibration to die down.

For your test montage:

• Set this value to "zero" first
• Increase the value only if you see signs that the stage is still moving when the image is captured (e.g., blurred image).
  • If there are artifacts with a zero time delay, 100 ms is usually a sufficient delay.
  • With some of the slower stages (especially Prior stages), delays of up to 1000 ms may be needed.
  • If you are acquiring fluorescent or other low light images that require integration by the frame grabber, enter a value larger than the time of the integration (as much as two times the integration time, but start with a number only slightly larger, and increase if you see text in some individual tiles). The software does not automatically know how long the acquisition is, so be sure to allow time for the frame grabber integration.

  This option has no effect on 3D scans.

Removes rows and columns of pixels from the edges of each field of view (image tile).

This option allows you to correct for spherical aberration or a video card that acquires with a black or white strip on any of the image edges.

Try a test acquisition with all of these values set to zero, and increase them if there is a problem in the final image.

1. Acquire a single image
2. Zoom in on the top left and bottom right corners. Any rows or columns of bad pixels are immediately evident.
3. Set the trim values to remove the unwanted pixels.
   • For low magnifications, 0-10 pixels is a suitable range.
   • For higher magnifications, larger trims (25-50 pixels) may be appropriate.

• If lighting is very uneven across the field of view, large numbers of pixels may need to be removed to account for unevenly lit portions of the image
  • Try to correct lighting before resorting to trimming.
• When many pixels are trimmed, the fields of view in the resulting virtual slide are made smaller, and smaller stage movements are made accordingly.
• High values for trimming will slightly increase your acquisition time, since more acquisition sites are required.

Blends the edges from each field of view smoothly.

• Select the number of pixels to blend at each seam. Generally, 5-10 pixels is sufficient.

Use if the image scan type selected in step 1 is scan inside Contour only.

• The color (white or black) is added the edges of the image.
• Generally, white is used for brightfield imaging while black is used for fluorescent imaging.