The VIPS image processing system can now read whole-slide images with OpenSlide.
Version 3.2.6 adds support for downsampled MIRAX files, improves performance on some MIRAX slides, fixes a minor MIRAX drawing bug, and fixes a 3.2.5 regression in openslide_read_region with large dimensions.
Version 0.3.0 of the Python bindings fixes some crashes, adds Windows support, adds methods for obtaining Deep Zoom tile coordinates, and improves the example Deep Zoom tilers.
Version 0.10.0 of the Java bindings renames the package and library files, compiles using GNU Autotools, changes handling of associated images, and fixes OpenSlideView translation by large offsets.
Version 3.2.5 has been released, supporting MIRAX 1.03 files, fixing openslide_read_region for large dimensions, reducing memory usage, disabling quickhash-1 for unusual TIFFs where it is very slow, and fixing compilation errors.
The first release of the Python bindings includes complete access to the OpenSlide API, functionality for producing Deep Zoom images, and a simple web application for displaying whole-slide images in a browser.
Version 3.2.4 has been released, supporting MIRAX files without non-hierarchical sections, working around some GKeyFile bugs, and fixing compilation errors on Windows.
Older news is available here.
OpenSlide is a C library that provides a simple interface to read whole-slide images (also known as virtual slides). The current version is 3.2.6, released 2012-02-23.
Java and Python bindings are also available. The Java binding includes a simple image viewer. The Python binding includes a Deep Zoom generator and a simple web-based viewer.
The library can read virtual slides in the following formats:
It provides a simple C interface for programmers to use to decode images of these kinds.
OpenSlide’s support for these formats is not endorsed by their respective vendors and may be incomplete. Problems should be reported to the OpenSlide mailing list or issue tracker.
OpenSlide is a product of the research group of M. Satyanarayanan (Satya) in the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.
See how some projects use OpenSlide.
There is a web-based demo of OpenSlide rendering various slide formats.
There are two mailing lists for OpenSlide:
Users mailing list. Once subscribed, anyone can post. This list is for asking questions about OpenSlide.
Announcement mailing list. It is a low-volume list and is moderated. All users are recommended to subscribe to this list.
Some documentation is included within the downloadable files. Additionally there is:
Development of OpenSlide happens on GitHub:
Some freely-distributable test data is available.
The architecture and design of the library is described in a technical report:
A Vendor-Neutral Library and Viewer for Whole-Slide Images
Adam Goode, M. Satyanarayanan
Technical Report CMU-CS-08-136, June 2008
Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract PDF
Whole-slide images, also known as virtual slides, are large, high resolution images used in digital pathology. Reading these images using standard image tools or libraries is a challenge because these tools are typically designed for images that can comfortably be uncompressed into RAM or a swap file. Whole-slide images routinely exceed RAM sizes, often occupying tens of gigabytes when uncompressed. Additionally, whole-slide images are typically multi-resolution, and only a small amount of image data might be needed at a particular resolution.
There is no universal data format for whole-slide images, so each vendor implements its own formats, libraries, and viewers. Vendors typically do not document their formats. Even when there is documentation, important details are omitted. Because a vendor’s library or viewer is the only way to view a particular whole-slide image, doctors and researchers can be unnecessarily tied to a particular vendor. Finally, few (if any) vendors provide libraries and viewers for non-Windows platforms. Some have gone with a server approach, pushing tiles through a web server, or using Java applets, but these approaches have shortcomings in high-latency or non-networked environments.
OpenSlide has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh.
