Bio-Formats
Overview
Bio-Formats is an open-source Java library for reading and writing life sciences image file formats, developed by the OME consortium primarily at the University of Dundee and Glencoe Software. Its central purpose is to convert proprietary microscopy data from instrument vendors into the open OME data model, and in particular into OME-TIFF, providing a common metadata structure across otherwise incompatible acquisition formats. It supports over 160 proprietary and open formats, covering output from confocal, widefield, light-sheet, high-content screening, digital pathology, and electron microscopy instruments. Bio-Formats is the format I/O layer embedded in OMERO, Fiji/ImageJ, QuPath, and most other open-source bioimaging software, making it the practical mechanism by which raw microscopy acquisitions enter the open data ecosystem.
Connections
- Produced by: OME consortium (University of Dundee, Glencoe Software)
- Converts to: OME File Formats (OME-TIFF, OME data model)