All Other: SImg

5.0 Excellent program for Image Processing!

Lots of useful features; Dynamic ranging on data; FREE

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One area where the Unix and Linux operating systems excel in astronomy software is in the area of "image processing". There is definitely no shortage of software available. So with all the competition, how does one software package stand out from the crowd? Simply by offering a variety of features that appeal to most astronomical imagers, and being good at all those things!

SImg is a package that runs under Linux and was designed primarily for image processing. It is distributed under GPL as Free software. The package consists of a library, and a set of applications that use that library. It also comes with a "visualization" tool.

A number of different camera types and data formats are supported...

Image formats
* gzip compressed images
* SIF
* FITS
* Digital photo raw images
* PNM family
* SBIG
* PCX
* BMP

SImg use a variable dynamic range approach for processing data. The dynamic range is the interval between the smallest and the largest possible pixel value. Fixing the dynamic range would mean that pixel values are limited to upper and lower limits.

SImg internally uses a floating point format during the processing and also allows to store these floating point data directly using the SIF and FITS image formats. So there is no (relevant) limits for the pixel values. In SImg the dynamic range is the interval between the smallest and the larges pixel value, i.e. the dynamic range is variable.

Following are some of the features of SImg:
* Support for Firewire cameras (including support for longtime exposure modifications)
* GUI for control of Firewire cameras
* Support of many raw data formats for digital cameras (dcraw)
* Several methods for generating false color images
* Support of bayer color pattern images
* Multi time exposures
* Computing of read out noise and AD resolution
* Removing interferences
* Visualization tool
* Deconvolution (Wiener, van Cittert's, Richardson Lucy and several new methods)
* Video4linux support (for cameras / those with webcams)
* Computing of the PSF
* Many routines for color composition
* Algorithms for removing gradients
* Denoising
* Automatic shifting / rotation / ... of images (for addition, color composition or cutting)
* Many possibilities for color value transforms
* Approximation by polynomials or images

So if you are looking for an excellent software package for image processing that supports a wide variety of camera types, then maybe SImg is for you.