Color Balancing Histology Images for Presentations and Publication

Many histology micrographs with poor color contrast are published in scientific journals. Such images are difficult for readers to interpret and may mask the scientific data in the image. Given the cost of publishing color pages coupled with the ease with which images can be acquired with correct colors or color balanced with digital imaging software, there is no reason for authors, editors, reviewers, or readers to accept poor-quality images. We show examples of defective images and illustrate corrective measures using ergonomic light microscopy, Adobe® Photoshop®, and Reindeer Graphics Fovea Pro®. Similar image corrections can be performed in many scientific image-analysis software programs as well as in the freeware NIH ImageJ. (The J Histotechnol 28:81, 2005)Received: January 28, 2005; accepted with revisions: April 26. 2005