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InstantScale tutorial

InstantScale was designed to automatically read the scales values and redraw the scales inputted by the SEM machines in our investigation centre. This allows it to automatically do this to all images selected even if they have different scales values. As can be seen in the images below the images saved in the SEM come with a big white bar with several informations inside. InstantScale reads its value, counts the pixels of the scale bar and redraws it while at the same time cropping the image to remove the white bar.

The program after installed and opened will show a window as represented in the image below.

  1. Read Scale. This will try to measure the white bar height, the scale bar size and read the scale number.
  2. Progress bar. Shows the progress of the tasks described before.
  3. Value. The scale number read will be shown or inserted here.
  4. Unit. Metric unit of the original image.
  5. Scale size. The scale bar size (in pixels) will be shown or inserted here.
  6. White bar. The white bar size (in percentage relative to the image) will be shown or inserted here.
  7. Manual. Let's users change all parameters that are normally locked.
  8. Ruler window. Opens window to let user measure scale bar manually.
  9. Target Value. If a specific scale number is necessary insert its value here.
  10. Target Unit. Metric unit of the image with the new scale.
  11. Scale Position. Position of the new scale relative to the bottom left corner of the image.
  12. Size of Scale. Size of the new scale. This number has no specific relation to the image. The size when choosing the number "5" (for example) itโ€™s the same for all images. Although the scale number can vary if a target value is not chosen and the original images have different scale numbers.
  13. Crop Position. Starting direction to crop the image.
  14. Pick background colour. Background colour of the new scale.
  15. Pick font colour. Font/scale bar colour of the new scale.
  16. Preview. Crops the original image and adds the new scale.

Tip: Contrast: This value is obtained through the W3C Recommendations formula of Luminance. A value of 7 is recommended for better readability.