Convolution-based filtering — Smoothing, sharpening, edge detection, etc.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Frequency-based filtering FFT, inverse FFT
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Simple Threshholding
Yes
Yes — advanced
Yes
Yes
Binary Processing — Erode, Dilate, Open, Close etc.
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Morphometry (Binary shape analysis)
Yes
Yes
No
No
Isocontour segmentation
Yes
No
Yes
No
Rotate, crop, resize
Yes
Yes
Yes — also in 3D
Yes
Stack support
Yes
Yes — advanced
Yes
Yes — limited
ROI (region of interest) support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced Image Processing
Feature
ImageJ*
Nikon Elements
PMOD
Photoshop CS5 Ex.
Insight Tool Kit (ITK) filters
No
No
Yes
No
VOI (volume of interest) support
No
Limited
Yes
No
Macro extensible
Yes — and open source
Not really
No
Sort of (scripts)
Object-counting/classification
Yes
Yes
No
No
Co-localization analysis
Yes
Yes (no curve fitting)
No
No
Arbitrary Plane Re-slicing
Yes
No
Yes
No
3D Segmentation
No
Yes
Yes
No
Rendering
Feature
ImageJ*
Nikon Elements
PMOD
Photoshop CS5 Ex.
Multi-channel display
Practically, up to 3 ch
Yes
Up to 2
No (but layers available)
Volume Rendering — MIP, mIP, Surfaces
Yes
Yes — Advanced with perspective
MIP, mIP only
No
Movie compilation
Basic (XYT)
Advanced (XYZT) arbitrary views
Good (XYZT) – viewpoints limited
No
Multi-channel blend/merge/overlay
Basic
Yes — advanced
Yes — advanced
Blend & overlay
Drawing
Feature
ImageJ*
Nikon Elements
PMOD
Photoshop CS5 Ex.
Basic Markup
Limited
Limited
No
Advanced — Extensive
Advanced Drawing
No
No
No
Advanced — Extensive
Advanced Text Editing
No
No
No
Advanced — Extensive
* ImageJ is an open source Java application that can be extend to almost any image processing task — if you know how to program. The capabilities listed here refer to the "standard" ImageJ install and plugins currently (2010) available on the ImageJ website.
