The Image Processing Handbook is a widely used text and reference for people doing computer-assisted image analysis, particularly using various types of microscopes. The ISBN number for the fourth edition (2002, CRC Press) is 0-8493-1142-X, and you can buy it on-line right now at Amazon.com

The book Practical Stereology, 2nd edition, by John C. Russ and Robert T. Dehoff is published by Plenum Press (isbn 0-306-46476-4) and can also be ordered from Amazon. A highly compressed 7.5 MByte pdf file can be downloaded for examination. The images are highly compressed, to minimize download time, but text is searchable using the free Adobe Acrobat reader and the table of contents is hotlinked to the text, for maximum convenience. The file is available from:

• (Univ. of Aberdeen, thanks to Jenny Gregory)
• (Univ. of Oklahoma, thanks to Greg Strout)

The Image Processing Tool Kit is a CD-ROM containing more than 150 Photoshop-compatible plug-ins (both Mac and PC) that implement the methods in the Image Processing Handbook, along with a detailed step-by-step tutorial on using them and more than 200 images from the book. It is also available on-line from Amazon.com.

Fovea Pro is a high-end software package that extends the Tool Kit with capabilities for 16 bit per channel images, and additional processing and measurement capabilities. Used with Adobe Photoshop it offers a very powerful set of tools for interactive and automated image analysis.

A short course on image analysis that uses these materials is taught regularly each year in the USA and in Denmark. Full details are available on-line.

A custom course teaching basic image analysis using the commercial program Image Pro Plus is offered through Media Cybernetics.

North Carolina State University had a site (now unfortunately not maintained) containing an extensive set of teaching materials called Visualizations in Materials Science (ViMS) for materials science developed by me and my students. The materials from that site are still available on CD. Brooks-Cole Publishing Co. sells CD-ROMS containing the ViMS materials along with an interactive study guide and problems and solutions. The CD is available for both Mac (ISBN 0-534-95052-3) and Windows (ISBN 0-534-95736-6) users.

Plenum Press publishes my book Fractal Surfaces (1994, ISBN number 0-306-44702-9), which includes Mac and Windows disks with programs to measure and simulate surface images. You can get it on-line at Amazon.com. Plenum also publishes the textbook Computer Assisted Microscopy (1990, ISBN number 0-306-43410-5) and the Journal of Computer Assisted Microscopy, a professional scientific journal of which I was the founding editor but have now passed that torch along to Stanley Dunn at Rutgers Univ.

Information is available about the consulting services that I offer, which include on-site training and assistance in Image Analysis and Research Management.

You can email me at DrJohnRuss@AOL.com or John_Russ@NCSU.edu