To install ImageJ, download the Mac OS X .tar.gz file and double-click on it to extract the "ImageJ (OS X)" folder. To run ImageJ, open this folder and double-click on the ImageJ icon.
Memory
To make more than 128MB of memory available to ImageJ, use a text editor such as TextEdit
to edit the line
in the ImageJ.app/Contents/Resources/MRJApp.properties file, where ImageJ.app is the directory (bundle) that the Finder displays as the ImageJ application. You can view the files and folders in the ImageJ bundle by control-clicking on the ImageJ application and selecting "Show Package Contents". Another way to make more memory available to ImageJ is by running from the command line and using the -Xmx option.com.apple.mrj.application.vm.options=-Xmx128M
Upgrades
To upgrade to the latest version of ImageJ, replace the ij.jar file in the ImageJ application with a newer one from http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/upgrade/. To do this, control-click on the ImageJ application, select "Show Package Contents", and then drag the newer ij.jar into the Contents/Resources/Java folder.
Drag and Drop
The OS X version of ImageJ opens images, text files, ROIs and LUTs that are dropped on the ImageJ icon.
Java 1.4.1 Update
Think twice before intalling the Java 1.4.1 update from Apple. It is so buggy that
ImageJ, when run from the command line or by double-clicking ij.jar, becomes almost
unusable. The ImageJ application, however, will still run okay since it continues to
use the Java 1.3.1 runtime, which the update does not remove.
It is possible to revert to Java 1.3.1 by typing these two commands into a Terminal window:
cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/VersionsThis switches the symbolic link for the current JDK to 1.3.1. You can view what the CurrenJDK is pointing to by running (in the same directory):
sudo ln -sfh 1.3.1 CurrentJDK
ln -alKnown Problems
Or if ij.jar is in the current directory, type:java -jar -mx256m ImageJ.app/Contents/Resources/Java/ij.jar (or java -mx256m -cp ImageJ.app/Contents/Resources/Java/ij.jar ij.ImageJ)
The -Xmx256m switch specifies that ImageJ will have available a maximum of 256MB of RAM.java -jar -Xmx256m ij.jar (or java -Xmx256m -cp ij.jar ij.ImageJ)
Here is a simple AppleScript that sends commands to Terminal to have it automatically launch ImageJ:
With OS X 10.1 or later, you can also run ImageJ by double-clicking on ij.jar.tell application "Terminal" run do script with command "cd /Applications/ImageJ java -jar -mx350m ./ImageJ.app/Contents/Resources/Java/IJ.jar" end tell
Adding a JAR File
Some plugins require adding a JAR file to ImageJ. To do this, control-click on the ImageJ application,
select "Show Package Contents", drag the JAR file
into Contents/Resources/Java, then open Contents/Resources/MRJApp.properties in a text editor (e.g., TextEdit) and add the JAR
file to the line that starts with "com.apple.mrj.application.classpath". This is what the line should look like after adding jimi.jar, a JAR file
required by the Jimi_Reader and Jimi_Writer plugins:
com.apple.mrj.application.classpath=Contents/Resources/Java/ij.jar:Contents/Resources/Java/jimi.jar