Q: I am trying to open a 100 GB tif in NeuroInfo and I am receiving the message ‘Unable to open requested image’. I have downloaded Microfile+ and attempted to convert this file to the JP2000 format, however, when I try to load the file into MicroFile+ (using either drag and drop, or selecting the directory location) nothing appears. Is there a size limit for both NeuroInfo and MicroFile+? Note: I can convert smaller tif files to jpx.
A: The standard TIFF has a read size limitation of 4GB for a single monochrome channel (and drops to 2GB if even one more channel is introduced). This means that even though larger TIFFs can be written by software programs, they are considered invalid and cannot be opened (read) by many software programs, including NeuroInfo. This is likely why you are receiving the error in NeuroInfo indicating the program is ‘Unable to open requested image’ when you load larger TIFF files, but the software does not have a problem with the smaller TIFF files.
My suggestion is to return to your microscope acquisition software and save the image in the software’s proprietary image format (ex. CZI, LIF, LSM, etc.). After saving to this format, you can try converting to JP2000 again in Microfile+. The free microscopy image converter supports a wide range of proprietary formats, which typically don’t have the same size limitations as TIFF.
OME-TIFF is an extended TIFF format designed to handle larger images. You could also consider converting your TIFF files to OME-TIFF to potentially bypass the size restriction.
I hope this information helps you successfully open your images in NeuroInfo. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.