MacMeasure: A low cost, easy-to-operate quantitative morphometrics system for the Macintosh computer

We have developed a new software package called MacMeasure for counting and measuring structures in photographs by use of a Macintosh computer and a Micro Digi-Pad digitizing tablet. The length, perimeter and area of structures can be easily measured, sequentially numbered, scaled, mapped and stored on floppy disk. The hardware for the system (Fig. 1) costs under $2000 and MacMeasure is available at no cost from the authors. The intuitive Macintosh point and click paradigm for command selection is used to operate the software. The commands available include Point, Line, Area, Scale, Map and Help (Fig. 2). Point is used to count the number and location of items in the photograph. Line is used to measure the length of lines and Area measures the perimeter and area from which the shape factor F is calculated. The measured line or area is displayed on the Macintosh screen at high magnification after each measurement is made.