Release Notes

Version 2.4 is the latest version of LI‑COR Acquisition Software.

  1. New custom color selector dialog provides more choices for viewing images, especially image acquisitions with many channels. Click the Image Display button above the image and then click the custom color wheel to see the Custom Color Selector shown below.

    Empiria Studio custom color selector dialog with expanded color options and option to enter hexadecimal value for color.
    Figure 161. Custom color selector dialog with expanded color options and option to enter hexadecimal value for color.

  2. Added channel color name and color hex code in Image Reports. In earlier versions of LI‑COR Acquisition Software, the color icon was present without the color name or hex code.

  3. Fixed a bug that caused image metadata to be lost when the metadata was entered in a scan workflow where multiple scan areas were being imaged. The image metadata entered in scan workflows during acquisition of multiple scan areas now persists after LI‑COR Acquisition Software is restarted.

  4. Min and max display settings are now reported correctly in image reports with epi and trans (bright-field) channel images.

  5. The bottom row of wells in 384-well plates is no longer clipped in scans. Previously, the bottom row of wells on 384-well plate scans was clipped on the Odyssey F.

  1. Optimized focus offsets added to verification plate scan workflows enable scanning the near-infrared verification plate (926-75001) and the vis fluorescence verification plate (926-21319) on the Odyssey M Imager and Odyssey F Imager. (Verification plate workflows were already available for the Odyssey DLx Imager and Odyssey XF Imager). Regularly scanning verification plates provides a sensitive method for verifying the uniformity and consistency of fluorescence detection across the entire scan surface over time.

  2. The default color of the 520 Channel (520Ex-590Em) has been changed to blue.

  3. A bug has been fixed to preserve image metadata entered on the Scan page. Previously, with multiple scan areas, the user-entered metadata was not always preserved after exiting LI‑COR Acquisition Software and restarting.

  4. An improvement has been made to the image display to use the available height of the content pane when zooming in on narrow images. An observable side effect of this improvement is that images are now centered horizontally on the application content pane. Previously, images were left-justified.

  5. Special locale characters for French and Norsk operating systems are now displayed correctly in the log files for BOT scans, VNOT scans, and verification plate scans.

  6. The “?” icon has been removed from the Add Username dialog for clarity.

  7. Additional metadata fields are preserved in image acquisitions exported from LI‑COR Acquisition Software and imported into Empiria Studio 2.3 and earlier.

    • The correct value for the Assay metadata field is now preserved. With previous versions, it was set to “Other” when imported into older versions of Empiria Studio.

    • The correct value for the Acquisition Software metadata field is now preserved. With previous versions, it was set to “Image Studio” when imported into older versions of Empiria Studio.

  8. An issue was resolved which caused a narrow strip of gray "filler pixels" to be displayed after aligning channels in an Odyssey DLx multichannel acquisition. The filler pixels were errantly displayed in the portion of the image which had only single channel data after alignment.

  9. Improvements were made to messages and handling of exporting images or log files when the destination location is either full or not accessible.

  10. LI‑COR Acquisition Software has updated versions of Java and 3rd party libraries.

A bug has been resolved that prevented some changes to Collections in earlier versions of LI‑COR Acquisition Software from being saved.

  1. LI‑COR Acquisition Software version 2.1 supports the incredibly fast and flexible Odyssey® F Imagers! Visit licorbio.com/odyssey-f to learn how you can advance your research with high-quality images from the Odyssey F.

  2. In further exciting instrument news, LI‑COR Acquisition Software version 2.1 now provides an additional channel for the Odyssey M Imager: the 700A. The 700A channel has an excitation wavelength of 685 nm and an emission range of 816 – 840 nm. Are you already using the Odyssey M with a previous software version? Simply connect to your Odyssey M using LI‑COR Acquisition Software version 2.1 to use the 700A channel in the Custom scan workflow.

  3. A Scan button and an Image Gallery button have been added next to the Home button at the top left of the LI‑COR Acquisition window. Click the Scan button to jump to the Connect page to start a scan. If you're on the Image Gallery, you now can click the Scan button instead of first going Home and then clicking Scan. Click the Image Gallery button to navigate to the Image Gallery.

  4. The Leave button on the Scan page has been renamed to Home to clarify that you will return to the Home page when you click the button.

  5. A bug has been fixed that sometimes caused errors when new channels were added after starting a scan workflow with saved scan settings. The error was titled "Scan Error" and had the following message: “A problem has occurred and the scan cannot complete.” In version 2.1, you can add additional channels in a scan workflow after starting the scan workflow with saved settings.

  6. The Favorites column has been added to Collections, and you can now mark Favorites in a Collection.

  7. Fixed a bug that would cause a non-functional scan area to be drawn if the right mouse button was accidentally pressed while left-clicking and dragging to draw a scan area.

  8. The Well Format chosen during image acquisition (96-well, 384-well) has been added to the image metadata. For the Odyssey M and Odyssey F, the Slide Orientation set during image acquisition has also been added to the image metadata.

  9. Metadata for images is preserved when zip files are exported from LI‑COR Acquisition Software and imported into Image Studio™ Software or Empiria Studio® Software.

Support for Two More Imagers!

In LI‑COR Acquisition 2.0, you can acquire images with the C‑DiGit Blot Scanner and Pearl Trilogy Small Animal Imaging System!

Pearl Trilogy Small Animal Imaging System
Figure 162. Pearl Trilogy Small Animal Imaging System
C-DiGit Blot Scanner
Figure 163.

C‑DiGit Blot Scanner

Note: Connect your C‑DiGit to the computer running LI‑COR Acquisition using an Ethernet cable or a suitable USB To Ethernet adapter. Direct USB connection is not supported.

Save Scan Settings

When you're done acquiring images on an Odyssey Imager, click Save Scan Settings to save your settings for easy reuse. When you start another scan with the same imager, select the saved scan settings that you want to use from the Saved Scan Settings list and click Start.

  • To use exactly the same settings again, click Scan in the left-hand navigation pane.

    You can also proceed through the steps by pressing Enter or clicking Next on each step. If needed, you can make adjustments as you step through the worfklow.

  • Scan settings are saved per Image Data Folder. Go to the Saved Scan Settings page in Options to manage your list of saved scan settings.

List of saved scan settings on the Choose Assay page ready for image acquisition on an Odyssey M Imager.
Figure 164. Once you have saved some scan settings, your saved scan settings will be presented in a list when you begin another image acquisition workflow with the imager that the settings are relevant for. This can be especially useful with plate image acquisitions if you've determined the optimal focus offset for a particular type of plate and want to ensure that you use that focus offset the next time you scan.

Quick-Add Mode for Adding Plate Scan Areas

To quickly scan multiwell plates on the Odyssey DLx Imager or Odyssey CLx Imager, use the new Add Default Scan button to add scan areas that are large enough to acquire images of standard-sized microplates (e.g., 96-well Greiner Bio-One CELLSTAR® Black μClear® Microplate, LICORbio PN 926-19156).

Add "Other" Scan Mode for Custom Image Acquisition on the Odyssey XF Imager and Odyssey Fc Imager

The Other mode provides more flexibility and allows more assay types to be associated with the Odyssey XF Imager and Odyssey Fc Imager.

Image Gallery Enhancements

Delete Multiple Images at a Time

  • You can now select multiple images at a time in the Image Gallery and delete them with one click.

  • Use CTRL + Click (⌘ + Click on macOS) or press SHIFT and click to select multiple image acquisitions in the Image Gallery.

Collections

A Collection is a group of image acquisitions. Collections help with organization and managing multiple images at the same time. For example, you can quickly set the display settings for all images in a Collection.

The blue dropdown arrow button next to the Image Gallery (or Collections) text is used to switch between viewing the Image Gallery and viewing Collections.
Figure 165. Click the blue dropdown arrow button next to the Image Gallery (or Collections) text to switch between viewing the Image Gallery and Collections.

Free Rotate

The Image Gallery now has an option to free rotate images. Open an image in the Image Gallery and click Free Rotate to rotate the image to the orientation you need.

Dot blot before free rotation to horizontally align dots.
Dot blot after free rotation to horizontally align dots.

Color Bars

Color bars, also known as color maps, can be displayed (when only one channel is visible) by adding the color bar to the image in the Image Gallery or in an Experiment workflow.

  • Click to view the color bar. In the Color Bar dialog, select Display on image to display the color bar on the image (when only a single channel is visible).

  • The color bar can be exported by itself or with the image.

This is a 700 channel image of a mouse with a color bar displayed.
Figure 166. In this image, a color bar is displayed for the 700 nm channel image.

Usernames and Image Data Folders Are Now Associated

Associating a username and Image Data Folder A folder on your computer's hard drive where internal LI‑COR Acquisition data will be saved. makes it easier to keep your images separate from images acquired by other people in your lab.

  • To create a new Image Data Folder that is associated with your username, select your username on the Home page, and click Add Data Folder.

    See Image Data Folder for more information about creating Image Data Folders.

  • Once a username and Image Data Folder are associated, you can select the username on the Home page and see a list of Image Data Folders that are associated with that username.

  • Image Data Folders can be associated with more than one username.

Example

Dr. A's Image Data Folders

Figure 167. In this example, "Dr. A" has been selected in the Username column to show Dr. A's Image Data Folders. "Dr. A" has an Image Data Folder called "Data-Folder-A" and an Image Data Folder that is shared with Dr. B (i.e., "Shared").

Dr. B's Image Data Folders

Figure 168. In this example, "Dr. B" has been selected in the Username column to show Dr. B's Image Data Folders. "Dr. B" has an Image Data Folder called "Data-Folder-B" and an Image Data Folder that is shared with Dr. A (i.e., "Shared").

Rescan

After completing an image acquisition, click Rescan to acquire new image(s) with the same settings.

The Rescan option returns you to the first page of the acquisition workflow. Each page will have settings from the previous scan saved, so just click Next on each page to use the same settings.

Mark Favorites in the Image Gallery

Designate your favorite images in the Image Gallery so that you can easily find them when the Image Gallery list becomes long. See Mark Favorite Image Acquisitions for more information about how to use the new favorites feature.

Favorite Image Acquisitions marked in the Image Gallery.
Figure 169. In the Image Gallery, click the favorite icon next to an image to designate it as a favorite. The filled-in favorites icons () indicate image Acquisitions that have been marked as a favorite.

Batch Export Images for Publication or Presentation

Figure 170. In the Export to Publish or Present dialog, choose options for your batch image export. Choose a format and resolution for all images in the batch you are exporting. Choose a folder name that will be created to contain the exported batch of images and a path where that folder will be created.

Quickly get multiple images ready for your next slide presentation or publication. Use SHIFT + Click or CTRL + Click to select multiple Acquisitions in the Image Gallery, then click Export to Publish or Present in the export menu. You will see a new dialog with options for exporting all images from the selected Acquisitions.

ELISA Has Been Renamed Absorbance Assay

The assay category previously called ELISA has been renamed to Absorbance Assay.

Export Image Report PDFs

Export image Acquisition(s) and important information about the image Acquisition(s) to a PDF. The provided information includes:

  • Image ID

  • Imager Name

  • Channels

  • Focus Offset

  • Acquisition Software Version

  • Comments

  • Modifications (e.g., crop, rotate, flip)

  • Acquire Date and Time

  • Resolution

Figure 171. The Image Report PDF shows an image and important information at a glance. You can export an Image Report PDF from the export menu above the Image Gallery and from the Export To menu on the Edit Acquisition page.

Chemi Area for Plates Labeled

If you connect to an Odyssey M Imager Model 3350 and start a Multiwell Plate > Cell Analysis or In-Cell Western imaging workflow, the first plate area is now labeled 1 - Chemi Area. This label indicates that Plate Area 1 is where plates should be placed to image luminescent, plate-based assays.

Crop by Ratio

You can now crop an image using a specified aspect ratio.

  1. On the Edit Acquisition page, click Crop.

  2. In the Crop Image dialog, specify the aspect ratio that you want to use.

    The Free Form option allows you to modify the width and height of the crop rectangle independently to crop the image to a custom size.

  3. Click the horizontal orientation button or the vertical orientation button to choose if the longest dimension is horizontal or vertical.

  4. Crop the image to the size that you need.

Figure 172. This slot blot image is being cropped using the Original option. When the Original option is chosen, the crop rectangle will be set to the same aspect ratio as the full-sized image. You can adjust the size of the crop rectangle, but the aspect ratio will be locked to the same aspect ratio as the full-sized image.

The Log4j third-party library has been updated. Although LICORbio engineers determined that the use of Log4j in LI‑COR Acquisition Software did not constitute a security problem for computers that were not already compromised, LI‑COR Acquisition Software has been updated out of an abundance of caution to use a new version of Log4j that has been updated to protect against recently identified vulnerabilities.

The End User License Agreement (EULA) has been updated in LI‑COR Acquisition Software 1.0.1.

Version 1.0 is the first release of LI‑COR Acquisition Software. Version 1.0 provided functionality for acquiring images from the following LICORbio imagers: Odyssey CLx Imager, Odyssey DLx Imager, Odyssey XF Imager, Odyssey XF Imager, and Odyssey M Imager.