OME Model, OME-XML & OME-TIFF

A major goal of the OME project is the provision of common specifications for light microscopy file formats. Most light microscope data is collected using proprietary software. In general, users must convert files between formats to access different processing or display functionality. Migration between different formats is laborious, but most importantly often results in loss of critical image metadata.

The OME consortium has three projects providing tools for standardised file formats: OME-XML, OME-TIFF, and Bio-Formats. The definition, development, and maintenance of these tools are the result of close collaboration between all academic and commercial partners in the OME Consortium.

OME-XML Compliance

View our proposal for a specification, to describe as completely as possible a specific imaging experiment.
Or read our published paper Linkert et al (2010), J. Cell Biol. 189(5):777-782

What is OME-TIFF

OME-TIFF is a practical, high performance interchange format that encodes the metadata using the OME-XML data model. Check out the OME-TIFF overview.

Developer Resources

Developing software to work with OME-XML files? Find links to more technical information on the Developer page.

Latest OME-XML/OME-TIFF

Want to find the latest June 2011 Schema specification for OME-XML or OME-TIFF? Check the schema location page that always has links to the latest version and latest auto-generated documentation.

OME-XML Versions

Discover how the OME-XML and OME-TIFF version system works.

Have a file and need to know the version? - use the online validator.

How to Cite OME's Work

If you have used OME-XML, OME-TIFF, Bio-Formats or OMERO in your work find the correct citations to use.

Companies supporting OME-XML or OME-TIFF

We have received support from several companies who are writing files using our file formats, for details see our full list of Partners

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