The HSI or LAB channels often provide better ways to examine and interpret the contents of images than do RGB. For example, hue corresponds to the color of various stains and fluorescent dyes or proteins, while saturation corresponds to the amount of the stain or dye present and intensity in a transmission image of a thin section is a measure of local density. LAB channels correspond approximately to the ways that color television signals are broadcast and adjusted. This interactive tutorial illustrates the differences among RGB, HSI, and LAB color channels.

The tutorial initializes with a randomly selected specimen appearing in the left-hand window entitled Specimen Image. The Choose A Specimen pull-down menu provides a broad selection of colorful specimen images, in addition to the initial randomly chosen one. Click on any point in the Specimen Image window to read out the RGB, Lab, and HSI color values. The currently selected color appears in the Sample Color window. De-selecting the Click To Sample checkbox will allow sampling colors by simply moving the mouse.

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