Allows the user to customize the appearance and behavior of the GUI . Please note: some preferences take affect immediately, while others require DS9 to be restarted. Use Save Preferences to store changes and Clear Preferences to restore default settings.User preferences are stored in the file ~/.ds9.prffor non-windows platforms and .ds9.prffor windows. DO NOT EDIT this file, since it will be deleted or overwritten by DS9.
For non-windows platforms, system wide preferences maybe implemented by copying a .ds9.prf to /usr/local/lib/ds9.prf or /opt/local/lib/ds9.prf. At startup time, if no user preference file is located in the user's home directory, DS9 will search for these system wide preferences.
Users may have several different preference files. DS9 looks for a preference file with its own name. By default, if the application is named ds9, it will look for ~/.ds9.prf. However, if the DS9 application is named foo, then DS9 will look for ~/.foo.prf. In this manner, the user can have several predefined preference files that are activated by invoking DS9 with a different application names.
File Menu
Edit Menu
View Menu
Frame Menu
Bin Menu
Zoom Menu
Scale Menu
Color Menu
Region Menu
WCS Menu
Analysis MenuBackground Color
Blank/NaN Color
Horizontal Graph
Vertical Graph
Default Menu Font
Panner
Magnifier
Truecolor Colorbar
Dialog Box
Pan
Print Coordinates
Examine
Misc
HTTP
Save Preferences
Clear PreferencesFile Menu
Configure default Print and Page Setup Dialog.
Edit Menu
Set the default mouse mode.
View Menu
Show/Hide display components
Show/Hide Infomation panel componentsInformation Panel Panner Magnifier Buttons Colorbar Horizontal Graph Vertical Graph Filename - Show/Hide base name of the current FITS image. Object -Show/Hide the contents of the FITS keyword OBJECT, if present. Min Max - Show/Hide the min and max values for the current FITS image. Frame Info - Show/Hide the frame number, zoom, and angle of the current frame. WCS - Show/Hide WCS coordinate values, for the current FITS image, if present. Physical - Show/Hide Physical or CCD coordinate values, for the current FITS image. Requires the LTV/LTM keywords be present in the header. See NOAO IRAF Mosaic Data Structures for more information. Image - Show/Hide Image or Logical coordinate values, for the current FITS image. Frame Menu
Tile - Configure the tiling pattern to be used while in Tile mode. Blink Interval - Set the blink interval while blinking between frames.
Bin Menu
Set the default bin function, factor, and buffer size.Zoom Menu
Set the default Zoom factor, Orientation, and Rotation, along with WCS Alignment.Scale Menu
Set the default scale, limits, and to use DATASEC if available.Color Menu
Set the default Colormap.Region Menu
Specify default region parameters such as shape, color, width, properties, fonts, radius and width and height.WCS Menu
Specify default wcs parameters. The default wcs, sky frame, and sky format will be used as default settings for the information panel, panner wcs compass, wcs alignment, grid.Analysis Menu
Contour - Set default contour parameters. Smooth - Set default smoothing parameters. Name Server - Configure the default Name server. DSS Server - Configure the default DSS server. Catalogs - set default catalog parameters. Archive Servers - Add up to 4 additional URL's to the Analysis Archive Server Menu. Virtual Observatory - Set default parameters for vo. Analysis Command Log - List final command line before execution. Preload Analysis File - The name of up to 4 Analysis Files to be preloaded at startup. Analysis Plot - Default settings for all Analysis Plots Background Color
Set the default color to be used for the image background.
Blank/INF/NaN Color
Set the default color to be used with a image value of BLANK, INF or NaN is encountered.Horizontal Graph
Grid - Show/Hide the grid on the Horizontal graph. Linear - Configure the graph for linear data. Log - Configure the graph for log data.
IMPORTANT: your data min value must be >=1 for it to display properly.Vertical Graph
Grid - Show/Hide the grid on the Vertical graph. Linear - Configure the graph for linear data. Log - Configure the graph for log data.
IMPORTANT: your data min value must be >=1 for it to display properly.Default Menu Font
Select the default font for menus and buttons. Please note that you must save the preferences and restart ds9 for the default font changes to take affect.Panner
Orientation Compass - Show/Hide the image orientation compass.
WCS Compass - Show/Hide/Set coordinate system for the WCS compass.
WCS Compass Tangent Point - Display the WCS compass at the tangent point or the center of the panner. Magnifier
Graphics - Show/Hide regions and crosshair in the magnifier window. This is not available for the 'Fast' display algorithm.
Cursor - Show/Hide the cursor in the center of the magnifier window. This cursor displays the size and orientation of one pixel, given the current zoom, angle and orientation of the frame.
Magnification - Current magnification factor of the image rendered into the magnifier. Truecolor Colorbar
To optimize adjusting the colorbar contrast and bias on slower truecolor machines, the user may select a subsection of the image to be manipulated.Dialog Box
Motif - All Standard Dialog boxes will be in Motif style. Windows - All Standard Dialog boxes will be in Microsoft Windows style. Native Windows - (Windows platforms only) Native Microsoft Windows standard dialog. Will not allow FITS filename extensions.
Pan
Configure the interactive pan method.Click to Center - Center image at click point. Same method as SAOimage.
Drag to Center - Click, drag, and release to pan the image in the current frame Pan then Zoom - Pan to center, next 2 clicks zoom at center, click 4 resets zoom to 1. This behavior emulates the middle button mouse behavior of XIMTOOL. Print Coordinates
Specify which coordinates are printed when the 'C' key is pressed. The format of WCS coordinates are also specified. Also, the value of the closest pixel may also printed.Examine
Configure the Examine function. While in examine mode, the user may indicate that all new examine operations go to one frame, or create a new frame each time. Also, the user may indicate the scale factor to be used in the examine frame. If the base frame is an image, the zoom factor is changed, if the base frame is a FITS Binary Table, the block factor is changed.Misc
- Specify which directory is to be used for temporary files. The user must have write access to the directory. Under Unix, the default is /tmp. Under other platforms, the default is the current directory.
- Fast Mosaic Render - enable optimized mosaic render. Only valid for IRAF mosaics. May give incorrect results if the display areas of the mosaic segments overlap.
- Use Cursors - change the mouse cursor over regions to indicate edit options
- Autoload Regions - When loading a FITS Image or Bin Table from a file, scan for FITS Regions Table and load if present.
- Show Amplifier/Detector in Menus - Enable / Disable Amplifier and Detector coordinate system menu options. Does not take affect til next startup.
- Initialize XPA - Enable/Disable XPA access at startup. Does not take affect til next startup.
HTTP
Set HTTP Proxy and authentication configuration.
Save Preferences
Saves the current values of all preference items in the preference file.Clear Preferences
Clears all current preferences. Actually deletes the preferences file, if present. The next time DS9 is started, default settings are used.