Preferences

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 Menu

Background 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 Preferences

File Menu

Configure default Print and Page Setup Dialog.

Edit Menu

Set the default mouse mode.

View Menu

Show/Hide display components
  • Information Panel
  • Panner
  • Magnifier
  • Buttons
  • Colorbar
  • Horizontal Graph
  • Vertical Graph
  • Show/Hide Infomation panel components
  • 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

    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.