DICOM is the industry standard format for medical scans. Learn how DICOM files are used with Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended to create animations and measurements.

Opening DICOM Files

To open DICOM files, open the File menu and choose Open. Browse for the DICOM file and click Open.

Once you click Open, a window will appear with settings you can modify.

Options

Frames

On the left, you can select which frame to view and open. To open a single frame, select the frame and click open. To select more than one, hold the CTRL key and click. To select all the frames, click the Select All button.

DICOM Dataset Options

There are two options in this area you can modify

Anonymize

Checking this option will anonymize the file by replacing all patients metadata with "anonymize".

Show Overlays

If your file has overlays such as annotations, curves, or text, you can check this box to display those overlays.

Windowing

Windowing lets you adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. To view all the Windowing options, check the Show Windowing Options checkbox located below the image.

Presets

There are 5 presets you can choose from:

• Default
• Lung
• Bone
• Abdomen
• Full

Manual Adjustments

Or, you can manually adjust the settings using your mouse:

1. Click on the button to select the Window Level tool.
2. Click on the middle of the image and drag the tool up or down to adjust the level.
3. Drag the tool left or right to adjust the width.

Reverse Image

To reverse the image, simply check the Reverse Image checkbox.

Frame Import Options

This area lets you choose how you would like to open the images.

Import frames as layers

This option will import frames into layers. This option is useful for manipulating the image or creating an animation.

N-up Configuration

This option will tile the frames onto one layer. Select this option if you would like to print the frames onto transparencies.

Creating an Animation

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Step 1

Open a DICOM file. Open the File menu and select Open. Browse for a DICOM file (.dc3, .dcm, .dic, or no extension) and click OK

Step 2

Press the Select All button to select all the frames. In the Frame Import Options, choose Import frames as layers. Apply any other settings needed then click OK.

Step 3

You should now have each frame as layers. Select all the layers by pressing Alt+Ctrl+A or going into the Select menu and choosing All Layers.

Step 4

Open the Animation window by going into the Window menu and selecting Animation.

Step 5

In the Animation pallet, click on the button located near the top right to open the flyout menu. In the flyout menu, select Make Frames From Layers.