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
Frame Menu
Bin Menu
Zoom Menu
Scale Menu
Color Menu
Region Menu
WCS Menu
Analysis MenuBackground Color
Blank/NaN Color
View
Info Panel
Default Menu Font
Mosaics
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.Frame Menu
Tile
Configure the tiling pattern to be used while in Tile mode.Blink Interval
Set the blink interval while blinking between frames.
Sets the size of the display frame, within DS9.Auto Size
Sets the frame size to be as big as possible, given the current window size.256x256
Sets the frame size to be 256x256, centered in the window.512x512
Sets the frame size to be 512x512, centered in the window.1024x1024
Sets the frame size to be 1024x1024, centered in the window.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
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.Name Server
Configure the default Name server. Used by both the Analysis Menu Items Name Server Dialog and DSS Server Dialog.DSS Server
Configure the default DSS server. Used by the Analysis Menu item DSS Server Dialog.Archive Servers
Add up to 4 additional URL's to the Analysis Archive Server Menu. Changes take affect immediatelyPreload Analysis File
The name of up to 4 Analysis Files to be preloaded at startup.Analysis Command Log. List final command line before execution. 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.View
Show/Hide display componentsInformation Panel Buttons Panner Magnifier Colorbar Info Panel
Controls what information is displayed in the Information Control Panel.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.Detector (optional)
Show/Hide Detector coordinate values, for the current FITS image. Requires the DTV/DTM keywords be present in the header. See NOAO IRAF Mosaic Data Structures for more information.Amplifier (optional)
Show/Hide Amplifier coordinate values, for the current FITS image. Requires the ATV/ATM keywords be present in the header. See NOAO IRAF Mosaic Data Structures for more information.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.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.Mosaics
Configure default behavior for loading IRAF or WCS mosaicsAuto Detect- first attempt to load as IRAF, then WCS. Force IRAF- attempt to load only as IRAF mosaic. Force WCS- attempt to load only WCS. 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. 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.Blue Plate Special
Custom dialog box which allows filename wild card characters.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 framePan 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.
- Select WCS Projection algorithms: FITS WCS or AIPS. The default is FITS.
- 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.