The new generation of cooled slow-scan CCD cameras (SSC) have demonstrated the superior properties to conventional photographic films in sensitivity, resolution, dynamic range, linearity, and on-line availability. Furthermore the digital imaging capability as offered by SSC cameras facilitates image processing and quantitative analysis. Other advantages of digital imaging include easy archiving, sending images to a remote site via high speed communication network, and carrying out telemicroscopy, etc. Today, many laboratories in electron microscopy have already abandoned the traditional “dark room” and switched to digital imaging. One of the obstacle in replacing photographic films with digital imaging is the fact that current SSC cameras (e.g. 1024 × 1024 pixels) do not have enough pixels as compared with the film. Therefore the resolution is often compromised with the field of view when using CCD cameras.

With computer control of electron microscopes and the use of CCD cameras, we have developed automated “montage” software that can automatically shift and acquire images from a microscope, and automatically perform pixel-to-pixel image alignment to form a montage. The size of the montage is defined by the number of images acquired in both horizontal and vertical directions.