Displaying radiologic images on personal computers.

This is the second article of our series for radiologists and imaging scientists on displaying, manipulating, and analyzing radiologic images on personal computers (PCs). The first article discussed the digital image data file, standard PC graphic file formats, and various methods for importing radiologic images into the PC. This article discusses the hardware, software, and user interface issues related to displaying gray scale images on PCs. In particular, this segment focuses on the process of converting the digital image into gray shades on a color monitor. A method for displaying and interactively setting the window width and window level parameters of 16-bit radiologic images on PCs with standard red green blue graphic hardware is illustrated in a sample application.