Line Profile

A line profile track is a tool for measuring brightness and rgb data along a line on a video image. If the line width is increased by adding spread, image pixels above and below the line are averaged in order to reduce noise and/or increase sensitivity.

1. Marking the line

Click and drag the mouse (crosshair cursor) to mark a line profile. The line is drawn as a narrow rectangle that surrounds the pixel points analyzed by the line profile tool.

Drag either end of the line to change its length. Drag the center of the line to position it.

2. Adding spread

To increase the number of pixels sampled for a smoother average you can give the line profile a spread. Select the line and enter the desired spread in pixels in the field on the toolbar.

The spread pixels extend to both sides of the line. Thus, for a given data point on the line, the total number of pixels sampled (i.e., width of the line profile) is 1 + 2*spread. The outline of the line profile shows all pixels included in the average.

3. Line orientation

By default, a line profile has a horizontal orientation--that is, parallel to the top or bottom edge of the video image. Setting an x-axis orientation by selecting the Along X-Axis item in its track menu will instead cause the line to remain parallel to the x-axis. This is useful when measuring spectra that have been inadvertently captured with a tilted camera, for example.

4. Unfixing the line

By default, the line profile is fixed--that is, its center position and length do not vary from frame to frame. Uncheck the Fixed checkbox in its track menu to allow these properties to vary.