PyImtool is a free and open source native FITS viewer/IRAF image server for Mac OS X.

This means that you can use PyImtool together with IRAF to interact with and display astronomical data without the need for an X11 server.

PyImtool is developed mainly in Python with some Objective-C here and there to improve performance. It uses PyObjC, the Python-Objective-C bridge

There are two main differences between PyImtool and its competitors: on one hand PyImtool is nowhere near as mature as, say, DS9. On the other hand, though, PyImtool does not require an X11 server.

To put it in another way, PyImtool is a full fledged Cocoa application (and, to the best of my knowledge, the only Mac OS X native app in its category).

For those not familiar with DS9 and other IRAF image servers, what PyImtool does is very simple and very specific. It allows users to display astronomical data (e.g. images and spectra) from data reduction and analysis packages like IRAF and PyRAF.

PyImtool supports the IIS protocol (also known as Ximtool protocol) for inter-application communications both via sockets and via UNIX pipes.

NOTE: PyImtool is licensed and distributed under the terms of the BSD License.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Added support for zooming images
· Added support for saving images in TIFF format
· Added support for user preferences