Using mapping software

Stitching together panoramas through the microscope results in huge images.  These can take a long time to download, and can be tedious to view with a browser.

We can borrow a page from digital mapping software to provide a more convenient user experience.  Indeed, we can borrow the same software that Google uses to display their maps on your browser, since they have released the software for public use.

A service that lets you upload your panoramas for free into a mapping interface is called MapLib at "www.maplib.net".

In the 'map' above, you can drag the image around with the mouse to see what is currently off the screen, and you can zoom in and out using the controls in the upper left corner.

The free version of MapLib allows only 4 megabyte files, and limits the pixel width and height to 6,000 pixels, so this is not a full image (my original is 26498 x 11219, and is 24,200,799 bytes).  The paid premium version is still limited to 8 megabytes and 10,000 pixels (when this was written).  So you might have to get the source code to the software library and load it onto your own server in order to serve up your larger images properly.