ITK-SNAP is a free, open-source, multi-platform software application used to segment structures in 3D and 4D biomedical images. It was originally developed at the University of North Carolina by student teams led by Guido Gerig (NYU Tanden School of Engineering), who envisioned a tool that would be easy to learn, with a limited feature set centered specifically on the task of image segmentation. Current ITK-SNAP development is led by Paul Yushkevich, Jilei Hao, Alison Pouch, Sadhana Ravikumar and colleagues at the Penn Image Computing and Science Laboratory (PICSL) at the University of Pennsylvania.
ITK-SNAP provides semi-automatic segmentation using active contour methods, as well as manual delineation and image navigation. In addition to these core functions, ITK-SNAP offers many supporting utilities. Some of the core capabilities of ITK-SNAP include:
- Linked cursor for seamless 3D navigation
- Manual segmentation in three orthogonal planes at once
- A modern graphical user interface based on Qt6
- Support for many different 3D image formats, including NIfTI and DICOM
- Support for concurrent, linked viewing, and segmentation of multiple images
- Support for color, multi-channel, and 3D+time images
- Manual and automatic image registration capabilities
- Between-slice segmentation interpolation
- 3D cut-plane tool for fast post-processing of segmentation results
- Access to advanced algorithms through the distributed segmentation service (DSS)
- Extensive tutorial and video documentation
True to its original vision, ITK-SNAP design focuses specifically on the problem of image segmentation, and extraneous or unrelated features are kept to a minimum. The design also emphasizes interaction and ease of use, with the bulk of the development effort dedicated to the user interface.
ITK-SNAP 4.0 is the first major release since 2020, and focuses on improved 3D+time image support. It was funded in part by a grant from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative. The previous major release was an almost complete rewrite of the software, along with new features focused on multi-modality image support. Download the newest release of ITK-SNAP here!
