nip4 is an image processing spreadsheet

Last Updated on November 22, 2025

nip4 is a spreadsheet-like interface to the libvips image processing library. You create a set of formula connecting your objects together, and on a change nip4 will recalculate. This makes it convenient for developing image processing systems since you can watch pixels change as you adjust your equations.

Because nip4 uses libvips as the image processing engine, it can handle very large images and only needs a little memory. It scales to fairly complex workflows: I’ve used it to develop systems with more than 10,000 cells, analyzing images of many tens of gigabytes.

It has a batch mode, so you can run any image processing system you develop from the command-line and without a GUI.

This is free and open source software.

Website: github.com/libvips/nip4
Support:
Developer: John Cupitt
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

nip4 is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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