Spore measurement for mycologists
Calibrate once.
Then just click.
Mycrometer turns clicks on a microscope photo into spore sizes in µm, with the ranges, Q values and means ready to publish. Get the app for Mac, iPhone and iPad, or use it in your browser on any computer or phone.
Q = 1.62–1.94 · Me = 10.4 × 5.9 µm · Qe = 1.76
Three simple steps to easy spore measurement.
Photograph your stage micrometer
Click two division lines. Mycrometer snaps to the line centres and counts the divisions between them. It checks your lens for distortion too. Save it as the scale for that objective.
Click across each spore
Two clicks for the length, two for the width. The ends slide onto the spore wall, so slightly sloppy clicks still give the same answer. Basidia, cystidia and hyphae work the same way.
Ranges, Q and means
The ranges come as (min–)p5–p95(–max), with Q, Me, Qe and spore volume. You get an L × W plot, histograms, and a sign once your means are stable. Copy the text, or export CSV or an annotated image.
Everything a spore description needs.
Snapping that you can see
Calibration clicks snap to line centres and measurement ends snap to the spore wall. Hold Alt/Option to place a point exactly instead.
Checks for the usual mistakes
It warns when a photo was taken at a different camera zoom, when it looks resized, or when a scale doesn’t fit the objective you picked.
All the structures
Spores, basidia, cheilocystidia, pileipellis elements, hyphae and more, each with its own results line.
Collections, not just numbers
Record the date, location, habitat, collector and voucher number, and the mount per photo. You can add an iNaturalist or Field Mycologist UK observation number too.
Honest statistics
It shows the 5th–95th percentile ranges with the extremes in brackets. A grid helps you avoid picking only the nicest spores, and a confidence line tells you when you’ve measured enough.
Speaks your language
English, French, Spanish and Italian, with decimal commas where they belong. It reads and writes Piximètre files.
Spores (n = 32, in Melzer’s): (9.1–)9.6–11.2(–11.8) × (5.2–)5.5–6.3(–6.6) µm
Q = (1.62–)1.66–1.88(–1.94), Me = 10.4 × 5.9 µm, Qe = 1.76, Ve = 190 µm³
Cheilocystidia (n = 12): 38–52 × 6–9 µm
Your photos stay on your device.
There are no accounts and no tracking, and no server of ours for anything to go to. In the web version, your photos, scales and samples stay in your browser on your own device. It keeps working with no internet once it’s open, and a single file backs everything up.
Measuring is free, everywhere.
The Mac, iPhone and iPad app and the web version both do all the measuring, saving and exporting for free. In the app, a one-off Pro purchase adds iCloud sync, PDF collection reports, plates, the ornamentation view, focus stacking and a live scale bar in the camera.