Bio-Formats is a joint effort between the academic and business communities. For general inquiries about Bio-Formats, contact the LOCI Bio-Formats developers at bioformats@loci.wisc.edu.

If you are interested in purchasing a commercial Bio-Formats license or support package for your organization, or would like to hire someone to develop code on an expedited timeframe, contact our commercial partner, Glencoe Software, at bioformats@glencoesoftware.com.

There is also a mailing list for announcements, questions, bug reports and discussion relating to all LOCI software, including Bio-Formats.

We always appreciate feedback regarding Bio-Formats. To ensure that any inquiries you make are resolved promptly, please follow these guidelines:

1. Send only one email, to the most appropriate address:
   • bioformats@loci.wisc.edu – bug reports, feature requests, and other questions for the developers
   • bioformats@glencoesoftware.com – questions about commercial licensing or support
   • locisoftware@lists.wisc.edu – questions for the community (but remember to subscribe first)
   • ImageJ mailing list – questions about ImageJ unrelated to Bio-Formats
   
   
   1. Do not cross post to multiple lists.
   2. Do not email individual developers. The addresses above include the appropriate people and you will be more likely to reach someone who knows the answer using one of them.


2. Make a detailed bug report, including:
   1. Exact error message. Copy and paste any error messages into the text of your email. Alternatively, attach a screenshot of the relevant windows.
   2. Version information. Indicate which release of Bio-Formats, what operating system, and which version of Java you are using.
   3. Non-working data. If possible, please send a non-working file. This helps us not only to ensure that the problem is fixed for next release, but also that it does not reappear in later releases. If needed, we can provide you with an FTP server for uploading your file(s). Note that any data provided is used for internal testing only; we do not make images publicly available unless given explicit permission to do so.
   4. Metadata and screenshots. If possible, include any additional information about your data. We are especially interested in the expected dimensions (width, height, number of channels, Z slices, and timepoints). Screenshots of the image being successfully opened in other software are also useful.
   5. Format details. If you are requesting support for a new format, we ask that you send as much data as you have regarding this format (sample files, specifications, vendor/manufacturer information, etc.). This helps us to better support the format, and make sure that future versions of the format are also supported.


3. Be patient. It may be a few days until you receive a response, but we do reply to every email inquiry we receive.