The second edition of a bestseller, this book is a practical guide to image processing for the natural and technical sciences community. Students, practitioners, and researchers can gain immediate access to a sound basic knowledge of image processing by referencing general principles in the natural sciences. The book describes carefully selected algorithms in detail and demonstrates real-world applications that show the reader how to solve complex image processing problems. Hundreds of photos, figures, diagrams, and tables illustrate the text, and numerous well-organized tips save countless hours in the practical handling of image acquisition and processing.