In "manual" instruments, poor contrast can be overcome by apertures, highcontrast films, or elongating the focal distance of the objective lens, for example in the old Siemens Elmiskop I. Finally, contrast can be improved in the darkroom by means of fast developers, polycontrast papers and optical filters. Unfortunately, this is very difficult with "digital" electron microscopes where contrast must be adjusted before or after image acquisition. CCD digital technology offers a wide range of gray scale values. They can be selected to favor the mid-tonal range, thus reducing the extreme dark and white values. For example, a 12-bit image comprises 4,096 levels from black to white. If the software is set to adjust the predominant intensity to a middle tonality, all values will be adjusted accordingly. The mid-tones typically yield lowcontrast images. Contrast levels should therefore be set to exclude a given percentage of black and white outliers. After image acquisition, the histogram camera software allows for adjustments of gamma (a function of luminance), contrast, and brightness. 19 The observer is left to find his or her best combination by trial and error. Contrast may also be improved by third-party software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop or Image J; http// rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/). This seems often to be misunderstood or ignored. Poorly contrasted digital images should be a thing of the past.