Fiji
Fiji is a distribution of ImageJ, an open-source image analysis and processing platform widely used in scientific research, microscopy, medical imaging, and life sciences. It bundles ImageJ2 with a curated collection of community-developed plugins for tasks like image filtering, segmentation, 3D visualization, deconvolution, and quantitative analysis. Fiji is popular among biologists, researchers, and educators who need powerful image analysis without expensive commercial alternatives. It runs on Windows, macOS (both Intel and Apple Silicon), and Linux, and is freely available as a portable application requiring no installation.
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1 suggestionFiji's main download from imagej.net ships as Intel-only on macOS, but the vendor has confirmed Apple Silicon support is available. To run Fiji natively on an Apple Silicon Mac, download the "Fiji-noJRE" variant from imagej.net/software/fiji/downloads, then install a native Java runtime separately—either via Homebrew (brew install openjdk@11) or from Azul (Zulu Java 8, 11, or 16). The combination allows Fiji to run natively without Rosetta, giving roughly 40–50% better performance and responsiveness. Be aware that the standard Intel installer will not automatically detect your native Java installation; you must deliberately choose the noJRE variant and supply the native Java environment yourself. This approach requires a bit of setup but is well-documented on the Fiji forums and is worth the effort if performance matters for your analysis workflows. Since you have until September 2028 when Rosetta 2 is removed from macOS, you can migrate at your own pace—the Intel build still works today, but moving to native now will give you a better user experience and prepare you ahead of that deadline.
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