The magnification of an image obtained with a microscope is usually expressed by:
– indicating its final magnification, that is, numerically how many times the image of the area of a section was enlarged .
– or a small bar drawn on the image. Its length is used as a reference to be compared with the size of objects in the image. See one of such bars in the figure.
Liver. Staining: hematoxilyn and eosin. Medium magnification.
In this site we adopted a simplified way to indicate magnifications: small, medium and large, which we deem to be sufficient for its didatic purposes. More details on these you can find in the page Technical Data that you can bea reached on the main menu at the top of each page.
A practical and simple way to reasonably assess the size of structures in microscopical images: a red blood cell or a small lymphocyte have a diameter of about 7 micrometers. Similarly, the diameters of the nuclei of a large number of cells measure 7 to 10 micrometers. Observing the size of a red blood cell, a small lymphocyte or a nucleus, it is possible to assess the measurements of images obtsined with a microscope.