Share a Whole-Slide Image with a Link, Not a 3 GB Attachment
Open the slide in SlideScope, choose Share, and send a link. Your colleague opens the same slide, with your notes, regions and measurements, and you decide when the link expires. If the slide carries a label or patient details, Safe Share sends a cleaned copy instead of the original.
Expiring links and email invitesNotes and measurements travel with the linkDe-identified Safe Share copies
Why sharing a slide is harder than it should be
The files are huge
A scanned slide is often 1 to 5 GB, and a multi-channel CZI or ND2 can be larger. Email refuses it, and a cloud-drive link makes the recipient download the whole file before seeing anything.
The recipient needs the right viewer
An SVS, NDPI or MRXS file needs a viewer that reads that scanner's format. Collaborators outside your lab often don't have one, and the vendor viewer may be Windows-only.
Context gets lost, labels don't
Your annotations live in your viewer, not in the file. Meanwhile the slide label photo and file metadata can carry patient or case identifiers you never meant to send.
How sharing works in SlideScope
Open the slide in SlideScope on Windows or macOS. It opens SVS, CZI, ND2, NDPI, DICOM, TIFF/OME-TIFF, LIF, VSI and more, locally.
Save it to SlideScope Cloud (File > Save Image to SlideScope Cloud). Raw CZI, ND2 and LIF images are stored losslessly and often upload about half their size; they are restored byte for byte.
Choose Share. Pick when the link expires (1, 7, 30, 90 or 365 days), copy it, or invite colleagues by email. You can turn a link off at any time.
Your colleague opens it in SlideScope with a free account, or sees a summary card of the slide in the browser.
Shared review (SlideScope 1.11.0 and later): the link can carry your notes, regions and measurements from every plane, read-only for the people you share with. Update them later and the link shows the new version.
The Share dialog in SlideScope 1.16.0 once a link is ready: copy it, see what Safe Share removed, and invite people by email. The link, addresses and findings count are example data.
Safe Share: send a de-identified copy
Before a share link goes out, SlideScope can make a cleaned copy without the slide label photo, the overview (macro) photo and identifying details in the file's metadata, and share that copy. Your original file is not changed.
On by default when a file holds a label photo or identifying details.
Works for SVS, NDPI, Philips TIFF, Ventana BIF, CZI, DICOM and more, and tells you when it cannot clean a format.
The recipient's page says exactly what was removed.
File > Save a Safe Copy writes the same cleaned copy to your own disk, for sharing any other way.
Safe Share removes what it can find in the file. It does not read text burned into the tissue image itself, so check slides with handwriting or stickers inside the scanned area. For the manual route, see how to remove labels and patient data from slide images.
Ways to share a slide, compared
Free options exist, and for some labs they are the right choice. Here is what each one costs you.
Method
Price
Recipient needs
Annotations travel
Label removal
Setup
Email or cloud drive + free viewer (QuPath, vendor viewer)
Free
Full download and a viewer for that format
No
Manual
None
OMERO (self-hosted)
Free software; you run the server
Browser or OMERO client
Yes
Manual or scripted
Server, storage and admin time
Web slide platforms (for example My Pathomation, PathPresenter)
Free tiers with limits; paid plans
Browser
Yes
Varies by platform
Upload to the platform
SlideScope share links
Included in paid plans (see plans); free for recipients
SlideScope with a free account (or a browser summary card)
Yes, with shared review
Safe Share, automatic
None beyond the desktop app
Pick a web platform if your recipients must view full resolution in a browser with no install. Pick OMERO if you have IT support and want everything on your own servers. SlideScope fits labs that already review slides on the desktop and want to send one to a collaborator in a minute, without running a server.
What it doesn't do
It is not a live, simultaneous review session; each person opens the slide on their own.
Recipients can't edit your notes; replies happen outside SlideScope.
3DHISTECH MRXS and Hamamatsu VMS/VMU slides can't be uploaded, because their pixels live in a companion folder. Convert them, or share the folder another way.
It is for research, teaching and review. It is not a diagnostic system or a case-management platform.
Limits by plan
Standard plans: up to 5 images in SlideScope Cloud, 25 GB in total, files up to 10 GB.
Plus plans: up to 50 images, 500 GB in total, files up to 50 GB, plus folder sync and collections.
Trials: the Individual 3-day trial does not include cloud sharing. The Individual Plus trial does, with the Standard allowance (5 images) until the first payment.
Current prices are on the plans page. Lab plans add contributor seats with unlimited viewing colleagues; see SlideScope for labs.
Questions about sharing slides
How do I share a whole-slide image with a collaborator?
Open the slide in SlideScope, save it to SlideScope Cloud, and choose Share. You get a link with an expiry date (1, 7, 30, 90 or 365 days) that you can turn off at any time, and you can invite colleagues by email. They open the slide in SlideScope with a free account, or see a summary card in the browser.
Do the people I share with have to pay?
No. Creating share links needs a paid SlideScope plan. Opening a link you received is free: the recipient installs SlideScope and signs in with a free account.
Can I remove the slide label and patient details before sharing?
Yes. Safe Share makes a cleaned copy without the slide label photo, the overview (macro) photo and identifying details in the file's metadata, and shares that copy; your original file is not changed. It is on by default when a file holds a label photo or identifying details, works for SVS, NDPI, Philips TIFF, Ventana BIF, CZI, DICOM and more, and says so when it cannot clean a format. The recipient's page lists exactly what was removed.
Can recipients see my annotations and measurements?
Yes, with shared review in SlideScope 1.11.0 and later: a share link can carry your notes, regions and measurements from every plane, read-only for the people you share with, and you can update them later.
Is there a free way to share slides?
Yes. You can send the original file through a cloud drive and have colleagues open it in a free viewer such as QuPath or the scanner vendor's viewer, or run your own OMERO server. These work well; they cost time instead of money, because files are large, labels are not removed for you, and annotations do not travel with the file.
Quick answers
Best fit: research labs, pathology research groups, core facilities and teaching teams that review slides on Windows or Mac and need to send one to a collaborator, PI or student.
Key strengths: expiring share links and email invites, read-only shared notes and measurements, automatic de-identified copies, lossless cloud storage of raw CZI, ND2 and LIF, and no server to run.
Important limitation: recipients open slides in the SlideScope desktop app (free account), not at full resolution in a browser.
Last reviewed: October 30, 2026.
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