Virtual microscopy is a means of viewing a virtual slide (sometimes called a digital slide) over a computer network or on the screen of a stand-alone computer using virtual-slide-viewer software. The virtual slide is a very large digitized image file of a glass slide that can be viewed, panned and zoomed on a computer screen.

In histology and pathology, a virtual slide is the digitized image of a tissue section or of a cellular preparation (smears, ThinPrep™, etc.) captured at a resolution suitable for diagnostic or research purposes. Virtual slides can be easily stored, archived, retrieved, annotated, duplicated, distributed, integrated into electronic patient records, and viewed over your LAN or even the Internet. No carrying around of glass slides anymore! Virtual slides are created by digital slide scanning systems using either area-scan or line-scan CCD technology to capture digital images of glass slides. 

The NanoZoomer Digital Pathology (NDP) slide scanner uses line-scanning and time-delay-and-integration (TDI) sensor technology to create virtual slides. By using TDI technology, the NanoZoomer is capable of fast scanning while keeping the best image resolution and quality possible. In addition, the NanoZoomer offers unique features such as Z-stack and fluorescence capabilities along with a wide range of powerful software solutions. The NanoZoomer system effectively turns your computer screen into a real microscope!