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Remove mention of unmaintained plugin in quick start#976

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Remove mention of unmaintained plugin in quick start#976
cnstt wants to merge 1 commit intonapari:mainfrom
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@cnstt
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@cnstt cnstt commented Apr 1, 2026

References and relevant issues

Closes #974

Description

Remove mention of unmaintained plugin in quick start. Fixes #974 for now. If you have any idea of a replacement plugin we could suggest, feel free to mention it!

Remove mention of unmaintained plugin
@github-actions github-actions bot added the documentation Improvements or additions to documentation label Apr 1, 2026
@TimMonko
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TimMonko commented Apr 1, 2026

Thank YOU! I couldn't find the notification for #974, I think I accidentally cleared it. Anyways, in the open images guide we recently added / approved using ndevio which is a successor to napari-aicsimageio. I develop it so I don't want to bias...
Here is where it was introduced

There are a few examples of plugins bundling multiple readers. One example is [ndevio](https://napari-hub.org/plugins/ndevio.html) which wraps the family of [bioio](https://bioio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) packages to provide support for multiple microscopy file formats. Often such bundled reader plugins come with a set of formats supported by default, and allow the users to add optional formats, typically by installing additional dependencies.
In the example below we illustrate how to use ndevio to open a zarr file. Again, we need to install ndevio with either the [napari plugin manager](https://napari.org/napari-plugin-manager/#installing-a-plugin-via-direct-entry) or your preferred Python package manager.
This basic installation allows to open ome-tiff, ome-zarr, imageio etc. via the plugin. If you need to open another format such as CZI, ND2 etc., you will have to install additional extensions (for example for ndevio please refer to the [instructions](https://github.com/ndev-kit/ndevio?tab=readme-ov-file#additional-image-format-support)). This can be done for example via the [direct entry option](https://napari.org/napari-plugin-manager/#installing-a-plugin-via-direct-entry) of the plugin manager.
We are now able to just drag and drop a zarr file in the viewer to open it. We use an example from the [IDR OME-NGFF Samples](https://idr.github.io/ome-ngff-samples/) (13457537.zarr, CC BY 4.0, Payne et al. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay3446):

@TimMonko TimMonko added this to the 0.7.1 milestone Apr 1, 2026
@psobolewskiPhD
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https://github.com/imaging-formats/napari-bioformats
is another good option for a Fiji-like experience

@cnstt
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cnstt commented Apr 1, 2026

Thanks a lot for your recommendations, it's exactly what I was missing! I don't have enough experience with those plugins, to know which one is best to recommend in this case ;)
Or perhaps we could also just link to getting_started/open_images.html#using-a-plugin-reader, but it might be a long read for someone just looking for a quick way to open their files.🤔 Maybe the best would be to recommend one that works, and mention the specific docs section for further information.

@TimMonko
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TimMonko commented Apr 1, 2026

I actually quite like the idea for linking to the documentation.

  1. We don't have to maintain two places (like we failed to here)
  2. It gives more detail on what is actualyl going on, especially if someone is in quickstart they don't even really necessarily know what a plugin is yet

Something like "To read additional file formats (e.g. .lif, .czi, .nd2), read more about using plugin readers in the open images guide"

I'm not super keen on that language so hopefully you can figure it out :)

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TimMonko commented Apr 1, 2026

Also @cnstt since I feel like I have no better place else to put it. I always appreciate seeing notifications from you. You do very nice clean up and maintenance work around things. Don't be afraid to pop into the community meetings or zulip chat -- would love to meet you (unless I already have??)! -- and maybe pull you even farther into the project ;)

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Do not recommend unmaintained plugin?

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