napari-pdr: Load image data into Napari using PDR

This Napari plugin adds a loader that can load any type of image data understood by the Planetary Data Reader (PDR).

Installation

It is necessary to install PDR and its dependencies as well as the plugin’s own code. The easiest way to do this is to install the plugin package, napari_pdr, into the Python runtime context where Napari looks for its libraries. For example, if Napari is installed via pipx,

pipx inject napari napari-pdr

will do the job. If you have installed Napari some other way, you will need to use different commands (please suggest additional examples for this section).

Usage

Either give PDS labels on the command line to napari, or open them from inside the application (File -> Open File(s)…). Because PDS labels (and data files with embedded labels) can have a wide variety of extensions, the plugin accepts all files; you may be prompted to decide whether you want the PDR plugin or some other loader. Each label will be inspected for data objects that appear to be images, and all such data objects will be loaded into the napari session, one layer per object.

Currently “appears to be an image” is defined by a very simple heuristic that may be wrong in both directions. Also, we currently make no attempt to load metadata, annotation layers, etc.

Comments, suggestions, bug reports, etc.

We are actively looking for feedback on the user experience of this plugin. Please file all commentary, suggestions, etc. as GitHub issues: https://github.com/MillionConcepts/napari-pdr/issues

Licensing

Copyright 2026, Million Concepts LLC.

Redistribution and use are permitted under the terms of the 3-clause BSD license; see LICENSE.md for exact terms.