CLI Tool

The dcmfx CLI tool makes the capabilities of DCMfx available on the command line.

Installation

Select your platform below to see its installation instructions.

Windows

Download the latest version of dcmfx.exe for Windows here.

macOS

Install Homebrew, then install DCMfx using the provided tap:

brew tap dcmfx/tap
brew install dcmfx

Linux

• For Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, and other Debian-based distributions, an APT repository is provided:

  echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://dcmfx.github.io/apt-repository stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dcmfx.list
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install dcmfx

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• For Red Hat, Fedora, Amazon Linux, and other RPM-based distributions, a YUM repository is provided:

  echo -e "[dcmfx]\nname=DCMfx\nbaseurl=http://dcmfx.github.io/yum-repository\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=0" | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/dcmfx.repo
  sudo yum makecache
  sudo yum install dcmfx

---

• For Arch Linux, a package is provided in the Arch User Repository (AUR). Install it with your preferred AUR helper (e.g. Yay):

  yay -S dcmfx

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• Alternatively, download the latest binary or package here and install it manually.

Usage

After installation, run dcmfx --help to see the available commands:

$ dcmfx --help

DCMfx is a CLI tool for working with DICOM and DICOM JSON

Usage: dcmfx [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
  get-pixel-data  Extracts pixel data from DICOM P10 files, writing it to image
                  and video files
  modify          Modifies the content of DICOM P10 files
  print           Prints the content of DICOM P10 files
  json-to-dcm     Converts DICOM JSON files to DICOM P10 files
  dcm-to-json     Converts DICOM P10 files to DICOM JSON files
  list            Lists DICOM P10 files in one or more directories
  help            Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
      --print-stats  Write timing and memory stats to stderr on exit
  -h, --help         Print help
  -V, --version      Print version

Examples

1. Print a DICOM P10 file's data set to stdout:

   dcmfx print input.dcm

2. Convert a DICOM P10 file to a DICOM JSON file:

   dcmfx dcm-to-json input.dcm

   To pretty-print the DICOM JSON directly to stdout:

   dcmfx dcm-to-json input.dcm --pretty --output-filename -

3. Convert a DICOM JSON file to a DICOM P10 file:

   dcmfx json-to-dcm input.json

4. Extract pixel data from a DICOM P10 file to one image file per frame:

   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm

   Each frame of pixel data can be converted to PNG, 16-bit PNG, or JPEG images:

   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm --format png
   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm --format png16
   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm --format jpg --jpeg-quality 90

   For monochrome pixel data, a VOI window center and width and/or a well-known color palette can be specified:

   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm --format png --voi-window 500 2000 \
     --color-palette hot-iron

   The images can be rotated or flipped by specifying a transform:

   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm --format jpg --transform rotate90
   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm --format jpg --transform flip-vertical

5. Extract pixel data from a DICOM P10 file to an MP4 video:

   dcmfx get-pixel-data input.dcm --format mp4

   Additional options are available to specify the codec, video quality, encoder preset, pixel format, frame rate override, and so on.

6. Rewrite a DICOM P10 file. This will convert the specific character set to UTF-8, change sequences and items to undefined length, and correct invalid files where possible:

   dcmfx modify input.dcm --output-filename output.dcm

7. Modify a DICOM P10 file's transfer syntax:

   dcmfx modify input.dcm --output-filename output.dcm \
     --transfer-syntax explicit-vr-little-endian

   Pixel data will be automatically transcoded as appropriate. See the output of dcmfx modify --help for details of supported transfer syntaxes.

8. Anonymize a DICOM P10 file in-place by removing all identifying data elements and private data elements:

   dcmfx modify input.dcm --in-place --anonymize

   Note that this does not remove any identifying information baked into pixel data or other binary data elements, however such pixel data may be able to be removed using the --crop argument.

9. Remove the top-level '(7FE0,0010) Pixel Data' data element and all private data elements from a DICOM P10 file:

   dcmfx modify input.dcm --in-place --delete 7FE00010 --delete-private

   Multiple data elements can be deleted by specifying --delete multiple times:

   dcmfx modify input.dcm --in-place --delete 00100010 --delete 00100030

10. Print a list of all DICOM files under the current directory:

    dcmfx list .

11. Print a list of all DICOM files under the current directory as JSON Lines that includes the value of each DICOM's '(0008,0018) SOP Instance UID' data element, followed by a summary of their transfer syntaxes and SOP classes:

    dcmfx list . --format json-lines --select 00080018 --summarize