Installation
J-AST is available in two variants:
- Desktop application
A standalone application for Windows, Linux, and macOS that runs entirely on your local machine. No server setup or database configuration is required — everything is bundled, including a Java runtime and the JIPipe image processing engine. Your data never leaves your computer.
- Server deployment
A web application hosted on a server that multiple users can access through their browser. Supports user accounts, guest accounts, and shared access. Requires a MariaDB database and more configuration.
System requirements
Requirement | Desktop | Server |
|---|---|---|
Operating system | Windows (x64), Linux (x64), macOS (Apple Silicon) | Linux, Windows, or macOS with Java 21 |
Java | Bundled (no installation required) | Java 21 (Eclipse Temurin recommended) |
RAM | At least 8 GB free for image processing (16 GB+ recommended) | 8 GB per concurrent JIPipe worker (16 GB+ recommended for 2 workers) |
Disk space | ~2 GB for the application, plus space for your image data | ~2 GB for the application, plus space for image data and temporary files |
Database | Embedded H2 (no setup required) | MariaDB (recommended) or embedded H2 |
Additional software | None — JIPipe/Fiji is bundled | JIPipe/Fiji, Xvfb (Linux), optionally R and Tesseract for OCR-based MIC analysis |
Where to download
You can download the latest J-AST desktop packages and server distributions from our website.
If you prefer, you can also try out J-AST using the instance we host on our server before installing it locally.