specimen preparation is critical for evaluating the tumor in the automated system. in the first part of the preparation process the biopsied tissue is cut to an appropriate size (typically 4 mm), fixed in buffered formalin, dehydrated in ethanol-xylene, embedded in paraffin, thin sectioned typically to 4 um slices, then mounted onto at least two barcoded slides (a control and a test). next the paraffin is removed from the tissue, the tissue is rehydrated, then stained. any inconsistency in these procedures from case to case may result in uncertainties in the outcome of the analysis. these potential and irreducible inconsistencies in analysis results motivated the development of automated tissue image systems.