# Measuring Image Sharpness

Use an Image Sharpness tool to measure the sharpness of an image as measured by the grey values of adjacent pixels. The tool returns a sharpness score that can be compared to other images of the same scene with different settings for lens focus:

Vision applications use an Image Sharpness tool to generate the best focus setting for a particular scene of the object under inspection.

By keeping all other optical parameters the same and changing only the lens focus, you can run the tool repeatedly on successive images until you determine a focus setting that provides the highest sharpness score. Images with a sharp focus are more easily analyzed by other vision tools.

An Image Sharpness tool offers four different modes for generating a sharpness score. Each mode offers different performance guidelines. Regardless of which mode you use, be aware a particular sharpness score is relative to other scores generated using the same parameters and the same image content.

See the following sections for more information about using an Image Sharpness tool: