AbstractA method facilitating recording of macroscopic images from glycolmethacrylate (GMA) embedded tissues and tissue-free sections is described. This method used dyes that selectively stain only tissue, only resin, or both, but in contrasting colors. The dyes were selected on the basis of simple numerical parameters like ionic weight, charge, and log Poct.Contrasting colors were readily converted into contrasting gray values and were so recorded for morphometric investigations, permitting areas of tissue and overall areas of resin sections to be easily measured with animage analysis system. The time saving compared to manual procedures was substantial, about 50%.We found that the small hydrophilic dyes (<550 Da) quickly stained tissues and could readily be removed from the GMA matrix by water washes. Hydrophilic dyes of intermediate size (550