Open ABF files in your browser
The recording Axon's Clampex saves from a patch clamp rig, sweep by sweep or gap free. Open one right here, every channel in its units, with no Clampfit. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your recording opens sweep by sweep, each channel as a curve in its unit, with its tags along the top.
- Every sweep • Step through them on one time ruler
- Two cursors • Lowest, highest, peak to peak, mean and RMS between them
- Tags and comments along the top
- Export • PNG, and the samples as CSV
About ABF
Axon Instruments made the Axon Binary File for pCLAMP, and Clampex saves patch clamp and other electrophysiology recordings in it, as ABF 1 and, from pCLAMP 10, ABF 2. Molecular Devices, which bought Axon, still ships it, and pyABF, Neo and Stimfit read it.
An ABF has a header of the protocol, each channel's name, unit and gains, the telegraphs and the tags, then the samples of every channel interleaved, as 16 bit integers or floats. An episodic recording is sweeps of one length, each a step of the protocol, and a gap free one runs on.
Filepeek reads it in your browser and draws each channel as a curve in its unit, current in pA and voltage in mV, one sweep at a time with arrows to step through them, and the tags and comments along the top. Drag or pinch to move and zoom, put two cursors for the time between them and each channel's lowest, highest, peak to peak, mean and RMS, and save the view as PNG or the sweep's samples as CSV.
Axon Binary File
.abf
Format
- MIME type
- application/x-abf
- Made by
- Axon Instruments, now Molecular Devices
Inside the file
- Protocol
- The episodes, the sampling and the epochs
- Channels
- Each input's name, unit and gains
- Sweeps
- Episodes of one length, or gap free
- Tags
- Comments and marks made while recording
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens ABF 1 and ABF 2 files in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers only download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open ABF
- WindowsClampfit, part of pCLAMP, or Stimfit, free
- MacStimfit, free
- iPhone and iPadNo app opens it
- AndroidNo app opens it
Questions
How do I open an ABF file without Clampfit?
Drop it on this page or choose Peek an ABF. Each channel opens in your browser in its unit, sweep by sweep, on a phone too.
Can I step through the sweeps?
Yes. The arrows by Sweep step through them on the same time ruler, and the cursors stay where they are, so a channel's card reads each sweep at the same points.
Can I measure a peak current?
Yes. Put cursor A and cursor B around the response, and the channel's card shows its lowest, highest, peak to peak, mean and RMS between them.
Does it draw the command waveform?
No. Filepeek draws the channels Clampex recorded, and the waveform the protocol commanded shows in Clampfit.