I) Selection items
The exact selection of the margins of the grains is essential for the subsequent measurement of the mineralogical and petrographic parameters: E.I.M.A. software was designed to make this selection as easy as possible for the operator, who has at his disposal a series of instruments on purpose developed and he is facilitated by the possibility to overlay on the images acquired by microscope some filters to underline the limits of the granules. The selected objects, once characterized by the direct observation on the second monitor, may be assigned to their respectively classes through a customizable image library.

II) Measurement
The system measures automatically for each of the selected items some magnitudes as the perimeter, the maximum and minimum diameters, the maximum diameter inscribed and the minimum circumscribed diameter, the area, centroid and others: from the average of these parameters (calculated basing on the total selected objects or on classes) are then extrapolated the parameters useful for the mineralogical-petrographic characterization.

III) Granulometric analysis
The granulometric analysis is statistically obtained by calculating the parameters defined by Folk and Ward in 1957 (frequency of histogram, cumulative curve, average, median, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis). The results are presented both as number of objects for each granulometric class, both as an estimation of the weight (by extrapolation of the equivalent volume of a sphere and subsequent attribution of the relative specific weight).

The main morphological parameters are calculated as rounding (either in the Wadell’s model, dated 1932, and to the Krumbleini’s one, 1941) and roundness (Riley’s and others). Among the references used are present also 16 parameters and 5 comparison visual cards defined by verifying and expanding as reported in the current rules for Cultural Heritage (UNI 11176, ex NorMal Italian Coll. 12/83).
The "calibration" of the software was realized by analyzing throw the EIMA system all the visual cards most commonly used in the study of sediments and dissolved materials in geology, then verifying the real effectiveness of applicability in the study of thin and cross sections.

V) Analysis of macroporosity
The morphological and morphometric analysis can be applied to the porosity when it is properly selected. The system provides the histogram of frequency of the relative quantities.

VI) Ratio binder/aggregate and between phases
The software allows to derive the percentage of abundance of the different phases which has been assigned a class and then to see the ratio between binder and aggregate inside the mortars, between the background paste and skeleton in the bricks, the one between matrix, cement and grains in a detritic rock.

VII) Customized Reports of analyses
All data provided by the software are easily exportable to edit a clear and professional presentation using the most common word processors existing.