For high-content screening datasets, the plate layout can be found under the custom attributes of the plate group under the plate key in the group-level metadata.

The plate dictionary MAY contain an acquisitions key whose value MUST be a list of JSON objects defining the acquisitions for a given plate to which wells can refer to.

Each acquisition object MUST contain an id key whose value MUST be an unique integer identifier greater than or equal to 0 within the context of the plate to which fields of view can refer to (see #well-md). Each acquisition object SHOULD contain a name key whose value MUST be a string identifying the name of the acquisition. Each acquisition object SHOULD contain a maximumfieldcount key whose value MUST be a positive integer indicating the maximum number of fields of view for the acquisition. Each acquisition object MAY contain a description key whose value MUST be a string specifying a description for the acquisition. Each acquisition object MAY contain a starttime and/or endtime key whose values MUST be integer epoch timestamps specifying the start and/or end timestamp of the acquisition.

The plate dictionary MUST contain a columns key whose value MUST be a list of JSON objects defining the columns of the plate. Each column object defines the properties of the column at the index of the object in the list. Each column in the physical plate MUST be defined, even if no wells in the column are defined. Each column object MUST contain a name key whose value is a string specifying the column name. The name MUST contain only alphanumeric characters, MUST be case-sensitive, and MUST NOT be a duplicate of any other name in the columns list. Care SHOULD be taken to avoid collisions on case-insensitive filesystems (e.g. avoid using both Aa and aA).

The plate dictionary SHOULD contain a field_count key whose value MUST be a positive integer defining the maximum number of fields per view across all wells.

The plate dictionary SHOULD contain a name key whose value MUST be a string defining the name of the plate.

The plate dictionary MUST contain a rows key whose value MUST be a list of JSON objects defining the rows of the plate. Each row object defines the properties of the row at the index of the object in the list. Each row in the physical plate MUST be defined, even if no wells in the row are defined. Each defined row MUST contain a name key whose value MUST be a string defining the row name. The name MUST contain only alphanumeric characters, MUST be case-sensitive, and MUST NOT be a duplicate of any other name in the rows list. Care SHOULD be taken to avoid collisions on case-insensitive filesystems (e.g. avoid using both Aa and aA).

The plate dictionary SHOULD contain a version key whose value MUST be a string specifying the version of the plate specification.

The plate dictionary MUST contain a wells key whose value MUST be a list of JSON objects defining the wells of the plate. Each well object MUST contain a path key whose value MUST be a string specifying the path to the well subgroup. The path MUST consist of a name in the rows list, a file separator (/), and a name from the columns list, in that order. The path MUST NOT contain additional leading or trailing directories. Each well object MUST contain both a rowIndex key whose value MUST be an integer identifying the index into the rows list and a columnIndex key whose value MUST be an integer identifying the index into the columns list. rowIndex and columnIndex MUST be 0-based. The rowIndex, columnIndex, and path MUST all refer to the same row/column pair.

For example the following JSON object defines a plate with two acquisitions and 6 wells (2 rows and 3 columns), containing up to 2 fields of view per acquisition.

https://ngff.openmicroscopy.org/0.4/index.html#plate-md