Once your job is complete, you can easily export both your images and analyzed data from Discovery. Whether you need a quick download or a complete dataset for post-analysis, everything can be configured and exported in just a few clicks.
🎥 Prefer to watch? Check out our Reshape 101 video below – or continue reading for a written guide.
Exporting images and videos
When playing a timelapse job, you can quickly download the entire tray by clicking in the download icon in the bottom-right corner under the tray view – either the current frame that you're on (as a JPEG) or the entire timelapse video (as an MP4).
For more advanced media export options, open the job and click Export in the top-right corner, and select the Media tab.
Here you can change the Export name, select Format (images or video) for your media export, View (Tray, Plate or Well), and the Lighting (Top, Bottom, GFP, and/or RFP). If your job includes multiple light sources, Discovery will automatically generate separate files for each lighting mode.
Advanced media export settings
Click Additional settings at the bottom of the export window to customize what’s included in your image export – the only additional setting you can change with videos is to include plate labels.
For additional image export setting, here’s what you can configure:
Range: Choose which time points to include — the default is All, but you can sample every few frames (e.g., every 3rd image) to reduce file size.
Size: Export in Original or Resized resolution for smaller downloads.
Folder grouping: Define how your files are organized after download:
By plate – one folder per plate, each containing all time points
By timepoint – one folder per timepoint, each containing all plates
No grouping – all images in a single folder
This gives you full control over how your exported files are structured and how large they’ll be.
Exporting data
Switch to the Data tab in the export view to download your experiment’s raw analysis results. Here, you can customize your data export as needed:
Format: Choose the file type for your export — either Excel (.xlsx) or CSV (.csv). Excel is ideal for quick data inspection and filtering, while CSV is best for importing into analysis tools or scripts.
Level: Decide how detailed you want your dataset to be:
Well level: Exports one row per plate or well, summarizing all detected objects within each.
Object level: Exports one row per detected object — ideal for deeper analysis, but can result in large files if your job contains many colonies or time points.
Keep in mind: object-level exports from large experiments can generate thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of rows, depending on how many colonies and time points were captured. For very large datasets, consider exporting only the endpoint.
Analysis: Select which analysis model you want to export results from. Each model includes its own specific metrics — for example, growth rate, count, or time of appearance.
Data range: Choose the time range for your export:
Full range: Includes data from all captured time points.
Endpoint: Exports only the final recorded values — useful for smaller, summary reports.
Lighting: Pick the lighting condition used for your data analysis (if multiple were applied).
When everything looks right, click Export. You’ll receive an email with a download link once the file is ready.
Understanding the exported data
The exported spreadsheet includes:
Device and timepoint data (each timepoint corresponds to your imaging interval); Plate or well IDs, and the applied metrics from the analysis – for example, colony counts, growth rates, time of appearance, and color metrics.
These exported metrics correspond to what you see in the analysis side panel in Discovery.
Once exported, your files are ready to review, share, or integrate into your own analysis workflows.
Pssst.... if you have technical people on your team, you can automate everything using our API.
You should now know the essentials to automate your experiments with Reshape. If you feel inspired to start running different assays with Reshape, check out our last article of how to validate a new Ai-powered assay analysis – and a little inspiration on what else the platform can do.
👉 Next: [Validating new Assays →]