abundance of the selected ions in the surface of the sample in relation with the spatial distribution are generated. This technique is applicable to solid, liquid, frozen and gaseous samples. Moreover, DESI allows analyzing a wide range of organic and biological compounds, as animal and plant tissues and cell culture samples, without complex sample preparation Although, this technique has the poorest resolution among other, it can create high-quality image from a large area scan, as a whole body section scanning. Fn Comparative between the ionization techniques Combination of various MSI techniques and other imaging techniques Combining various MSI techniques can be beneficial, since each particular technique has its own advantage. For example, when information regards both proteins and lipids are necessary in the same tissue section, performing DESI to analyze the lipid, followed by MALDI to obtain information about the peptide, and finalize applying a stain (haematoxylin and eosin) for medical diagnosis of the structural characteristic of the tissue. On the other side of MSI with other imaging techniques, fluorescence staining with MSI and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with MRI can be highlighted. Fluorescence staining can give information of the appearance of some proteins present in any process inside a tissue, while MSI may give information about the molecular changes presented in that process. Combining both techniques, multimodal picture or even 3D images of the distribution of different molecules can be generated. In contrast, MRI with MSI combines the continuous 3D representation of MRI image with detailed structural representation using molecular information from MSI. Even though, MSI itself can generate 3D images, the picture is just part of the reality due to the depth limitation in the analysis, while MRI provides, for example, detailed organ shape with additional anatomical information. This coupled technique can be beneficial for cancer precise diagnosis and neurosurgery. Data processing Standard data format for mass spectrometry imaging datasets The imzML was proposed to exchange data in a standardized XML file based on the mzML format. Several imaging MS software tools support it. The advantage of this format is the flexibility to exchange data between different instruments and data analysis software. Software There are many free software packages available for visualization and mining of imaging mass spectrometry data. Converters from Thermo Fisher format, Analyze format, GRD format and Bruker format to imzML format were developed by the Computis project. Some software modules are also available for viewing