Developer: Geospiza, Inc. / PerkinElmer (desktop EOL); revived as a web app by Digital World Biology
Supported platforms: Web browser (all platforms, including Chromebooks and modern macOS); legacy desktop builds for Windows, macOS (Intel only, ending macOS support after macOS 27), and Linux
Download / Access: https://digitalworldbiology.com/finchtv
Features
View Quality scores
Yes. Embedded quality scores are rendered above each base call as color-coded bars.
View raw data
Yes. Includes a raw-data channel view alongside the processed chromatogram.
Assembly
No.
Input file formats
.ab1 and .scf
Output file formats
FASTA, edited .ab1/.scf (desktop), and printed trace layouts.
Trimming
Manual low-quality end trimming.
Integrated Blast
Yes. Launches NCBI BLAST directly (the Digital World Biology web version adds amino-acid translation frames plus BLASTP and tBLASTn).
Open multiple windows
Yes (multi-pane wrapped chromatogram view or multiple desktop/browser tabs).
Edit bases
Yes.
ABI limits (regions outside of clear range region are displayed in gray)
No. Like other non-ABI viewers, FinchTV does not gray out virtual ABI Limits regions (see In Depth: Set ABI Limits).
Other functions
- Reverse complement of both sequence and trace peaks
- Regular-expression motif search
- Forward/reverse reading-frame translation and standalone offline HTML option in the Digital World Biology web app
Cost
Free.
Comments
Although PerkinElmer ended official support for the native FinchTV desktop app in December 2016, Digital World Biology has kept it alive both with legacy desktop downloads and a modern browser-based version that works on Apple Silicon Macs and Chromebooks. It remains one of the most intuitive free trace viewers for quick inspection, raw-data checking, and BLAST lookups.
Return to the Trace Viewers overview or check trace quality online with QualTrace III Online.