A system for indicating an area of interest on an image, including a source of image data, an image processing unit, a user interface, and a destination, which may be a display. The image data may be ultrasound, X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance tomography, computed tomography or surgical image data. The image processing unit may be configured to receive the image data from the source and combine it with a desired overlay pattern selected from a plurality of overlay patterns for indicating an area of interest on the image, which is then displayed on the display. The overlay pattern may include a key with coordinates or labels. Properties of the overlay pattern and the image data may be adjusted independently or automatically.
