Researchers studying materials at high magnification are usually looking for things out of the ordinary such as contaminations or defects. They not only need to see shapes, but also the elemental composition. Conventional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a great tool for resolving microscale morphology, but it is a greyscale technique and users need to switch to a separate analysis system for elemental analysis (EDS, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy). Thermo Fisher recently launched ColorSEM technology which fully integrates SEM and EDS: a live color image shows both morphology and composition. There’s no more need to switch between systems, and the color image appears so fast that elemental analysis has become at least 4 times quicker. Because coloring is always on, ColorSEM provides a much richer SEM experience, highlighting features that might otherwise go unnoticed. A novel user interface that shows intuitive live color, but also conventional EDS functions, makes ColorSEM the easiest, most accessible elemental characterization technique. All in all, ColorSEM makes greyscale SEM a thing of the past, giving researchers a much easier task studying their materials and finding and characterizing contaminations, defects and other features.