diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
index 548f37c5..5feb5777 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
@@ -64,3 +64,7 @@
 
 - The Scikit Learn team
   From whom we borrowed the example generation tools.
+
+- Andreas Mueller
+  Example data set loader.
+
diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index 2abac1ce..a041f834 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ coveragetable:
 
 html: api coveragetable
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b html $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(DEST)/html
-	cp source/plots $(DEST)/html -r
+	cp -r source/plots $(DEST)/html
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The HTML pages are in build/html."
 
diff --git a/doc/examples/plot_lena_tv_denoise.py b/doc/examples/plot_lena_tv_denoise.py
index 55f167e1..a712acee 100644
--- a/doc/examples/plot_lena_tv_denoise.py
+++ b/doc/examples/plot_lena_tv_denoise.py
@@ -20,9 +20,10 @@ import numpy as np
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
 from scikits.image import data
+from scikits.image import color
 from scikits.image.filter import tv_denoise
 
-l = data.lena()
+l = color.rgb2gray(data.lena())
 l = l[230:290, 220:320]
 
 noisy = l + 0.4*l.std()*np.random.random(l.shape)
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index d9e20793..2732b37e 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -45,11 +45,11 @@ source_suffix = '.txt'
 #source_encoding = 'utf-8-sig'
 
 # The master toctree document.
-master_doc = 'contents'
+master_doc = 'index'
 
 # General information about the project.
 project = u'scikits.image'
-copyright = u'2009, SciPy Developers'
+copyright = u'2011, scikits-image team'
 
 # The version info for the project you're documenting, acts as replacement for
 # |version| and |release|, also used in various other places throughout the
diff --git a/doc/source/themes/agogo/static/agogo.css_t b/doc/source/themes/agogo/static/agogo.css_t
index 99d44d62..0a9e12ef 100644
--- a/doc/source/themes/agogo/static/agogo.css_t
+++ b/doc/source/themes/agogo/static/agogo.css_t
@@ -595,8 +595,23 @@ tt {
     font-size: 0.95em;
 }
 
+table {
+  border-collapse: collapse;
+  margin-bottom: 1em;
+  margin-top: 1em;
+}
+
+table, th, td {
+  border: 1px solid #ccc;
+}
+
+th, td {
+  padding: 5px;
+}
+
 th {
-    background-color: #ede;
+    color: #333;
+    background-color: #eee;
 }
 
 #api-reference ul:first-child {
diff --git a/scikits/image/data/__init__.py b/scikits/image/data/__init__.py
index c46a2e37..728b20dd 100644
--- a/scikits/image/data/__init__.py
+++ b/scikits/image/data/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,42 @@
-import scipy.misc as _m
+"""Convenience functions to load sample data.
 
-lena = _m.lena
+"""
 
+import os as _os
+
+from ..io import imread
+from ...image import data_dir
+
+def load(f):
+    """Load an image file located in the data directory.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    f : string
+        File name.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    img : ndarray
+        Image loaded from scikits.image.data_dir.
+    """
+    return imread(_os.path.join(data_dir, f))
+
+def camera():
+    """Gray "camera" image, often used for segmentation
+    and denoising examples.
+
+    """
+    return load("camera.png")
+
+def lena():
+    """Colour "Lena" image.
+
+    """
+    return load("lena.png")
+
+def checkerboard():
+    """Checkerboard image.
+
+    """
+    return load("chessboard_RGB.png")
diff --git a/scikits/image/data/camera.png b/scikits/image/data/camera.png
index a196b835..49be869c 100644
Binary files a/scikits/image/data/camera.png and b/scikits/image/data/camera.png differ
diff --git a/scikits/image/data/lena.png b/scikits/image/data/lena.png
index 6b5473fe..408111c9 100644
Binary files a/scikits/image/data/lena.png and b/scikits/image/data/lena.png differ
diff --git a/scikits/image/data/tests/test_data.py b/scikits/image/data/tests/test_data.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b31c8851
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scikits/image/data/tests/test_data.py
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+import scikits.image.data as data
+from numpy.testing import assert_equal, assert_array_equal
+import numpy as np
+
+def test_lena():
+    """ Test that "Lena" image can be loaded. """
+    lena = data.lena()
+    assert_equal(lena.shape, (512, 512, 3))
+
+def test_camera():
+    """ Test that "camera" image can be loaded. """
+    cameraman = data.camera()
+    assert_equal(cameraman.ndim, 2)
+
+def test_checkerboard():
+    """ Test that checkerboard image can be loaded. """
+    checkerboard = data.checkerboard()
+    assert_equal(checkerboard.dtype, np.uint8)
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    from numpy.testing import run_module_suite
+    run_module_suite()
+