diff --git a/skimage/viewer/__init__.py b/skimage/viewer/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e20546b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/skimage/viewer/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from viewers import ImageViewer
diff --git a/skimage/viewer/plugins/__init__.py b/skimage/viewer/plugins/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/skimage/viewer/plugins/base.py b/skimage/viewer/plugins/base.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a92140cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/skimage/viewer/plugins/base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+from PyQt4 import QtGui
+from skimage.io._plugins.q_color_mixer import IntelligentSlider
+
+
+class Plugin(QtGui.QDialog):
+    """Base class for widgets that interact with the axes.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    image_viewer : ImageViewer instance.
+        Window containing image used in measurement/manipulation.
+    useblit : bool
+        If True, use blitting to speed up animation. Only available on some
+        backends. If None, set to True when using Agg backend, otherwise False.
+    figure : :class:`~matplotlib.figure.Figure`
+        If None, create a figure with a single axes.
+    no_toolbar : bool
+        If True, figure created by plugin has no toolbar. This has no effect
+        on figures passed into `Plugin`.
+
+    Attributes
+    ----------
+    viewer : ImageViewer
+        Window containing image used in measurement.
+    image : array
+        Image used in measurement/manipulation.
+    overlay : array
+        Image used in measurement/manipulation.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, callback, parent=None, height=100, width=400):
+        self._viewer = parent
+        QtGui.QDialog.__init__(self, parent)
+        self.setWindowTitle('Image Plugin')
+        self.layout = QtGui.QGridLayout(self)
+        self.resize(width, height)
+        self.row = 0
+        self.callback = callback
+
+        self.arguments = [parent.original_image]
+        self.keyword_arguments= {}
+
+        self.overlay = self._viewer.overlay
+        self.image = self._viewer.image
+
+    def caller(self, *args):
+        arguments = [self._get_value(a) for a in self.arguments]
+        kwargs = dict([(name, self._get_value(a))
+                       for name, a in self.keyword_arguments.iteritems()])
+        self.callback(*arguments, **kwargs)
+
+    def _get_value(self, param):
+        if hasattr(param, 'val'):
+            return param.val()
+        else:
+            return param
+
+    def add_argument(self, name, low, high, callback):
+        name, slider = self.add_slider(name, low, high, callback)
+        self.arguments[name] = slider
+
+    def add_keyword_argument(self, name, low, high, callback):
+        name, slider = self.add_slider(name, low, high, callback)
+        self.keyword_arguments[name] = slider
+
+    def add_slider(self, name, low, high, callback):
+        slider = IntelligentSlider(name, low, high, callback,
+                                   orientation='horizontal')
+        self.layout.addWidget(slider, self.row, 0)
+        self.row += 1
+        return name.replace(' ', '_'), slider
diff --git a/skimage/viewer/plugins/canny.py b/skimage/viewer/plugins/canny.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cf417a10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/skimage/viewer/plugins/canny.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+from .base import Plugin
+from skimage.filter import canny
+
+
+class CannyPlugin(Plugin):
+
+    def __init__(self, parent, *args, **kwargs):
+        height = kwargs.get('height', 100)
+        width = kwargs.get('width', 400)
+        super(CannyPlugin, self).__init__(self.callback, parent=parent,
+                                          width=width, height=height)
+        self.add_keyword_argument('sigma', 0.005, 0, self.caller)
+        self.add_keyword_argument('low_threshold', 0.255, 0, self.caller)
+        self.add_keyword_argument('high_threshold', 0.255, 0, self.caller)
+        # Call callback so that image is updated to slider values.
+        self.caller()
+
+    def callback(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        image = canny(*args, **kwargs)
+        self._viewer.overlay = image
diff --git a/skimage/viewer/utils/__init__.py b/skimage/viewer/utils/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5af24064
--- /dev/null
+++ b/skimage/viewer/utils/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from core import *
diff --git a/skimage/viewer/utils/core.py b/skimage/viewer/utils/core.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..efad540d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/skimage/viewer/utils/core.py
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+import numpy as np
+import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+from matplotlib.colors import LinearSegmentedColormap
+
+
+__all__ = ['figimage', 'LinearColormap', 'ClearColormap', 'clear_red']
+
+
+def figimage(image, scale=1, dpi=None, **kwargs):
+    """Return figure and axes with figure tightly surrounding image.
+
+    Unlike pyplot.figimage, this actually plots onto an axes object, which
+    fills the figure. Plotting the image onto an axes allows for subsequent
+    overlays of axes artists.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    image : array
+        image to plot
+    scale : float
+        If scale is 1, the figure and axes have the same dimension as the
+        image.  Smaller values of `scale` will shrink the figure.
+    dpi : int
+        Dots per inch for figure. If None, use the default rcParam.
+    """
+    dpi = dpi if dpi is not None else plt.rcParams['figure.dpi']
+    kwargs.setdefault('interpolation', 'nearest')
+    kwargs.setdefault('cmap', 'gray')
+
+    h, w, d = np.atleast_3d(image).shape
+    figsize = np.array((w, h), dtype=float) / dpi * scale
+
+    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=figsize, dpi=dpi)
+    fig.subplots_adjust(left=0, bottom=0, right=1, top=1)
+
+    ax.set_axis_off()
+    ax.imshow(image, **kwargs)
+    return fig, ax
+
+
+class LinearColormap(LinearSegmentedColormap):
+    """LinearSegmentedColormap in which color varies smoothly.
+
+    This class is a simplification of LinearSegmentedColormap, which doesn't
+    support jumps in color intensities.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    name : str
+        Name of colormap.
+
+    segmented_data : dict
+        Dictionary of 'red', 'green', 'blue', and (optionally) 'alpha' values.
+        Each color key contains a list of `x`, `y` tuples. `x` must increase
+        monotonically from 0 to 1 and corresponds to input values for a mappable
+        object (e.g. an image). `y` corresponds to the color intensity.
+
+    """
+    def __init__(self, name, segmented_data, **kwargs):
+        segmented_data = dict((key, [(x, y, y) for x, y in value])
+                              for key, value in segmented_data.iteritems())
+        LinearSegmentedColormap.__init__(self, name, segmented_data, **kwargs)
+
+
+class ClearColormap(LinearColormap):
+    def __init__(self, name, rgb):
+        r, g, b = rgb
+        cg_speq = {'blue':  [(0.0, b), (1.0, b)],
+                   'green': [(0.0, g), (1.0, g)],
+                   'red':   [(0.0, r), (1.0, r)],
+                   'alpha': [(0.0, 0.0), (1.0, 1.0)]}
+        LinearColormap.__init__(self, name, cg_speq)
+
+clear_red = ClearColormap('clear_red', (0.7, 0, 0))
+
diff --git a/skimage/viewer/viewers/__init__.py b/skimage/viewer/viewers/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..bb67a43f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/skimage/viewer/viewers/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from .core import *
diff --git a/skimage/viewer/viewers/core.py b/skimage/viewer/viewers/core.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e1c4d003
--- /dev/null
+++ b/skimage/viewer/viewers/core.py
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+import sys
+
+from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
+from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg
+
+from skimage.viewer.utils import figimage, clear_red
+
+
+qApp = None
+
+
+class ImageCanvas(FigureCanvasQTAgg):
+    """Canvas for displaying images.
+
+    This canvas derives from Matplotlib, so your normal 
+    """
+    def __init__(self, parent, image, **kwargs):
+        self.fig, self.ax = figimage(image, **kwargs)
+
+        FigureCanvasQTAgg.__init__(self, self.fig)
+        FigureCanvasQTAgg.setSizePolicy(self,
+                                        QtGui.QSizePolicy.Expanding,
+                                        QtGui.QSizePolicy.Expanding)
+        FigureCanvasQTAgg.updateGeometry(self)
+        # Note: `setParent` must be called after `FigureCanvasQTAgg.__init__`.
+        self.setParent(parent)
+
+
+class ImageViewer(QtGui.QMainWindow):
+
+    def __init__(self, image):
+        # Start main loop
+        global qApp
+        if qApp is None:
+            qApp = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
+        super(ImageViewer, self).__init__()
+
+        #TODO: Add ImageViewer to skimage.io window manager
+
+        self.overlay_cmap = clear_red
+
+        self.setAttribute(QtCore.Qt.WA_DeleteOnClose)
+        self.setWindowTitle("Image Viewer")
+
+        self.file_menu = QtGui.QMenu('&File', self)
+        self.file_menu.addAction('&Quit', self.close,
+                                 QtCore.Qt.CTRL + QtCore.Qt.Key_Q)
+        self.menuBar().addMenu(self.file_menu)
+
+        self.main_widget = QtGui.QWidget()
+        self.setCentralWidget(self.main_widget)
+
+        self.canvas = ImageCanvas(self.main_widget, image)
+        self.fig = self.canvas.fig
+        self.ax = self.canvas.ax
+
+        self.layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self.main_widget)
+        self.layout.addWidget(self.canvas)
+
+        #TODO: Add coordinate display
+        # self.statusBar().showMessage("coordinates")
+        self.original_image = image
+        self.image = image
+        self._overlay = None
+
+    @property
+    def image(self):
+        return self._img
+
+    @image.setter
+    def image(self, image):
+        self._img = image
+        self.ax.images[0].set_array(image)
+        self.canvas.draw_idle()
+
+    @property
+    def overlay(self):
+        return self._overlay
+
+    @overlay.setter
+    def overlay(self, image):
+        self._overlay = image
+        if len(self.ax.images) == 1:
+            self.ax.imshow(image, cmap=self.overlay_cmap)
+        else:
+            self.ax.images[1].set_array(image)
+        self.canvas.draw_idle()
+
+    def closeEvent(self, ce):
+        self.close()
+
+    def show(self):
+        super(ImageViewer, self).show()
+        sys.exit(qApp.exec_())
+
+
diff --git a/viewer_examples/plugins/canny.py b/viewer_examples/plugins/canny.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d5e858ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/viewer_examples/plugins/canny.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+from skimage import data
+from skimage.viewer import ImageViewer
+from skimage.viewer.plugins.canny import CannyPlugin
+
+
+image = data.camera()
+viewer = ImageViewer(image)
+p = CannyPlugin(viewer)
+p.show()
+viewer.show()
diff --git a/viewer_examples/viewers/image_viewer.py b/viewer_examples/viewers/image_viewer.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e0932787
--- /dev/null
+++ b/viewer_examples/viewers/image_viewer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+from skimage import data
+from skimage.viewer import ImageViewer
+
+
+image = data.camera()
+viewer = ImageViewer(image)
+viewer.show()