Since the days of Perrin (1908) [1], microscopy methods have played an important role in the study of colloidal suspensions. Along with the continued development of new imaging techniques, colloid scientists have also implemented a sophisticated range of computational analyses. These analysis techniques are often the unsung heroes that hold the promise of unlocking scientific mysteries at the next decimal place of colloid science. They now enable precision measurements of particle location and size (Bierbaum et al., 2017; Kurita et al., 2012) as well as measurements of local stresses and forces (Lin et al., 2016). Here, we spotlight these exciting advances focusing on the analysis of simple brightfield and confocal microscope images of dense colloidal suspensions as well as the scientific mysteries they may unravel. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd